MONDAY...
Ten guys made it to practice today, seven from the A squad and three from the B. We are really starting to understand our defensive concepts and our one offensive set. While we wait to see if our 6'2" center will be cleared to play, we have to work with our other post options. Our best post player stands at 5'9"ish and has good enough ball handling skills that I would like to use him as our point guard when our center returns, but in the meanwhile he is our 4/5. Our other closest post player - from what I gather - has probably never played on a basketball team before. He is really raw and can really jump- if he figures out how to listen and learn he can probably really help us and get some good minutes.
We had two B guys tonight who were really working hard at every drill. We will have to find a way to reward their effort, which will probably be tricky because it looks like not enough guys will stay eligible to have a full B squad and their ability level is not high enough to warrant a lot of minutes in our A games. We'll figure that out later.
Overall tonight I was pleased with our attitude and effort once we got into practice. On our way there was a different story. Guys are still struggling to take us serious when we tell them we expect them to be focused on Academics, Behavior and Character. 5 guys had GPA's lower than 2.0 and/or one or more F's on their report cards. Other guys still have attitudes that need adjusting if they are going to be on this team past Thanksgiving. Ultimately, I feel that we have enough guys who want to play and play our way that we should have no problem getting this group down to the core that want to be a part of our program.
WEDNESDAY...
Finished our short week of school with probably our best practice yet. We had nine of the A guys present and everyone brought the attitude and effort that we need to move forward as a team. Offensively, we appear to have our base set ready to go- enough so that we were able to introduce our two other base sets. Defensively, we are right where we need to be in our man-to-man.
We have a scrimmage this coming week against a pretty good 8th grade AAU team, so that will give us another chance to see what we really have and what needs work before our first game Nov 13. We get back one more contributing player this week and will get an update on our center from his doctor this week also. I am really glad that we started as early as we did, because it looks to be paying off after three short weeks of practice. This team is ahead of other teams I have coached in the past for where they are at the start of November. Here's to hoping we build off of that.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Week One Thoughts
Our first official week of practice is over and we are starting slow. I am glad that we started the season so early because of weeks like this.
Our roster currently has 19 boys on it, 12 on the A squad and 7 on the B. Of that list, 1 is currently out of school for one more week (thus no practice), another has not turned in his waiver and cannot participate yet and our center is still out until he gets medically cleared. With the remaining guys, each of the three days of practice had at least one not bring his practice gear, a couple in after school tutoring, and a couple more decide not to come to practice without telling Coach. Add to that a couple guys who needed to be sent home early from practice for attitude and we were left with a group of about 7 each day.
We put in some good work with the guys who did come with good attitudes. With only three guys returning from last year and two of them not practicing yet, every thing is new. Getting our pre-game warm-up routine down along with learning all the drills and stations we do by name is taking some time. But, with the early start to the season, our margin for error is much bigger than with past teams.
We still have only worked on one offensive set and the guys are starting to get it down pretty well. We will start to introduce our other sets and plays with each coming week. Defensively we want to run man as our staple defense, but we will add some zones in later along with our presses. We have enough guys who are quick and smart to run effective presses- again assuming everyone stays eligible.
My biggest concern at this point is getting guys to buy into the whole program of living right off the court and in the classroom and working hard in the gym. We can have a good season and a good time with whomever wants to do these things, but if everyone buys into this we could be very good.
Our roster currently has 19 boys on it, 12 on the A squad and 7 on the B. Of that list, 1 is currently out of school for one more week (thus no practice), another has not turned in his waiver and cannot participate yet and our center is still out until he gets medically cleared. With the remaining guys, each of the three days of practice had at least one not bring his practice gear, a couple in after school tutoring, and a couple more decide not to come to practice without telling Coach. Add to that a couple guys who needed to be sent home early from practice for attitude and we were left with a group of about 7 each day.
We put in some good work with the guys who did come with good attitudes. With only three guys returning from last year and two of them not practicing yet, every thing is new. Getting our pre-game warm-up routine down along with learning all the drills and stations we do by name is taking some time. But, with the early start to the season, our margin for error is much bigger than with past teams.
We still have only worked on one offensive set and the guys are starting to get it down pretty well. We will start to introduce our other sets and plays with each coming week. Defensively we want to run man as our staple defense, but we will add some zones in later along with our presses. We have enough guys who are quick and smart to run effective presses- again assuming everyone stays eligible.
My biggest concern at this point is getting guys to buy into the whole program of living right off the court and in the classroom and working hard in the gym. We can have a good season and a good time with whomever wants to do these things, but if everyone buys into this we could be very good.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Mini-Camp Notes
We just got back from a weekend in Minocqua at my parents' church where we officially kicked off our season with a two day mini-camp. We left school Friday shortly after our typical early dismissal and got to the church by dinner. The ride up there (4 hours) was everything every other long ride I have even been on with middle school boys has ever been. Too many silly, goofy things to remember but enough to know that 75% of what is said is hilarious and makes me glad I work with this age group. When we got to Minocqua and were two blocks from the church (which sits off the main street of down town) we had to wait when a flock of wild turkeys crossed the street. The boys in my car thought we were waiting for ducks, but when I told them it was turkeys they all immediately pressed their faces on the windows to see the wild fowl.
We started the night with a spaghetti dinner and 45 minutes later hit the gym for an evening practice. We did not do a whole lot other than conditioning drills, defensive drills and offense introductions. After practice we showered and got ready to watch a movie on the church's big screen projection. Except, the projector would not start. So we went back to the youth room we were staying in and watched the movie on the big screen TV- until the DVD player quit. So we finished the movie on the other TV in the room. (We watched Glory Road which was fun for two reasons: First- only a couple of my players know the history behind Texas Western and Second- the coach in the movie had two little boys the same age as my boys.) The night went pretty well after that with everyone settling down after only 30 minutes of threats. I slept very poorly for two reasons- 1. I always have a bad night of sleep the first time I change my sleeping environment and 2. I could not turn of my "Dean of Students" mind and was convinced someone was going to try something or try to leave the room.
Saturday morning we got up, ate some granola bars, cereal bars and donuts and then headed back to the gym for morning practice. Morning practice was a little less intense than the night before but was still productive in getting the boys moving and reviewing our offense. After the practice I had the guys work through a team building exercise that I had done before with a couple other groups. It was classic in how our guys responded. They did not get it so they fought with each other and then quit. We had a sit down discussion of what we were trying to do that took close to 15 minutes and then they gave it another try and were eventually successful.
We headed to my parents' house for lunch, Pickleball and the Badger-Iowa debacle, then back to the gym for afternoon practice. The first half hour was slow, but we really did some good work the rest of the way. We ended practice with another team building exercise. This one went much quicker than the first and helped the guys work through some teammate issues.
The evening session was a scrimmage we set up with the pastor's son's traveling team. They were missing a couple of their post players but brought a couple 9th graders to fill in. We were much quicker than they were and were able to run a lot on them when we got defensive stops, rebounds and steals. The scrimmage showed me that my top 5 or 6 players (minus our 6'2" center who is still healing from a broken foot) are in pretty good shape and really understand what we are trying to do offensively and defensively. The roster after that still needs some work. We ended up winning by 12 points and got some good compliments from the officials as well.
We had pizza afterwards with our opponents and then finished the evening with an hour and a half of just playing ball in the gym. Needless to say, bedtime was a lot easier Saturday night with a bunch of tired boys than it was the previous night. I, however, still did not sleep well.
Sunday morning we got up, cleaned up, ate breakfast and went to the church's Sunday School class for junior high (and tripled their attendance for the class) as well as the worship service before heading home. I was ready for bed when we got back to Milwaukee at 5:30pm.
Here's what I know after mini-camp...
Our chance to be a really good team this year hinges on whether or not our center's foot gets cleared by his doctor. He broke his foot this summer in a 3-on-3 tournament. When he was given crutches he never used them. When he went back to the doctor he had a cast put on and given new crutches. He never used the crutches. 6 weeks later his cast was off but then when he went to the doctor it was discovered that his foot had an ulcer because of all the walking he did with out his crutches. Longer story- short... there is a possibility that he may not be allowed to play this entire season. Yikes. He can walk just fine, but apparently the damage that could be done long term if it does not heal right is significant.
If he plays, we have a legitimate center, a legitimate shooting guard, and a legitimate all-around player that will win us a lot of games if 3 or 4 more guys learn their roles. Minus the center, we will still win a good amount of games, but we will not challenge to win the big tournaments.
In the 7th grade I have 3 guards that will probably be a part of the regular rotation. One has a very high basketball IQ (for a 13yr old) but he is physically at that awkward age where his body will not totally cooperate with his mind. Another is a great listener who understands basketball pretty well for his age. The third started at point in our scrimmage and turned out better than I had expected, if he can keep his grades and behavior in check he probably can start this season and (if he stays down with the program) could be a pretty good 8th grade point guard next year.
The rest of the squad is filled up by 8th graders new to my system. If they work hard and stay eligible they could see some minutes but only one or two look likely to get into the rotation.
If everyone stays eligible (a big if), we can be a very good middle school basketball team. If we lose a couple key players, we will still win a lot of our conference games but we will not challenge to win our tournaments. If we end up with only seven guys who want to learn the game, behave in school and do their school work, we may not win a lot of games- but we will still have a good season.
We started the night with a spaghetti dinner and 45 minutes later hit the gym for an evening practice. We did not do a whole lot other than conditioning drills, defensive drills and offense introductions. After practice we showered and got ready to watch a movie on the church's big screen projection. Except, the projector would not start. So we went back to the youth room we were staying in and watched the movie on the big screen TV- until the DVD player quit. So we finished the movie on the other TV in the room. (We watched Glory Road which was fun for two reasons: First- only a couple of my players know the history behind Texas Western and Second- the coach in the movie had two little boys the same age as my boys.) The night went pretty well after that with everyone settling down after only 30 minutes of threats. I slept very poorly for two reasons- 1. I always have a bad night of sleep the first time I change my sleeping environment and 2. I could not turn of my "Dean of Students" mind and was convinced someone was going to try something or try to leave the room.
Saturday morning we got up, ate some granola bars, cereal bars and donuts and then headed back to the gym for morning practice. Morning practice was a little less intense than the night before but was still productive in getting the boys moving and reviewing our offense. After the practice I had the guys work through a team building exercise that I had done before with a couple other groups. It was classic in how our guys responded. They did not get it so they fought with each other and then quit. We had a sit down discussion of what we were trying to do that took close to 15 minutes and then they gave it another try and were eventually successful.
We headed to my parents' house for lunch, Pickleball and the Badger-Iowa debacle, then back to the gym for afternoon practice. The first half hour was slow, but we really did some good work the rest of the way. We ended practice with another team building exercise. This one went much quicker than the first and helped the guys work through some teammate issues.
The evening session was a scrimmage we set up with the pastor's son's traveling team. They were missing a couple of their post players but brought a couple 9th graders to fill in. We were much quicker than they were and were able to run a lot on them when we got defensive stops, rebounds and steals. The scrimmage showed me that my top 5 or 6 players (minus our 6'2" center who is still healing from a broken foot) are in pretty good shape and really understand what we are trying to do offensively and defensively. The roster after that still needs some work. We ended up winning by 12 points and got some good compliments from the officials as well.
We had pizza afterwards with our opponents and then finished the evening with an hour and a half of just playing ball in the gym. Needless to say, bedtime was a lot easier Saturday night with a bunch of tired boys than it was the previous night. I, however, still did not sleep well.
Sunday morning we got up, cleaned up, ate breakfast and went to the church's Sunday School class for junior high (and tripled their attendance for the class) as well as the worship service before heading home. I was ready for bed when we got back to Milwaukee at 5:30pm.
Here's what I know after mini-camp...
Our chance to be a really good team this year hinges on whether or not our center's foot gets cleared by his doctor. He broke his foot this summer in a 3-on-3 tournament. When he was given crutches he never used them. When he went back to the doctor he had a cast put on and given new crutches. He never used the crutches. 6 weeks later his cast was off but then when he went to the doctor it was discovered that his foot had an ulcer because of all the walking he did with out his crutches. Longer story- short... there is a possibility that he may not be allowed to play this entire season. Yikes. He can walk just fine, but apparently the damage that could be done long term if it does not heal right is significant.
If he plays, we have a legitimate center, a legitimate shooting guard, and a legitimate all-around player that will win us a lot of games if 3 or 4 more guys learn their roles. Minus the center, we will still win a good amount of games, but we will not challenge to win the big tournaments.
In the 7th grade I have 3 guards that will probably be a part of the regular rotation. One has a very high basketball IQ (for a 13yr old) but he is physically at that awkward age where his body will not totally cooperate with his mind. Another is a great listener who understands basketball pretty well for his age. The third started at point in our scrimmage and turned out better than I had expected, if he can keep his grades and behavior in check he probably can start this season and (if he stays down with the program) could be a pretty good 8th grade point guard next year.
The rest of the squad is filled up by 8th graders new to my system. If they work hard and stay eligible they could see some minutes but only one or two look likely to get into the rotation.
If everyone stays eligible (a big if), we can be a very good middle school basketball team. If we lose a couple key players, we will still win a lot of our conference games but we will not challenge to win our tournaments. If we end up with only seven guys who want to learn the game, behave in school and do their school work, we may not win a lot of games- but we will still have a good season.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Try-outs
Today was our first day of try-outs. 15 boys showed up: 4 eighth graders and 11 seventh. Before even seeing anybody in action, I had a pretty good idea who my first eight players are going to be. The most interesting angle on today came yesterday and weeks before.
Originally, I intended to launch our first ever 5th/6th grade team. However, we only have ten boys in the 5th/6th grade, 2 of them have no interest in playing and three others most certainly will not remain eligible for the entire season. So, I had to kill that idea. After realizing that team would not happen, I realized that I had a lot of 7th grade boys that were interested in playing ball this year but lacked the experience and skill to compete with the teams we will play this year. My solution was to ask the other athletic directors in our conference if they would mind our "B" team (made up of those smaller, less experienced 7th graders) playing their 5th/6th grade teams. All but one school agreed at last night's AD meeting so it looks like I will not have to have any cuts after all.
*****
After the second day of try-outs we picked up two more 8th graders, one who will probably compete to start and get minutes and the other who is told old to play on our "B" squad but will need to put in some work to get minutes. We also had a couple more seventh graders show up who will round out the "B" team at 7.
This weekend we head to Minnocqua for our mini-camp. I am really looking forward to this...
Originally, I intended to launch our first ever 5th/6th grade team. However, we only have ten boys in the 5th/6th grade, 2 of them have no interest in playing and three others most certainly will not remain eligible for the entire season. So, I had to kill that idea. After realizing that team would not happen, I realized that I had a lot of 7th grade boys that were interested in playing ball this year but lacked the experience and skill to compete with the teams we will play this year. My solution was to ask the other athletic directors in our conference if they would mind our "B" team (made up of those smaller, less experienced 7th graders) playing their 5th/6th grade teams. All but one school agreed at last night's AD meeting so it looks like I will not have to have any cuts after all.
*****
After the second day of try-outs we picked up two more 8th graders, one who will probably compete to start and get minutes and the other who is told old to play on our "B" squad but will need to put in some work to get minutes. We also had a couple more seventh graders show up who will round out the "B" team at 7.
This weekend we head to Minnocqua for our mini-camp. I am really looking forward to this...
And Away We Go
Well, I gave myself one school day off from the end of the soccer season to the start of the boys' basketball season. As much as I love soccer, basketball is my favorite sport and coaching basketball is far and away my favorite pastime.
Last year my squad was 22-6. We finished the season with 7 players on the roster and 3 of those players are back. Gone is the best middle school baller I have ever coached (and possibly ever seen play), but I do have my best shooting guard, my best basketball IQ and my 6'2" center returning. Added to that mix this year is a new 8th grader who is 5'9ish" and the total package (as far as 8th graders go) and three 7th graders who know the game well enough to contribute. If two or three of my fringe 8th graders stay eligible and contribute, this season could be a special one.
My first six seasons of coaching have been bad, good, bad, good, bad, and good- which means, if I believed in karma, that this season should be bad. But the aforementioned information leads me to believe that this year I will break my trend. Besides the possibility of a lot of wins, this season looks to be a special one for a few more reasons as well. First -by my unofficial tally- I have 93 victories as a middle school coach (against 49 losses) meaning our seventh victory this season gives me 100. (I know, I know it's kind of sweet and pathetic all wrapped up at the same time that I have kept track and am looking forward to this.) Furthermore, it is quite possible that my 100th victory could come at my first school's tournament where I got my first victory. In addition to that tournament, we are playing in 5 other tournaments including our high school's first ever invitational. Growing up playing traveling Boys' Club ball left me with a great love for tournaments and this year we have six! I'm loving it. Lastly, this coming weekend we are headed up north to Minnocqua for a mini-camp for the first time ever. A whole weekend of practices, team building exercises and a scrimmage with my parents' church's pastor's son's traveling team.
Last year my squad was 22-6. We finished the season with 7 players on the roster and 3 of those players are back. Gone is the best middle school baller I have ever coached (and possibly ever seen play), but I do have my best shooting guard, my best basketball IQ and my 6'2" center returning. Added to that mix this year is a new 8th grader who is 5'9ish" and the total package (as far as 8th graders go) and three 7th graders who know the game well enough to contribute. If two or three of my fringe 8th graders stay eligible and contribute, this season could be a special one.
My first six seasons of coaching have been bad, good, bad, good, bad, and good- which means, if I believed in karma, that this season should be bad. But the aforementioned information leads me to believe that this year I will break my trend. Besides the possibility of a lot of wins, this season looks to be a special one for a few more reasons as well. First -by my unofficial tally- I have 93 victories as a middle school coach (against 49 losses) meaning our seventh victory this season gives me 100. (I know, I know it's kind of sweet and pathetic all wrapped up at the same time that I have kept track and am looking forward to this.) Furthermore, it is quite possible that my 100th victory could come at my first school's tournament where I got my first victory. In addition to that tournament, we are playing in 5 other tournaments including our high school's first ever invitational. Growing up playing traveling Boys' Club ball left me with a great love for tournaments and this year we have six! I'm loving it. Lastly, this coming weekend we are headed up north to Minnocqua for a mini-camp for the first time ever. A whole weekend of practices, team building exercises and a scrimmage with my parents' church's pastor's son's traveling team.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Season One is in the Books
This past weekend our season ended at a tournament in Neenah (WI). We had 11+1 players left on the roster and miraculously 11 made it to the tournament. We rode to the tournament with a school just 10+ blocks away from us who just happened to also be our first game's opponent. (The irony of the only two Milwaukee and "city" teams in the tournament riding to the tournament together to play one another was not lost on either me or their coach.)
After getting off the bus we had 5 minutes to warm-up because we were a tad late due to us waiting as long as we absolutely could for one of our players who called me and gave me play-by-play of the stops the city bus he was on was taking on his way to school. He was 40 minutes past our meeting time and nowhere to be seen so we had to leave without him. (The other coach says to me, "Man, I hate those moments!" Amen.) The first half of the game was a great battle. We were a completely even match for one another and it showed all over the field. Neither team was able to get a legitimate scoring threat going, although our goalie only had to pick the ball up once.
In the second half we turned up the intensity and scored the first goal when we had three players following a shot that was in their goalie's hands only to drop out due to the dew-moistened grass and get knocked in by our closest charging forward. There was probably 15 minutes or so left in the half, but their team was visibly shaken by us scoring the first goal. A few short minutes later we got a great lead pass from one of our midfielders that lead our forward past the fullbacks. As the ball rolled towards the goalie box the keeper ran out to pick it up, but he picked it up before it got to his box resulting in a hand ball violation and a direct kick. Our midfielder took advantage of some confusion and inexperience on their defense's part and snuck the ball past the keeper on the far side of the goal, putting us ahead 2-0 and cementing our victory. The victory was extra sweet as our opponent is the school our principal came from - thus we always have to beat them when we compete in any sport. (He also started the soccer program for them...)
After getting off the bus we had 5 minutes to warm-up because we were a tad late due to us waiting as long as we absolutely could for one of our players who called me and gave me play-by-play of the stops the city bus he was on was taking on his way to school. He was 40 minutes past our meeting time and nowhere to be seen so we had to leave without him. (The other coach says to me, "Man, I hate those moments!" Amen.) The first half of the game was a great battle. We were a completely even match for one another and it showed all over the field. Neither team was able to get a legitimate scoring threat going, although our goalie only had to pick the ball up once.
In the second half we turned up the intensity and scored the first goal when we had three players following a shot that was in their goalie's hands only to drop out due to the dew-moistened grass and get knocked in by our closest charging forward. There was probably 15 minutes or so left in the half, but their team was visibly shaken by us scoring the first goal. A few short minutes later we got a great lead pass from one of our midfielders that lead our forward past the fullbacks. As the ball rolled towards the goalie box the keeper ran out to pick it up, but he picked it up before it got to his box resulting in a hand ball violation and a direct kick. Our midfielder took advantage of some confusion and inexperience on their defense's part and snuck the ball past the keeper on the far side of the goal, putting us ahead 2-0 and cementing our victory. The victory was extra sweet as our opponent is the school our principal came from - thus we always have to beat them when we compete in any sport. (He also started the soccer program for them...)
The tournament featured 24 teams playing on five fields spread out over a complex with the concessions' stand serving as the middle. Our first game was at the field furthest from our second game's location. Fortunately, we had an hour between.
Our second game was against the tournament's host. When we lined up for the kick-off it looked to be a pretty even match. Size-wise they were much smaller than we were except for one player who had clearly played soccer before. It was evident that we were a little tired having already played a full game on a regulation field with no subs. The first half was largely spent in the middle of the field as neither of the teams was able to keep control of the ball long enough to mount a serious attack. Our keeper made a couple great saves to keep us deadlocked at 0-0 heading into halftime.
At the break our entire team came over to the sideline, got their water bottles and then collapsed on the grass. I knew they were giving me everything they had, but I had to continue to ask them for more.
The second half was only a couple minutes old when their best player finally broke through our fullbacks and beat our keeper 1-on-1 to pull them ahead 1-0. After that we spent almost 10 minutes trying to get a real attack together only to see our forwards make weak passes or weak shots that were easily defended. As the half wore on, I had our full backs push further and further up the field in an attempt to get something - anything - going offensively. This is always a gamble and we paid as their star again broke through and beat our keeper 1-on-1 to end any hopes of coming back. The game ended 2-0 but I was proud of our effort.
After the second game we had a two hour break before our last game so I let everyone get food from the concessions' stand. I did not want them eating garbage between our first two games, but with 2 hours to wait, they had time to enjoy that aspect of a tournament without it hurting their performance. As I filled up our water bottles behind the concessions' stand I got two very kind compliments about our kids and my coaching. It is always encouraging to hear other parents notice the work we are doing with our kids.
Our last game was not really how I ever envisioned our season ending. It was clear from the warm-ups on that we are not ready to play three games in one day- especially without subs. Whatever energy, hunger and competitive spirit we had brought with us to the tournament was completely used up and spent on our second game. We looked tired and flat from the first whistle. Nobody was hustling anymore, nobody was looking to pick up their teammates and fight. We were down 2-0 at half when I made my final plea for 25 more minutes of everything we had to give. But we had already given it all more than two hours before this game started. The lone bright spot came when we were down 3-0 and found enough to make one last attack that scored our only goal. So we lost 3-1 and ended the season 3-6.
Overall, the season was a great success. At one point we had 18 kids at one practice and ended with 11. Less than half were 8th graders, so we have a good nucleus to build with for next year. Hopefully, we will be able to get out this summer and have some camps or at least play together (and get in shape) to see HOPE soccer build to the level of other schools that were at this tournament.
We want to give a gigantic THANK YOU to everyone who sent us donations to help outfit the Tigers this year! We are extremely grateful to know that so many of you love HOPE + soccer enough to support us!
THANK YOU + GO TIGERS!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Wrong Direction
There were many factors that lead to our last scheduled game not going as we wanted it to. To begin with, our leading scorer and goalie are on an extended leave of absence from school from last week's incident. In addition to those two, six more players from our roster have not been to a practice or game in over two weeks which left us with 11 players for this game. Five players were in afternoon detention and four of those completed their homework and punitive quotes in time to make it to the game. So, we went to battle with 10 players.
Arriving at the game the clouds were threatening to open up and douse the field plus the temperature was the coldest we have had yet this fall. Prior to the game I talked with our opponent's coach and found out that they had tied one of our opponents who beat us by 1 (playing 11 on our 10) so with a full roster we probably should have beat this team. He graciously agreed to play us 10-on-10, so that he could have one sub. The game was ref'd by a parent/assistant coach making 5 out of our 6 games not officiated by a "real" soccer official.
It was clear within 10 minutes that this official was not about to make any "dangerous" or "rough play" calls so there was a LOT of pushing, grabbing and cleat-first jumping and sliding. This proved particularly frustrating for me and our players since I coach my kids to play a style opposite of this, but the physical play more closely mirrors how our kids live day to day.
They scored the first goal of the game with 5 minutes to go on a questionable non-call on what I believed to be offside on one of their players. (When I went home and checked up on the rule, it turns out the call is a ref's discretion- so technically he was correct if he saw it as not a violation. Though I still think the guy was offside.) This was the only goal of the half leaving us down 1-0.
Overall, we were much more aggressive on offense than our opponent in the first half, but we were unable to capitalize on any attack. Our keeper (playing only his second game ever in goal) looked comfortable and made a couple clutch saves as well. My half time talks are getting pretty similar since we have had only one game with any subs- "Get a drink. Keep fighting. You're not tired! GO TIGERS!"
In the second half we gave up two quick cheap goals and lost a lot of wind as the game continued to be rough with no calls and we could not punch anything through. We managed one great attack from the sideline in with a great cross and a rebound score, but we could not get anything else and fell 3-1. Again I had nothing to complain about from our kids' effort- they gave all they had but the bounces did not go our way this night.
Our record now stands at 2-4 and we have a tournament in 10 days to end the season. I am trying to get one more game next week prior to the tournament, but I am not sure if that will happen. I really hope to end the season on a positive note, but our lack of consistency is starting to really hurt us.
Arriving at the game the clouds were threatening to open up and douse the field plus the temperature was the coldest we have had yet this fall. Prior to the game I talked with our opponent's coach and found out that they had tied one of our opponents who beat us by 1 (playing 11 on our 10) so with a full roster we probably should have beat this team. He graciously agreed to play us 10-on-10, so that he could have one sub. The game was ref'd by a parent/assistant coach making 5 out of our 6 games not officiated by a "real" soccer official.
It was clear within 10 minutes that this official was not about to make any "dangerous" or "rough play" calls so there was a LOT of pushing, grabbing and cleat-first jumping and sliding. This proved particularly frustrating for me and our players since I coach my kids to play a style opposite of this, but the physical play more closely mirrors how our kids live day to day.
They scored the first goal of the game with 5 minutes to go on a questionable non-call on what I believed to be offside on one of their players. (When I went home and checked up on the rule, it turns out the call is a ref's discretion- so technically he was correct if he saw it as not a violation. Though I still think the guy was offside.) This was the only goal of the half leaving us down 1-0.
Overall, we were much more aggressive on offense than our opponent in the first half, but we were unable to capitalize on any attack. Our keeper (playing only his second game ever in goal) looked comfortable and made a couple clutch saves as well. My half time talks are getting pretty similar since we have had only one game with any subs- "Get a drink. Keep fighting. You're not tired! GO TIGERS!"
In the second half we gave up two quick cheap goals and lost a lot of wind as the game continued to be rough with no calls and we could not punch anything through. We managed one great attack from the sideline in with a great cross and a rebound score, but we could not get anything else and fell 3-1. Again I had nothing to complain about from our kids' effort- they gave all they had but the bounces did not go our way this night.
Our record now stands at 2-4 and we have a tournament in 10 days to end the season. I am trying to get one more game next week prior to the tournament, but I am not sure if that will happen. I really hope to end the season on a positive note, but our lack of consistency is starting to really hurt us.
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