It's almost here!

Fall Soccer is fast approaching and just like school, we shouldn't take the whole summer off from learning otherwise our minds and skills get rusty.  Unlike school, keeping the rust away from our feet is fun.  
Get a ball out, finds some friends and play!

Dynamite Effort at Spring Explosion Tournament

I have been absent for a while due to some life events over the last month, but had to jump after the last weekend of soccer this spring to rave about our players along the same lines as Coach Pat did in his recent blog http://nklegendssoccer.blogspot.com/2014/05/tournament-weekend.html.

The recent Memorial Day weekend tournament showed how our players and parents aren't looking for instant gratification with end of game results and know it is for the longer term growth of the player we do what we do.  However, the tournament setting was an opportunity to have the players placed into a more competitive environment to see if what we are teaching them holds up or if they would fold and go back to where they were at the beginning of the season.

I am pleased to say my two teams, as Coach Pat explained in his blog, brought a next goal wins attitude with them for the duration of the tournament.  Neither team fared well in their first match.   Our co-ed team being a mix of 4 different teams coming together and our girls’ team, as they had all season, were playing above their age group.  The one thing they had in common during their remaining games was never giving up on their Legends training.

Girls U10

Our girls played four matches over two days.  They lost game one 2-8, game two 0-4, and game three 0-2…notice anything?  Each game they played was better than the last and no matter what the score; they possessed the ball, worked it down the field and had a bunch of opportunities.  The fourth game began with the other team scoring right off the bat and I was a little worried they might actually get demoralized.  Instead they actually picked it up a notch and played with even more intensity.  After being down 0-2, they came back on some aggressive individual work, tiring the other team out and with a nail biting 2 minutes left in the game, held the other team off for a 3-2 victory.  Each of the players had some great moments in this game and throughout the tournament.

Isabella missed our games Sunday, but took our tourney team training and put it into play during game one making sure she was in good second attacker position for a ball pushed to center in front of the goal and a poaching opportunity.  She scored her first goal “ever” according to her mom, who for sure thought there would be a bit more jubilance out of Isabella.  The only thing which happened was a cool turn, slight smile, and run back to center, as if to say, “Yup, I have been her before and that’s how we do it”.

Karolyn had many fast breaks down field forcing her longer legged adversaries to work hard to stay with her.  Her ability to instantly stop and change direction to goal was frustrating the other team, but her missed shots were making her own scowl deepen.  Fortunately, she had the same presence of mind to be not only a 1^st attacker, but go to goal to support  Olivia as a 2^nd attacker and was able to poach a game winner in thanks to Olivia’s efforts to get down field through defenders and with speed…scowl to smiles.

Olivia herself had a slow beginning to the tourney and I was getting her on and off the field more than others to keep her fresh and coach her back into things.  It was in game four where she really turned it on.  Again working with what we stressed in practice to make a move to deceive the defender, create space and get down field faster.   One thing I did notice and I can’t confirm if it was chance or not, but in game four, she happened to remove her sport glasses and very nearly around the same time began her blitz…coincidence…or hidden supergirl?

Our second game was officially what will be known to me as the Game of Ryan.  She played field one half and keeper in the other.  In the field, there wasn’t any defender she wouldn’t run through with the ball and any attacker she would not quickly close the gap on when they had the ball.  In goal, I don’t think there was anyone watching the game who wasn’t impressed with her dives and ground tumbles to get after the ball.  Not only those, but the quickness she demonstrated when one ball in particular bounced off her, hit the cross bar and she had the quick mind get up from the ground to grab it out of the air and fall back down on it.

Caitlyn “up and back”.  Caitlyn was Ms Consistent during throughout the weekend.  Whenever she was on the field, she was all go; up on offense and back on defense.  Her first instincts to obtain the ball were wonderful; out running attackers and either putting herself between the attacker and the ball or pushing the ball forward away from the attacker to possess it.

Payton gets my brick wall award as she has really taken to playing goalie and over the course of the tourney, especially game one, was really unafraid to get herself in front of some hard shots.  Hopefully she doesn’t get too comfy back there because she has some excellent individual skill as a field player and we need to keep it going, which will make her an even better keeper in the long run.

Lilly was our ‘out of the corner’ master.  She had the purest form of confidence in her ability to possess the ball, shield and make a quick deceptive move to go up the field and even if an attacker won the ball off of her, it never shook this confidence.  She got back to it again and again.

Kenzie was a sleuth.  She seemed to be able to find the smallest spaces between defenders or attackers who she fearlessly closed the gap on and stole the ball from them.  She also has sprouted these long legs recently and was able to move down super-fast field time and again as a second attacker keeper them other team and their goalie honest.

And Kelsey was towing the line nearly all weekend.  She would consistently make a run for the sideline with the ball and use it to her advantage to shield a defender who was reluctant to get to close to going out of bounds and when they would move to get around behind her, she rolled the ball on the sideline, keeping it just in bounds to move past them.

I was very excited to hear all of them really communicating, not only calling off one another on the ball, but also giving each other direction.  It’s like another set of eyes…and saves my voice for another game.  : )

Mixed U10

A big ‘thanks’ to Coach Mark and Coach Les for leading the mixed team during their first game as I coached the girls at the same time.  The team had their troubles not gelling, but this was a group of some of our most talented Legends players and there was no stopping them after they got it all going.  They played Coach Pat’s boys team for their second game and it was a wonderful game, as they all are between any two of our Legends teams. 

Their game three however was what I termed a ‘Legends Showcase’.  It wasn’t that they won; it was how they did it, which was great.  Even with an opposing coach who seemed to think he was coaching football, not fútbol, it was set the ball up and play the whole match and if the ball went in, there wasn’t any smugness or over celebration, only a smile, a ‘congrats’ and right back to the midfield to play again.  There were so many things each player did; I can barely scratch the surface. 

Kaleb and Drew constantly pushed their way through players and when you might think the other team had the ball, they came out of the mix with it, made a deceptive move to create space and moved the ball forward or got off a shot. 

Connor had crazy at speed ‘play behinds’ and ball juggling forward moves, once having two headers followed by a thigh down to his feet.  Nathan found impossible seams between players to get off shots or centering passes…if we could only get him to shoot away from the goalie! 

Wyatt had downfield runs, lefty angle shots, and fought off insect attacks while playing goalie.  Madison found a ball through the air, brought it down with her chest and moved it downfield in fluid motion.  Maddie faced up to opponents, baited them and danced around them with the ball on her feet. 

Daphne bullishly and deceptively moved between players and the ball to gain and regain possession then threw in stop hops to create space.  Last but not least, Josie used her gymnast skills and a lot of self-confidence to perform a few forward flip throw-ins in front of a bunch of parents and players.

What was best about 4 teams coming together so easily is it shows how having a club philosophy where everyone...EVERYONE...is trained equally and asked to step outside of their comfort zones over the course of a season and allows for any group of them to be together on the field and relax and trust in each other’s’ ability to just play.

Excellent work from everyone and we all thoroughly enjoyed the spring season!