Meh

Meh /me/

informal, exclamation
1. expressing a lack of interest or enthusiasm. "Meh. I'm not impressed so far"
adjective
1. uninspiring; unexceptional. "a lot of his movies are … meh"

It has been some time since I sat down and put pen to paper about my favorite group of players, Fusion FC Lightning. I have had at least a dozen started and unfinished items, which I shorten up and then pass along to the parents directly. After this past Saturday though, I believe it is definitely appropriate to give them a public shout out as even in their “Meh” kind of outings, they are still making improvements and showing resolve and solidarity as a team where they would not have before. 

Saturday started weird. A day that appeared it was going to warm up and resulted in cold, windy conditions and saw players digging through each other’s bags to find clothing to put on. Karolyn ended up with Makayla’s shirt and Anna’s pants. Warm-ups were a little off, but nothing out of the ordinary…meh. My daughter warned me so maybe my fault, but I did tell Lightning this team moved up 4 divisions from last season, which should not be an issue as they all know (and I said that day) they should always play every team as if it’s the best team they’ll ever play each time they hit the pitch…meh. Match started well, decent ball movement and 1v1 battles for space nothing impressive or inspiring…meh…and we ended the half at 0-0…meh. Second half is where most things started to play out and "Meh" disappeared.

About 4 minutes in we had a corner kick, good ball placement by Caitlyn, but keeper got it. Everyone retreated, a little brainfart, midfield had their backs to the keeper and weren’t moving with the other team, good punt, no coordinated organization with midfield and backs and in less than 30 seconds from corner kick set up, Lightning was down 0-1. 

It’s in these situations they have tended to buckle, get worried, get on each other, over commit, or do too much. They didn’t do any of that. Kick off came, Karolyn drove straight down toward the goal and for the next 4 minutes they had it in the other team’s end except for one moment where it popped into our end and our Keeper, at that time, Ellis with no hesitation from the prior goal aggressively moved out of the penalty box to help her defenders push the play back to the attacking end. We grabbed a second corner kick and I believe for the first time this season connected on that set piece play. Karolyn drove a shot off another perfect placement by Caitlyn between the 6-yard box and the 18 right toward the back-line defender for a deflection and, not for the first time this season, Makayla cleaned up the trash (I think I have a new nickname for her now). 1-1. 

For the next 7 minutes we had shots on goal by Makayla, Caitlyn, Colby and Bella. Our opponent struggled to get past our middle third. Then they had one penetrating opportunity, which we defended well and moved the play out wide and randomly, unfortunately was immediately put back on goal by a nice chip to hit the opposite post. 1-2. Down again and fifteen minutes left.

Again, no folding, no complaints, ball back up to center and a drive toward goal with a shot by Lillian deflected out for a third corner. Ball up by Caitlyn and just missing a curve into the far corner. 9 more minutes pass, Lightning is still highly composed, moving the ball, they have a couple close calls, but Kelsey stayed poised in goal moving out aggressively as needed and then with 7 minutes left, a fourth corner for Lightning.

Another good placement, ball slides through and our outside defender Countsy has slid up to collect the ball through for a shot, but nothing doing. Counter attack ensues, Countsy does a good job recovering from being down in the attacking third to defend, ball pushes through for a shot, Kelsey with a save but it deflects. The ball lies loose in front of the goal for a second, but the defense and back line was organized this time for Anna and Caitlyn to collect and punch it out wide and out of bounds; 5 ½ minutes to go.

Well defended throw, Bella covered the weak side of the field to collect the ball as it came through. She takes it up field, Ellis makes the forward parallel run and as Bella crosses into the middle attacking half, she places a nice through ball onto Ellis’s feet who then makes the run into the corner (doesn't seem like much, unless you knew where Ellis's game vision was last season and Bella's trust of her teammates was, this was something). Bella doesn’t stop her movement forward (Coach Ben's mantra "never ask when to start moving, ask when to stop"), she follows in a paced walk towards center and back to her left side space as Ellis works off multiple defenders for a crossing pass into the middle near the 18. No one has picked Bella up who crashes into the centering ball. 2-2. Five minutes left.

No shots or defensive third penetration for over 5 minutes and with two minutes remaining, off a Countsy goal kick, Karolyn chips a one timer to Caitlyn driving back down into the attacking corner and suddenly trapped, Caitlyn professionally places a ball off the defender for a Lightning throw in. Like her corners, she places the throw into the 6-yard box. It is defended well and moves out slightly past the 18 where Ellis (coaching points learned and implemented, keeping depth with her strikers) has been roaming at center mid. She one touches to Makayla in her outside right mid role. Makayla takes a shot, which is toe deflected out…Lightning corner kick number five, 1 ½ to go.

Corner is up, through the middle where Bella has made the low run from the outside unobstructed, sliding past the far post defender to place it on a one timer into the net. 3-2. Unrelenting they continued the attack from the kick off for one more minute to complete the match.

Coach takeaways:

What I learned myself after having a chance to watch the match again on video is that Lightning’s “Meh” is actually pretty good. It is them stepping towards treating every game in a highly professional manner, really absorbing and implementing what they are being taught (which is sometimes hard to see among distracted 11 and 12 year olds 😊), knowing they can continue to work the game even when they are down, even multiple times, and be successful as a group.

My highlight of the match wasn't on the field. No, not all those great set piece goals or the composure, but what happened on the bench.  We have 4 goalies; they take turns. I was ready to pull Karolyn to suit up. Behind me, Kelsey says, "Coach Ben, I'll take keeper." I said you already played and it's her turn. Kelsey says, "It's okay, Karolyn's touch is looking really great up there (as a a striker), she should stay there and help the team out." WOW, that was truly awesome. Players on the bench watching the game.

Well done my Lightning ladies and apologies for the long-time lapse!

U8ttitude

Fusion FC U8 kids finally got to play some games this weekend and all the practices before the season showed up in each match played. U8 boys Rattlesnakes and U8 girls Green and U8 Girls Grey put on a display of skill and vision Coach Suli, Jeff and I did not expect and a nice downpour during both girls games made the day wet, but even better for them.

I must preface by saying how much the local rec league (NKSL) is being progressive toward kid development by putting in a midfield playout line on goal kicks and not allowing shooting until teams get into the attacking half, which pushes a lot of teams to learn how to possess the ball and play our from the back. This being said...

The U8 Boys Rattlesnakes opened things up early in the morning in a back and forth match against a group of boys who may have actually been trained by the Cobra Kai. It was a match of brute force ankle chopping versus persistent skill. The boys gave into the kickball in the middle of the match, but we placed a three touch requirement on them before doing anything else and it seemed to calm them back down. Some of my favorite highlights from the match were:

-A nice in the air corner kick and one touch on the knee by Owen B in front of the goal for the score. Not sure I have ever seen that in U8 play. I asked Owen if he meant to do that and he of course with a head shake said, "Yes!"...hmmmm :-)
-Cody B chasing down a ball to his defensive corner and performing a run over between the legs to turn and change direction back to the field of play rather than letting the ball go out.
-Hugh R moving up the parent sideline and yelling "Square-Square!" when he saw his teammate get the ball in the center of the field.
-Jameson C performing a two touch double pull back 8 yards from his goal and figuratively "breaking the ankles" of the opposing team so nicely, they fell to the ground.

What was the actual score result? I wasn't really sure, but the parents were having a good time using the Club's new team tool to post game items and I believe we ended on the minus side by one at 6-7, which tells me...competitive game? Check! Lots of scoring chances? Check! Lots of individual skill and a few non-taught pieces of team work? Check! Well done Rattlesnakes!

The girls teams played across town from each other at the same time, which is fine, except we were missing a few players. There are only 13 total between two teams for 5v5 play so it was a more than a little hairy for Grey when they started their match with only 3 players against the other team's bench of 9. Grace, Emma, and Alyssa apparently had no issue with it and before long Coach Suli had to ask the girls to work more and more on their skill work and touches as those three little ones had about half a dozen in the net and the other team had none. They finished playing the match with Brooklyn at 4v5 and managed the game in stride. While the score result is only a tally marker at this age for treats from grandma and grandpa, the true result was a team down players did not sit back on their heels, but put themselves forward in attack mode without a care.

Green seemed like seasoned veterans in their match. The rain was intense for a while and I was worried some would shut down, but by the second half, every player had done the push run over between the legs move and worked on their carryover dribbling so I began asking them to try a skill move we had not yet worked on to see if they would take the chance to try something new with only a minute or two instruction on the sideline. I don't believe anyone was able to complete it, but the number of unintended pullback and push forward moves with the ball was fun to watch. Afterwards, my first question is always, "did you have fun?", "YES!", then I asked, "are you cold?" and the response to that was a resounding "NO!"

Result for both girls matches? Experience of difficult playing conditions? Check! Lots of scoring opportunities? Check! Skill, skill and more skill? Check! Smiling faces afterwards? Check! Great work to the U8 ladies!

I would like to thank the club where the girls played. They had multiple games going on that day. The field next to us was setting up a team tent and since they weren't scheduled to play for a bit, they moved the tent to our field and set it up between both teams so the girls could keep out of the rain when they weren't playing. Was any animosity seen between teams? Nope, only kid giggles and trying to shake water off the sides of the tent and one of the girls from the other team showing me how she could also do the run over move, awesome. :-)