I hope all the Buzz parents enjoyed the sneak peak of World Cup fervor as much as I did for our most recent game. I half expected a shirtless drum section and a number of vuvuzelas (those plastic horns) to begin blaring. It was either that or a reenactment of trying to break down the Berlin wall with parents bare hands. In either case, it was tough going trying to cheer our players on, much less try to give them instruction from the bench, with sheer volume around them.
I personally love an enthusiastic crowd and even get a little pumped up when our kids start cheering for us during our adult games. What gets me for youth games is the slightly out of mind competitiveness, which prevents parents (sometimes on both teams) from cheering on both teams for good play. Saying things which are damaging like "get that brat" or "if they're going to play with it, just take it" doesn't teach the kids anything and if I can hear those things from the bench, you bet both teams' players can.
Nevertheless, our girls seemed unfazed by the wild crowd and continued to play a cool calm ball control game. The so called "playing with the ball" was very effective and I would say beat the other teams defender 1v1 (even 3v1) four out of every five times. What will eventually happen with our players is they will continue to build on their ball controlled deceptive foundation, their body strength will eventually catch up, and woe to any keeper who is in front of them after they beat the last defender for a clean shot.
All the girls have finally picked up on how different as a team our style of play is from those we've played this session. When they come off for a break, I usually hear "they just keep kicking the ball" or "they only just keep kicking at our feet." If you think of the game as a win from the amount of time, which a team was able to do something with the ball, then we are undefeated this season. If I counted, I bet, the other team for this game probably had under 50 touches on the ball the entire game. Our girls were consistently getting 3-5 touches every time the ball got to their feet.
This is also what I asked of them before them game, "Every time you get the ball, I'd like at 3 touches minimum." and they gave me their best effort. I also asked for them to try one Puskas move during the game anywhere on the field and I feel confident we had about 90% participation in this effort. Not all attempts were completed, but they were there.
And as I mentioned after the game to them, trust Coach Ben. If I ask you to do something and it doesn't work or the other team scores as a result, don't worry, blame Coach Ben.
Our notable players tonight were Payton and Lilly. Lilly has been super consistent every game trying to keep her feet on the ball and get as many touches as she can. She has some heavier feet and the ball gets away from her sometimes, but she gets after it and keeps trying. Her body and feet will eventually even out and all her hard work will pay off.
Payton has had a challenge with managing the different playing styles she has been getting from playing on different clubs with some different philosophies, but a few minutes into the game she gets into it and turns it on for us. Tonight she completed a couple nice combinations of successive moves, one which included a Maradona (see the Found Moves page for glimpse of this sweet step, if you haven't seen one before).
Lastly, I wanted to give credit to the parents for your commitment to the improvement of your player. Even through all the noise tonight, I heard you cheering on individual effort of each of the girls. I clearly picked out David H for congratulating Elissa for making a good deceptive turn in our defensive end. Thanks Parents!
Coach Ben
Ohio Hillbillies...the worst!
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