One Liners

All it takes is a desire to have fun and understanding I want to have fun too, but I am also their teacher so they should treat every training like a classroom and every game like recess.

The Future's Bright...It's Coach Ben's fault...and Coach Dave's First Blog!

The U9 girls had two split up this weekend for the first time...it really felt like separating your identical twin from you.  Coach Dave took the Louisville group and I grabbed our Versailles group.

I asked Coach Dave to put down his thoughts after the weekend and he did a masterful job.  I felt like I was there after reading it.  Before I transcribe his thoughts here, a small bit about the Versailles girls and and some extra weekend activity by the U9 crew.

A big shout out to Payton, Isabella and Karolyn for not only helping out, but giving everyone a glimpse of what all our U9 crew are capable of doing this weekend as they played for our U11 Select team.  I didn't see them Saturday, but got a full belly of them Sunday...speed, ball control, moves, driving to the goal, a good early understanding of the game, and a whole lot of having fun.  

We actually had quite a few parents and players trying to recruit them to play, but for me it was more of how we can show what the foundation of Legends can do at an early age and allow them to play with anyone...and when I say anyone, I really wish I could have had a picture of one drop ball which occurred between Isabella and the other team.  The opposing player was literally almost twice her height, but Iz walked right up with no concern over her opponent's height and faced her down...well at least she faced her belly button down.  

One last item I have to mention, Iz and Payton teamed up Sunday for the U11 team's first score.  Good display of not giving up on the play!

The rest of the Versailles group played brilliantly in both of their matches.  I was fortunate enough to finally be at a point where I could stop asking them to hustle and ask them to slow down, not from a scoring or play standpoint, but to stop following the person with the ball and just move with the game as the second attacker/defender.

We were outscored in our second match, not by much, but honestly it was my fault and I am so glad for it.  The girls had plenty of opportunities to score, but even as they got to right in front of the goalie, I reminded them they were supposed to do a move, which they listened to, then tried and lost the ball.

Could I have let them run loose and score at will?  Sure, but I am more proud of their trust in me to stop and do what I ask, even though it failed and be completely okay with it.  Usually, they would just turn around with a grin and look at me like, "Jeez Coach".

Last item, thanks to our guest players, Hailey, Emily and Cora.  I am glad you had fun and enjoyed the experience!  You all rocked it!

Now on to Coach Dave's Blog...

I was extremely proud how each girl played yesterday. I haven’t seen these specific girls play better individually or as a group than on Saturday. Prior to the game, I had asked them each to possess the ball, give each other space, and trust in their teammates. I believe we possessed the ball nearly 80% in both games. I never saw the girls flocking or herding to the ball, but I was most proud how they trusted in each other. There were multiple occasions where a Legends player had the ball either in the corner, along the sideline or just in the middle of the field, and their teammate gave them the space and trust to work thru the situation. As mentioned, that was most evident when players were either in the attacking or defensive corners. I would just simply say to the players to assess the situation and do what comes naturally. The end result was typically a well-timed move (and go), a shield of their body to advance themselves out of the situation, or a poke (notice I didn't say pass) of the ball into open space where a teammate (who didn't flock) was waiting to continue forward. The girls played extremely well, which resulted in a lot of possession, tons of shot opportunities (I think every player had at least 2 shots on goal), and of course a lot of scoring. Many girls scored that haven’t typically scored so their was a lot of excitement from the player, parents, teammates, etc. After the initial excitement, I was quick to congratulate them on the score but really highlight and praise them for the actions that led to the shot (or goal). I tried to remove each girl after her score so I could deliver that positive reinforcement on the sideline.

Player specific info:

Lilly

After subbing her out for the first time, I challenged Lilly to show me how she could advance the ball vertically. I pointed out to her that she was possessing the ball quite well with under control dribbling, the occasional move, and shielding of her body but she was going from sideline to sideline. I pointed out that she was getting past the attacking defender and that she needed to trust in her skills and speed to just go forward. Once she went back in, you started to see her get more comfortable with this and she started to make numerous, multi-touch runs in open space (generally along the sideline). After the games, I told her how proud I was of her and called out two instances where she actually saw everyone rotating to her side of the field, which led her to quickly reverse course, swing back the other way, use a burst of speed, and advance the ball deep into the opposing teams end. Lilly also played goal keeper for the first time. She was a bit hesitant but I reassured her that she’d be fine. I pointed out that the box was her house and that no one was allowed in her house without her permission. She didn't see a lot of action due to how much we possessed the ball, but she had one instance where she jumped out of the goal and pounced on a ball resulting in a discouraged Lexington FC player. Lilly received a game ball.

Mckenzie

Mckenzie played extremely well. It was like she had the ball on a string tied to her shoe. She was always under control despite giving maximum effort. She played a lot of forward for me, but I was always impressed when we actually lost possession and the other team was on a counterattack that she hustled back, which typically resulted in her getting the ball from behind with a quick stop-hop, 180-turn, and back on the attack. I lost count of how many multi-touch runs she made in open spaces, but it was definitely in the teens! Mckenzie received a game ball.

Mariyah

Mariyah started out a little timid for me even though I had personally challenged her to have multiple touches on the ball before kicking it. I quickly pulled her out so we could talk on the sideline. I reminded her that she played 1v1 against me in the last practice, and that I knew she could possess the ball, make moves, etc. because she made me look foolish in practice. After a small grin, I challenged her again and subbed her in at center forward thinking there would be a lot of action in the middle of the field and force her to have multiple touches. She did not disappoint and I played her primarily there for both games. She got more and more comfortable throughout the games, which led to a goal by her in the second game on a multi-touch run and powerful shot into the right back corner of the net. I don’t think the goalie even moved it went by so fast!

Olivia

I was really proud of how well she played. Olivia was her typical communicative self throughout the game, and while she continued to call out when she had the ball, she also laid off at times when she realized her teammate had things under control. Where Olivia really shined was when she was stuck in a corner or along the sideline (typically surrounded by three defenders). She probably had 4-5 situations like this. On the first instance, I simply said to her that she needed to assess the situation and make a decision. She quickly blurted back, “I know!” and then went on to do a Maradona and went past two defenders straight to the goal, shot the ball and just missed to the right of the far post. After that, I didn't have to say anything to her when she was in those situations. She stayed under control, took her time and generally had a successful result. While I know we don’t typically point out scores, I do have to mention a couple goals players had since they were not the result of poaching. In Olivia’s case, she had a well-timed run with multiple touches on the ball resulting in her being 1v1 against the goalie. She did a Puskas faking the goalie to the left and then followed it up with a quick shot to the right side of the goal. She was excited for scoring and I actually got a little excited myself and ran out on to the field. She said “I scored!” and I said, "I know but I was so proud of the Puskas that you did to fake the goalie out!"

Eva

Eva played really hard for me. She played whatever position (forward, defender, goalie) I asked her to play without complaint. As you know, she loves to play attacking forward. She also has a tendency to herd to the ball, but she really listened to me and kept her space, which typically resulted in the ball ending up to her in open space anyway. The one thing we've been working on at home and I reinforced for her to practice during the game was to leave the “kangaroo” in her pocket on the sidelines. Eva has the tendency to hop too much and doesn't get her weight or positioning right resulting in a misconnect on the ball. I challenged her to work on this throughout the game explaining I understood it was sometimes difficult for her being a lefty. I told her that it was okay to slow down a bit so she could concentrate more on the technical aspect. For the most part, she played under control, had great touches, continued to use her pullback and go move (but I did see a Rivolino and Cruyff from her), and got a lot more pace on the ball when shooting opportunities occurred. With all that, I was most proud of Eva when she was in at goalie. Before she went out, I told her that she had to help direct the players when free kicks or corner kicks occurred. The players still struggle a little bit with positioning on those plays. On one corner kick, Eva started barking at her players to go here, go there, etc. Everybody moved to their spots, we quickly got the ball, and advanced down the field. Eva looked over me with a big grin on her face and I gave her a thumbs up!  Eva received a game ball.

Elissa

Elissa played a very well-rounded game. It’s evident that she’s really mastering her skills thru repetition (i.e. homework). When she wants to, she can advance the ball thru a myriad of defenders. On multiple occasions, she dribbled the ball left-right-left-right-around players on very lengthy runs. If I didn't know better, it was like she way toying with the opposing team. She played wherever I asked her to play and always gave maximum effort. She would have gotten a game ball from me except for some issues on the sideline. We talked about it after the game, and I told her how proud I was of her play on the field but she couldn't be a distraction on the sideline. I advised her that being a good player, teammate mattered as much off-the-field as it did on. It was a good lesson for her and I think one she will remember going forward.

Kelsey

What can I say about Kelsey? I really enjoy watching her play. You can tell that she’s really starting to understand game situations and making great decisions that result in a positive outcome. She played a complete game for us wherever she was positioned, but I have to call out one particular play that is the best I've seen this season. The ball was rolling towards me on the coach’s sideline in the attacking end for us. Two Lexington players were quickly chasing the ball down, but before the ball could roll out Kelsey touched it with her left, spun to shield both defenders and drug it forward with her right (i.e. a Maradona), which kept the ball in play and created space for her. She followed that up with a couple more touches and then a powerful shot that found it’s way into the back of the net. She was so excited that she scored that she ran over to me and Liz. I said “I know you scored but do you realize what you just did on the sideline!”. I told her that that was probably the best skill move I’ve seen any player execute this season. 

Cora

Cora has the heart and courage of a lion. I can’t believe this girl is only six years old. She is fearless! It only took her a couple minutes to start feeling comfortable on the field. She was always in the mix, never shying away from the ball. She plays much bigger than her size, which I’m sure is due in part to having an older sister. This was evident on a few occasions. The first being that she scored the team’s first goal on the goalie from the week prior (U10 girl) that we couldn't score on. It was a powerful kick that I think surprised the goalie. This goal also woke our team up because I think they realized if Cora can score on her so can we. From that point on, the flood gate was open. Then in the second half the Lexington team put that girl on the field to help their team possess the ball. There were several opportunities where Cora was either defending against or taking it to that girl, who (let me remind you) was twice her height and weight. Cora quickly became a fan favorite as parents were constantly heard cheering her on. Lastly, this was maximum effort and energy from a girl who had played for her normal team in the morning before playing a double header for us. If she plays this well for our U9 academy team, I can only imagine how Cora does on her Legends team. Cora received a game ball for her overall play, courage and tenacity.

Same old song, but it just keeps getting better

This past weekend my U8 Rec and U9 Academy teams took the field and showed again why focus at an early age on foot skills and encouraging 1v1 play to beat defenders and gain confidence with the ball are so very important.

For the U8 group positions and passing are just ridiculous to conceive when many times their greatest challenges are keeping their heads up, knowing where the goal is, and trying not to defend against their own teammate.

I watched as the other team patiently set up their players at the beginning of the game into 3 forward and 2 goal box fence posts then struggle the rest of the match to keep them in these spots or get them to move from them; how confusing for a 6-7 year old.  "What the heck do you want me to do coach?!"

Once again, I set all of our players up on the bottom of the midfield circle with their only instructions to possess the ball, keep it at their feet, and do a move and head to the goal.  This time, even the referee looked over at me in the beginning to see if I really wanted all five girls in this odd formation.  Absolutely!

The girls never gave up throughout the whole game; in fact, they picked up on my own cheering of the team with their own chant of "Don't Give Up! - Don't Give Up!" when a group of our players were working hard near our bench to push it towards the goal...even the other coach was getting a kick out of it.  Definitely the kinds of cheers I prefer to those which focus on the win or the score; motivating, yet not antagonizing the other team.

I passed out two game balls to Ava and Dakohta.  Ava's enthusiasm, attitude and effort to encourage her teammates to try harder were wonderful.  She was constantly challenging them to "DO A FAKE SHOT!" and she did quite a few of her own.  After one game, she herself has really honed in on to what is happening in the game and is less solely ball focused; great progress in such a short time.  Dakohta was a picture of perfection when it came to playing up and down the field and tirelessly pulling the ball away from attackers’ feet resisting the urge at this age to just kick it.  She was very cool and calm no matter where she was on the field, especially gaining control in front of our own goal and like a seasoned vet moving it out and away from the goal box and down the field and even once going from goal line to goal line for a near score.

Other notables...AUBREY!!! Whose shirt was not in the mouth and she was fierce on attack, even throwing out some moves.  Lilly the mosquito had an "AHA!" moment and after once or twice of on field direction, she stopped trying to grab the ball from her team and made her way to the front of the goal to poach.  Brooklyn helping coach and getting her team set up on the field during dead ball kicks and throw-ins.  Everyone else is showing so much improvement I really look forward to each training session with them.

Great work girls, I loved watching this game!

U9 had their Academy opener in Lexington and as I put it on the club Facebook page, "Put on a talent show of skill."  The end resulted in the host club director telling our girls, "We now know what we need to work on."

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see all the action as our girls were split into two squads, but the host club was kind enough to let us play fields side-by-side so I could at least turn around and glance at the action and talk to them at half-time.  Besides one veteran in Karolyn, my group was all new Legends girls and some younger guest players, but you wouldn't have known it from the effort and product they put out.  I could have given game balls to each player, but my four over the two games we played went to Maryah-Y and our three guest players; Hailey, Abby and Ashley.  Maryah was crazy with the ball at her feet, throwing in turns, carry-overs, stop hops, and I believe a scissor or Rivelino.  This kind of improvement for less than 2 months as a Legends player and coming from a local rec program is pretty impressive.

Hailey, Abby and Ashley got a taste of some leveled up competition from what they were used to and didn't disappoint me, their parents and the other teams' coaches.  Cryuff turns, Maradonas and play behinds helped create the space they needed to walk a tight sideline.  Hailey set herself up in space for numerous poaching opportunities; Ashley was stalwart in her ability to get back on the ball and place her body between her and the oncoming attacker and then turn things into an attacking opportunity for herself.

Abby had the other coach scratching his head on how she moved so gracefully.  She did finally begin to realize she couldn't make it all happen and showed a nice head up thoughtful pass to center.  She began to tire out and made on last move to create space between her and a defender, saw a teammate in center and put it right at her feet as they moved downfield.  Right after she got the pass off, her hands went to her knees and she took a mighty well deserved breath.

Karolyn, Isabella, Ellis and Mariyah-I have to be mentioned here to as they continue to put in serious effort and have outstanding moves of their own.

Coach Dave led a group of veterans against the host club's most experienced group in their first match and made it a possession nail biter.  What they didn't know and I knew is they had the draw of trying to score on an older U10 player who was helping out due to the host club being down a few players.  I had complete confidence in them to handle the challenge and even if they failed would put on a good showing.

I could hear Coach Dave asking them to get back on defense several times and when I turned around, I usually saw Kelsey taking the ball back before the other team had a chance to go on the attack.  I did get to see Caitlyn move around confidently in our own goal box doing a Maradona turn to go out to the sides of the fields.  They both received game balls along with Payton and Olivia.

I know Payton was throwing moves around and made her way to the goal several times for her effort.  Each time she made sure to let me know about it, which is great, but my question to her every time was "How did you do it?"  She said, "By doing moves, like Maradonas."

What's most impressive as we go along with these girls is not just that they are doing the moves, but they are continually increasing the speed at which they do them and at more and more of the right times.  We are also seeing small blurbs of active team work regardless of the combinations of players...why, because they are all growing each and every week as individual players and they too know each and every one of them are growing and can trust in one another to be there and handle the ball.

Not all our games and outings will be as glowing as this past weekend and I expect us to take more than our fair share of clobberings, but I do know each we will learn something new about ourselves every time no matter the outcome.

Go Bananas! - U9 Girls doubleheader #1

I started this a week and a half ago and fortunately I started keeping notes.  Better late than never right...kind of??  :-)

Well it looks like our between game bah-nanananas took a few minutes to take full effect Saturday (8/23), but once they did...well, it was possession domination, but we'll go over that later.  Now to match number one of our double header.

We played a position/pass team and this can either be problematic for us or to our advantage.  As I have mentioned before, we will be susceptible to breakaways and may get real backed up by a team if this occurs early on in a game.  However, we played very attack aggressive, which put this particular team on their heels and tired them out quickly even though they put in the first point.

The coach of the other team kept asking his players to glide with us and take the ball away when we were off balance performing our deceptive dribbling.  However, our girls are getting better at staying low, knees bent and on their toes, which really prevents them from being off-balance in the first place.

I had to give a game ball to Olivia for her tireless effort to perform her moves at speed.  She had one pullback-play/behind near me, which made her look like she was gliding atop the grass...BUT...probably her biggest effort came from our pre-game chat.  Olivia still struggles keeping her head up and recognizing her teammates around her.  I actually had a picture to show her of what I meant, with her in it, where she was moving her teammate off of a ball.  We chatted and and I asked her to really put in effort to keep her head up and move away from the ball if she saw a teammate with it, even if it originally cam off of her foot.

Well she did just that and for both games.  I think I even recall her looking at me once when she moved away from a play to let me know she was working on it.  The conclusion of all of this was on a drive she made deep into the offensive corner of the bench side where she had tried twice to get the ball towards goal without success by skirting the back line.

Her last attempt saw her take a big leap in her play.  She looked up and saw Karoyln poaching right in front of the goalie, pushed it hard to her away from the back line, through two players for Karolyn to pop it into goal.  Awesome!

We also had another thoughtful pass during this match, in which Elissa was making some moves and ended up being trapped on the sideline by two defenders.  They closed in on her now knowing our possess the ball mentality.  When up past their backs comes Maryah-Y who rather than call out for a pass, patiently kept her space and waited.  Elissa popped her head up, saw Maryah and pushed it between the defenders for Maryah to keep moving the ball forward.

Maryah, like our other new girls had been accustomed to asking for the ball by saying "Pass" rather than just making sure they were in the right place as an available option.  Also, by not saying anything, she did not alert the defenders to her presence.  Big in-game step forward for both girls.

Overall, our girls continue to give no space through the middle of the field forcing other teams to respect the center line and stay on sides.

This broke down a bit in the first 10 minutes of match 2 and we got ourselves chasing the ball.  Although as I said at the beginning, this was, in my mind, due to getting our legs back after a full game then playing against some fresh legs.  We ended up down by three quickly, but our girls are doing great with not seeing points and just getting themselves back to playing.  For the next 40 minutes, we had the ball minus a couple long kick breakaways, which were easily taken care of by Karolyn in goal.

It was so dead back by goal in the last 15 minutes of the first half that Maryah-Y did not touch the ball once, much to her dismay, but to the delight of her parents (or so I hear!)

Karolyn summed up this game to me by a footnote she recapped after the game where she was bringing the ball up from our defensive half and had one defender on her with another in waiting.  The 2nd defender told her teammate to "Just KICK the ball!" to which the teammate replied, "It's NOT that easy!"  Exactly!!  It is never easy against everyone of our players in a 1v1 situation!

Caitlyn, Mariyah-I and Kenzie received game balls for their in game efforts.  

Mariyah is still not comfortable with having the ball at her feet in game and kicks it away immediately.  I told her during a substitution she must get at least 5 touches before giving it away from now on.  Reluctantly at first she moved with 2, then 3 touches...then all of a sudden the ball was getting more than five touches and she ended up with a couple shots on net; one even getting neat ping sound as she hit a corner post.  She then did an even better thing than just dribbling...she followed her shot and almost got one in the net.

Caitlyn also has a tendency to get rid of the ball even though she has really good footwork and agility.  She never ceases to surprise though as she grabbed a ball in our defensive half drove straight through the middle of the field, beat three defenders and put one into the back of the net.  It wasn't a drive full of maradonas or puskas moves, but one full of ball control, slight head fakes and light direction changes and sometimes, that's all it takes.

Kenzie, is super comfortable with the ball and I can tell she enjoys being challenged by defenders when they are up close.  Although she got into a bit of a pickle with three defenders down in one of our offensive corners.  For what seemed like 90 seconds, they went back and forth.  She would do a few moves, get them off balance and start to break away when a stray leg would push the ball slightly away.  What got her the game ball was her attitude during this event.  She never gave up and kept going after the ball.  So much so, at one point, I heard a lion roar from a quiet mouse as she growled out in frustration over the situation, then she grabbed the ball back and went back at it again.