If last week was about as anti-climactic as a championship can be, today's game made up for it and some!
This week leading up to our conference championship (and end of the season) looked like this:
Monday - No Practice (Planned, on purpose)
Tuesday - No Practice (Only 5 kids showed up)
Wednesday - Really Poor Practice (Attitude and Effort)
Thursday - No Practice (Rain, rain, rain, puddles)
Friday - No Practice (Planned, on purpose)
So, I really would not say we were as prepared as we possibly could be, but then again I am not sure I could have said that at all this year.
Getting to this game was different than every other game this year in that it was on a Sunday and every kid was responsible for getting themselves to the game. Even though I sent home two letters this past week with date, time, location and directions, I was fielding calls from kids and parents from 7:30 in the morning until, literally, kick-off.
The game was played at our local Lutheran high school so it was equal parts cool and huge. Our opponent was the only team we had lost to this year. (At that game we started with 9 and went down to 8 with an injury, then they scored and then we got back up to 10 players by halftime, but we never could get a serious attack after that.)
The teams were lined up and announced like they do at the World Cup and then the game started. Then 40 seconds later we were down 1-0. It was pretty silly, actually. Our opponent got a decent attack off of the kick-off and their shot on goal was not anything special, it just caused our keeper to dive and then as he caught it he rolled and then lost control of the ball and basically threw it into the goal. Oops.
The rest of the half was some pretty good middle school soccer with both teams getting decent attacks on goal, but both defenses refusing to break. As per usual, our keeper was anywhere and everywhere thwarting several decent chances our opponent had to score.
Also, as per usual we started the game with less than 11 kids. We had 12 kids on our roster this morning, 10 showed up on time, 1 was late because he was riding the city bus to the game and another never showed because she had her mom drop her off at our school and not the Lutheran high school. (This was, interestingly enough, the first game an official took the time to ask me if I knew we only had 10 kids on the field. Probably, because this was our first game with two officials.)
At half time I did not have much to tell the kids other than some spacing and alignment issues. It was obvious that the larger field was having some effect on their stamina. Otherwise, I felt pretty good about our chances, if we could get an early strike. And we did.
Less than 3 minutes into the second half we got a strong attack going down the left side of the field that eventually got crossed and three of our kids ran at the ball bouncing across the front of the goal. Their keeper dived but missed the ball and then one of our forwards got a foot on it and sent it to the back of the net to even the game at 1-1.
The last 16+ minutes of the game were about as exciting as middle school soccer gets. We had a couple serious attacks, they had several. Again, our keeper was amazing. He stole several balls right from the feet of forwards! Both teams were clearly getting tired as the end neared. Our biggest scare came late in the game when one of our fullbacks inadvertently passed it back to our keeper, giving our opponent an indirect kick about 10 yards out. We set up a terrible wall but it was enough to cause him to send his free kick wide right.
When the time ran out, we readied ourselves for two 5 minute overtime halves. In five seasons of coaching middle school soccer, I have never seen a goal scored in overtime. 5 minutes basically allows each team to get one attack going, if you stop that one, you're pretty safe. So, 10 soccer minutes later we were still tied 1-1. Time for penalty kicks. Each team sends out 5 players, whoever gets more goals wins.
We won the coin toss and chose to start in the goal. Their guy set his ball up, backed up and then blasted it right to our keeper- only he hadn't waited for the referee's whistle! No problem though as he set it up, backed up, waited for the whistle and then sent it wide of the goal to the left. Our first guy calmly line his ball up and then buried it in the lower left hand corner of the net, 1-0 us.
Our opponent's next two guys kicked it right to our keeper... as did both of our guys, still 1-0 us. Our opponent then sent out one of their biggest players. He lined it up and sent it over our keeper's outstretched arms and then it hit the top crossbar and bounced down and in, 1-1. Our next guy was our leading goal scorer this year (and only a 6th grader). He has the most soccer experience of anyone on our team and showed it as he easily sent the ball past the keeper to give us the 2-1 lead.
Down to the final shot for both teams. For the PK's they had both teams lined up at midfield and I quickly told our kids if this kick does not score, we win. Their guy lined it up and sent it right to our keeper and off our kids went to mob our keeper!
Our crowd (easily our biggest of the year- which makes sense as it was the first game that everyone had to bring their kids) went nuts (about as nuts as 30 or so people can get)! The field had to be cleared to get the Upper Division teams on for their game, but we moved off to the side for the photos and then the love from the fans. It was great as I got to meet some of the parents for the first time this year. (Imagine their view of me as a coach with only this game to draw from!) It was a blast.
This team was easily the most dysfunctional I have ever coached in any sport, but when it was game time they did what I had taught them to. I liken them to the Allen Iverson of middle school soccer in that they never wanted to practice, but showed up when it was game time. At the beginning of the year- when I couldn't even get the whole team to run two warm-up laps and then spread out for stretching - I joked with our kids about this being the set-up of all Disney sport movies. A bunch of kids who don't really love the sport but just want something to do come out, drive their coach crazy, and almost never finish the season. The only difference was that we did not have a blue chip player transfer in after losing our first few games. Instead, we won all but one and really should have not lost that game.
A very crazy season, indeed. I told our principal that I will always look at the huge trophy we got and just grin about the ride this season has been. At least our kids can grin too, even if/though for other reasons than me.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
8-1 with a Championship!?
At the beginning of this season I had set a goal in my head of finishing the season at or around the .500 level. Last year we ended the season 3-6, so I figured a 5-4 season would be a good improvement and would have our program heading the right direction. I have not really been surprised by the drama and difficulties that this season's team has brought, but I have been surprised by our success. Part of that success has come from playing small schools that have small players and this weekend had a lot of these.
This is our second year attending this tournament in Neenah. Last year we won our first game, played great for the first half of the second game (before folding in the second half) and laid the proverbial egg in our third game when the kids were absolutely gassed from playing three games in one day. This year we almost did not get to the tournament as our invitation was lost in the mail due to our school moving, but we got in this past week. The tournament director had to do a little division realignment to fit us in and we ended up in Division 5 (out of 5). Our division (of four teams) included two schools B teams (made up of 5/6th graders).
Our one day tournament, of course, got started off with some more drama. Our roster officially stood at 12 players on Friday. BUT, one was suspended from school Friday and another had Saturday morning detention- leaving us with 10. I attempted to recruit a player's cousin Friday night but he had a football game Saturday morning. Oh well- such has been our season. I arrived at our school at 6:30am to find two 6th graders already waiting for me. One was a defender, the other was a student I realized I had told could come to the tournament as a 'student manager' if he met me at the school at 6:30am. I open the door and he asks what he is going to be doing as a manager. I toss him a jersey and tell him he will be wearing this jersey with my shin guards playing fullback. That makes 11 strong.
Upon arriving at the tournament site, two of my players decided that they did not want to follow my directions earning one a 10 minute game suspension and the other a full game suspension. Our first game was against the first of the two 5/6th grade teams, so putting 9 on the field to start did not really hurt us as much as it limited what we could do- for a few minutes. We scored our first goal before I put one of the two guys with me into the game. Before halftime we would add another goal to take a 2-0 lead into halftime. The second half went just like the first, two goals for us and our keeper only touching the ball once. First game, 4-0 victory.
Our second game, two hours later, was against the other 5/6th grade team in our division. Right before the start of the game I had to bench another player for play fighting. She sat out most of the first half (even took off her cleats and put them away in her bag) before she changed her mind and attitude and got into the game. This team was physically even smaller than the first and it was clear right away that this was going to be a problem. Our players, without playing dirty, were knocking their players to the ground in almost every confrontation involving the ball and two or more players. Their coach was not happy about this and let the referee know it, a lot. But, there was not much the ref could do when most of the time the other players were knocked down because they were smaller.
The game played out eerily similar to our first. We scored two goals in the first half and our keeper touched the ball once. In the second half we scored two more, our keeper never touched the ball and our opponents' coach pulled his team off the field with 3 or so minutes left after another player went down. A very odd ending to say the least. The "good-game" line was easily the oddest I have ever been through as not one kid nor their coach offered a "good game" to anyone of us. Second game, 4-0 victory.
One more victory and we would be the Division 5 champions of the tournament. Our last opponent was not a 5/6th grade team but was a team having a 'rebuilding' year after a successful season last year with numerous 8th graders. Our kids' attitudes had not been helped greatly by all the winning and looking at our last opponents' stature (only 2 'big' kids), they were sure we would roll to a victory. The first half was the first time I thought maybe my kids were getting tired as we played our least inspiring soccer of the season. Yet, our goalie touched the ball only once and the score was 0-0 at half time.
The second half was an entirely different story all together. We scored 2 goals in the first four minutes of the half. Then we scored another 2 goals in the next 10 minutes. Once we get up four goals I change out my forwards and fullbacks. This time I also let my goalie come out and play in the field (He had done a LOT of standing around for the day and I felt he deserved the shot). The first time the ball came to him he dribbled it from our goalie box in and out of defenders up the entire length of the field and scored his first goal of the year! Clearly he had a lot of pent up energy that needed to be let out! Even moving our fullbacks up, pulling one player off the field and pulling other players over to the sideline to talk during the game could not slow us down as we scored 2 more goals to bring the total for the HALF to seven, final score 7-0.
We had scored 15 goals in three game and our goalie only touched the ball half a dozen times. It was probably the most anti-climactic championship I have ever been a part of. We were totally dominating but it was against competition that we should have dominated. To top it off the tournament had no trophy, plaque or medals for its champions- just a congratulatory hand shake from the tournament director. (The players did douse me with their water bottles, though.)
The kids were happy, I was happy for them. In a week our season will end with a rematch of our only loss- which came when we played down 1-3 players against them. Crazy to think that this discombobulated team could finish with two championships to show for our season of success and silliness!
This is our second year attending this tournament in Neenah. Last year we won our first game, played great for the first half of the second game (before folding in the second half) and laid the proverbial egg in our third game when the kids were absolutely gassed from playing three games in one day. This year we almost did not get to the tournament as our invitation was lost in the mail due to our school moving, but we got in this past week. The tournament director had to do a little division realignment to fit us in and we ended up in Division 5 (out of 5). Our division (of four teams) included two schools B teams (made up of 5/6th graders).
Our one day tournament, of course, got started off with some more drama. Our roster officially stood at 12 players on Friday. BUT, one was suspended from school Friday and another had Saturday morning detention- leaving us with 10. I attempted to recruit a player's cousin Friday night but he had a football game Saturday morning. Oh well- such has been our season. I arrived at our school at 6:30am to find two 6th graders already waiting for me. One was a defender, the other was a student I realized I had told could come to the tournament as a 'student manager' if he met me at the school at 6:30am. I open the door and he asks what he is going to be doing as a manager. I toss him a jersey and tell him he will be wearing this jersey with my shin guards playing fullback. That makes 11 strong.
Upon arriving at the tournament site, two of my players decided that they did not want to follow my directions earning one a 10 minute game suspension and the other a full game suspension. Our first game was against the first of the two 5/6th grade teams, so putting 9 on the field to start did not really hurt us as much as it limited what we could do- for a few minutes. We scored our first goal before I put one of the two guys with me into the game. Before halftime we would add another goal to take a 2-0 lead into halftime. The second half went just like the first, two goals for us and our keeper only touching the ball once. First game, 4-0 victory.
Our second game, two hours later, was against the other 5/6th grade team in our division. Right before the start of the game I had to bench another player for play fighting. She sat out most of the first half (even took off her cleats and put them away in her bag) before she changed her mind and attitude and got into the game. This team was physically even smaller than the first and it was clear right away that this was going to be a problem. Our players, without playing dirty, were knocking their players to the ground in almost every confrontation involving the ball and two or more players. Their coach was not happy about this and let the referee know it, a lot. But, there was not much the ref could do when most of the time the other players were knocked down because they were smaller.
The game played out eerily similar to our first. We scored two goals in the first half and our keeper touched the ball once. In the second half we scored two more, our keeper never touched the ball and our opponents' coach pulled his team off the field with 3 or so minutes left after another player went down. A very odd ending to say the least. The "good-game" line was easily the oddest I have ever been through as not one kid nor their coach offered a "good game" to anyone of us. Second game, 4-0 victory.
One more victory and we would be the Division 5 champions of the tournament. Our last opponent was not a 5/6th grade team but was a team having a 'rebuilding' year after a successful season last year with numerous 8th graders. Our kids' attitudes had not been helped greatly by all the winning and looking at our last opponents' stature (only 2 'big' kids), they were sure we would roll to a victory. The first half was the first time I thought maybe my kids were getting tired as we played our least inspiring soccer of the season. Yet, our goalie touched the ball only once and the score was 0-0 at half time.
The second half was an entirely different story all together. We scored 2 goals in the first four minutes of the half. Then we scored another 2 goals in the next 10 minutes. Once we get up four goals I change out my forwards and fullbacks. This time I also let my goalie come out and play in the field (He had done a LOT of standing around for the day and I felt he deserved the shot). The first time the ball came to him he dribbled it from our goalie box in and out of defenders up the entire length of the field and scored his first goal of the year! Clearly he had a lot of pent up energy that needed to be let out! Even moving our fullbacks up, pulling one player off the field and pulling other players over to the sideline to talk during the game could not slow us down as we scored 2 more goals to bring the total for the HALF to seven, final score 7-0.
We had scored 15 goals in three game and our goalie only touched the ball half a dozen times. It was probably the most anti-climactic championship I have ever been a part of. We were totally dominating but it was against competition that we should have dominated. To top it off the tournament had no trophy, plaque or medals for its champions- just a congratulatory hand shake from the tournament director. (The players did douse me with their water bottles, though.)
The kids were happy, I was happy for them. In a week our season will end with a rematch of our only loss- which came when we played down 1-3 players against them. Crazy to think that this discombobulated team could finish with two championships to show for our season of success and silliness!
5-1
Thursday's game was a re-play of an earlier game that got rained out- so, of course it was raining again all day. Not enough, though, to schedule a re-re-play. As the day wound down, it became evident, once again, that we would not have a full squad for the game. Having lost one player a week or so, I was able to recruit a former player to come out for the final week. But, we had a player still out with injury, two more in detention and one more who had an issue right at the end of the day that kept him from the game completely. This gave us 8 players, or one less then our last home game.
Our opponent had a full squad but most of their players were very small. Aside from a couple of players who could kick the ball a long way, they looked to be a team we could easily beat- if we had had a full squad. The start of the game was typical, the ball sailing back and forth both directions, neither team really getting anything going. It was clear to any casual observer that our team had less players, but our kids managed to get up and down the field enough to minimize the disadvantage.
Our referee was a friend of a friend who has played soccer his whole life, just never ref'd (before he ref'd our last game). The switch from player to ref is not necessarily an easy one. When I contacted him about helping us out, I told him that all he really had to do was watch off-side and throw-ins and he'd be okay.
With only 8 kids, if someone takes a break we could have serious problems. We faced such a time sometime after the first five minutes as our opponent mounted a semi-attack. They managed a decent pass across the front of the goalie's box to two guys who looked rather off-side. Our keeper charged them but their forward managed to get the ball by him and into the net. I let out an instinctive coach's cry, "Ah, he was off-side." There was a dramatic pause and then the ref (without a whistle) said, "Off-side." I was happy and a little uncomfortable all at the same time and I thought to myself, "He was off-side." and "We better win by more than one."
From that point forward, my rag-tag team did their best to fulfill my quiet wish. As I have said before, I have not figured out a way to get past my players' attitudes this year, but I also know no way to get more effort out of them- they can be amazing at times and this was one of those. With our three man disadvantage we basically sent everyone up when we attacked and everyone back when being attacked. We had three really good opportunities to score, but missed them all. Late in the first half, our best defender broke through their defense and scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-0, which remained the score into halftime.
In the second half we continued our attacks while stifling theirs. After a few minutes we got our another scoring opportunity when one of their fullbacks was called for a handball 10 yards outside of the box. Our previous goal scorer took the kick and launched a beautiful shot into the upper right hand corner of the goal to give us a 2-0 lead. The goal really took the life out of our opponent as we stayed on their side of the field for most of the remainder of the game. When they did get on our side of the field, they never really threatened to score.
With the victory we brought our season and conference record to 5-1. I would find out Friday that that secured our spot in second place in our conference's final standings. I also learned that the year end conference championship game at our local Lutheran varsity football field - which I thought was upper division champ vs. lower division champ, turned out to be upper #1 vs. #2 and lower #1 vs. #2. So, we get another shot at avenging our only loss of the season (played with 8, 9 and 10 players vs. 11). But before that comes our tournament in Neenah.
Our opponent had a full squad but most of their players were very small. Aside from a couple of players who could kick the ball a long way, they looked to be a team we could easily beat- if we had had a full squad. The start of the game was typical, the ball sailing back and forth both directions, neither team really getting anything going. It was clear to any casual observer that our team had less players, but our kids managed to get up and down the field enough to minimize the disadvantage.
Our referee was a friend of a friend who has played soccer his whole life, just never ref'd (before he ref'd our last game). The switch from player to ref is not necessarily an easy one. When I contacted him about helping us out, I told him that all he really had to do was watch off-side and throw-ins and he'd be okay.
With only 8 kids, if someone takes a break we could have serious problems. We faced such a time sometime after the first five minutes as our opponent mounted a semi-attack. They managed a decent pass across the front of the goalie's box to two guys who looked rather off-side. Our keeper charged them but their forward managed to get the ball by him and into the net. I let out an instinctive coach's cry, "Ah, he was off-side." There was a dramatic pause and then the ref (without a whistle) said, "Off-side." I was happy and a little uncomfortable all at the same time and I thought to myself, "He was off-side." and "We better win by more than one."
From that point forward, my rag-tag team did their best to fulfill my quiet wish. As I have said before, I have not figured out a way to get past my players' attitudes this year, but I also know no way to get more effort out of them- they can be amazing at times and this was one of those. With our three man disadvantage we basically sent everyone up when we attacked and everyone back when being attacked. We had three really good opportunities to score, but missed them all. Late in the first half, our best defender broke through their defense and scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-0, which remained the score into halftime.
In the second half we continued our attacks while stifling theirs. After a few minutes we got our another scoring opportunity when one of their fullbacks was called for a handball 10 yards outside of the box. Our previous goal scorer took the kick and launched a beautiful shot into the upper right hand corner of the goal to give us a 2-0 lead. The goal really took the life out of our opponent as we stayed on their side of the field for most of the remainder of the game. When they did get on our side of the field, they never really threatened to score.
With the victory we brought our season and conference record to 5-1. I would find out Friday that that secured our spot in second place in our conference's final standings. I also learned that the year end conference championship game at our local Lutheran varsity football field - which I thought was upper division champ vs. lower division champ, turned out to be upper #1 vs. #2 and lower #1 vs. #2. So, we get another shot at avenging our only loss of the season (played with 8, 9 and 10 players vs. 11). But before that comes our tournament in Neenah.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
4-1
On Tuesday, the weather was nasty... and so was the work day. It seemed that any and everything that could go wrong, did. On top of the work day, our game was in East Troy- 45+ minutes away from our school. And it was raining all morning. I called their coach at lunch and learned that they had not gotten the bad rain that we had, so the game was still on.
Next to none of our parents were able to get to school 30 minutes before dismissal to help get us to the game, so we had to borrow a 15 passenger van from a friend of the family of one of our teachers. The only thing he asked was that we pick up the van and put it back when we were finished. Not a big problem, except that the van was a good 20+ minutes from the school- and the guy we were borrowing it from took the wrong keys to work the day of the game. SO, I had to leave school around 1:15 to drive to the exit to his house (30+ minutes from school) to get the keys and then to pick up the van and then get back to school. I took two wrong turns during the process and got back to the school with the van at 3:00. We managed to get the team excused, dressed and into the van with little trouble and were on the road by 3:30ish.
The ride to the game was easy and we were driving towards the sunny skies and out of the rain and clouds. The team we were playing was actually made up of two schools without enough kids to field a team and had beaten one of our opponents by a far greater score than we had. That made me a little apprehensive about our odds.
When we arrived at the field the first thing I noticed was that the goals were really small. (It ended up that our goalie was as tall as the goals and had about 2 feet to either side after his arms were stretched out.) When we got on the field I noticed that the field was also small. It was clearly a U12 or U10 field, when this happened during past seasons I have coached we ended up playing 8-on-8 because 11-on-11 is really cramped on fields this small. But, alas, we played with full line-ups.
Our opponent had a decent goalie and one player who clearly plays outside of school. (I knew this because his skill level was above pretty much everyone on the field and because he was wearing his club team's jersey which happened to be the same color as his school team's jersey.)
Early on we did a decent job of keeping the ball on their side of the field, but the sheer numbers of kids around the ball at all times gave us little opportunity to shoot, let alone score. Meanwhile, our opponents got a decent attack going down our weakside of defense, got a sweet cross pass that our keeper put two hands on but lost it behind his head and a forward was there to poke it in to take the 1-0 lead. The rest of the half was congested soccer with no further shots for either team.
In our first two wins this year (and only loss) we fell behind 1-0, so it was a familiar place for us to be. I was a bit concerned about our chances due to the field issues, with a field this size (plus the strong winds going on), almost anything could happen.
We got our first goal a couple minutes into the second half when one of our girls playing forward finally got one of her toe-poke shots to slip past the keeper into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. A few minutes later, our leading goal scorer had a sweet shot that curved past the keeper to give us a 2-1 lead. From that point to the end, their best player was doing all he could to put shots on the goal from further and further out- having apparently lost all faith in his teammates to score. Our defenders had indentified his being their only real scoring threat and did enough to not give him any good looks. We had a couple more scoring opportunities, but nothing serious and held on to win 2-1.
After passing through the "good game" line, I learned from their coach that their only other loss was to the same team we lost to. This was frustrating for me, since it now looks like that team will win the conference championship (and our conference's spot in the Lutheran conferences championship next week) having defeated us 1-0 when we were playing down 1-3 players against them. I really, really wish I had told their coach our situation and asked them to play even up with us.
This team has really been a struggle this year for me. As I told them on Tuesday, I cannot complain about their effort- it is clear they are giving me all they have got. But our attitudes our keeping us from being even better than we are. They remind me of one of the sons in Jesus' parable about the father who asked his sons to go work in the field. The first said, "Okay" but never went. The second said, "N0", but then went and did the work. My team this year is the second son. Oh well, one more game and then our tournament to go.
Next to none of our parents were able to get to school 30 minutes before dismissal to help get us to the game, so we had to borrow a 15 passenger van from a friend of the family of one of our teachers. The only thing he asked was that we pick up the van and put it back when we were finished. Not a big problem, except that the van was a good 20+ minutes from the school- and the guy we were borrowing it from took the wrong keys to work the day of the game. SO, I had to leave school around 1:15 to drive to the exit to his house (30+ minutes from school) to get the keys and then to pick up the van and then get back to school. I took two wrong turns during the process and got back to the school with the van at 3:00. We managed to get the team excused, dressed and into the van with little trouble and were on the road by 3:30ish.
The ride to the game was easy and we were driving towards the sunny skies and out of the rain and clouds. The team we were playing was actually made up of two schools without enough kids to field a team and had beaten one of our opponents by a far greater score than we had. That made me a little apprehensive about our odds.
When we arrived at the field the first thing I noticed was that the goals were really small. (It ended up that our goalie was as tall as the goals and had about 2 feet to either side after his arms were stretched out.) When we got on the field I noticed that the field was also small. It was clearly a U12 or U10 field, when this happened during past seasons I have coached we ended up playing 8-on-8 because 11-on-11 is really cramped on fields this small. But, alas, we played with full line-ups.
Our opponent had a decent goalie and one player who clearly plays outside of school. (I knew this because his skill level was above pretty much everyone on the field and because he was wearing his club team's jersey which happened to be the same color as his school team's jersey.)
Early on we did a decent job of keeping the ball on their side of the field, but the sheer numbers of kids around the ball at all times gave us little opportunity to shoot, let alone score. Meanwhile, our opponents got a decent attack going down our weakside of defense, got a sweet cross pass that our keeper put two hands on but lost it behind his head and a forward was there to poke it in to take the 1-0 lead. The rest of the half was congested soccer with no further shots for either team.
In our first two wins this year (and only loss) we fell behind 1-0, so it was a familiar place for us to be. I was a bit concerned about our chances due to the field issues, with a field this size (plus the strong winds going on), almost anything could happen.
We got our first goal a couple minutes into the second half when one of our girls playing forward finally got one of her toe-poke shots to slip past the keeper into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1. A few minutes later, our leading goal scorer had a sweet shot that curved past the keeper to give us a 2-1 lead. From that point to the end, their best player was doing all he could to put shots on the goal from further and further out- having apparently lost all faith in his teammates to score. Our defenders had indentified his being their only real scoring threat and did enough to not give him any good looks. We had a couple more scoring opportunities, but nothing serious and held on to win 2-1.
After passing through the "good game" line, I learned from their coach that their only other loss was to the same team we lost to. This was frustrating for me, since it now looks like that team will win the conference championship (and our conference's spot in the Lutheran conferences championship next week) having defeated us 1-0 when we were playing down 1-3 players against them. I really, really wish I had told their coach our situation and asked them to play even up with us.
This team has really been a struggle this year for me. As I told them on Tuesday, I cannot complain about their effort- it is clear they are giving me all they have got. But our attitudes our keeping us from being even better than we are. They remind me of one of the sons in Jesus' parable about the father who asked his sons to go work in the field. The first said, "Okay" but never went. The second said, "N0", but then went and did the work. My team this year is the second son. Oh well, one more game and then our tournament to go.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
3-1
So far this year we have been somewhat fortunate that the craziness that is our soccer team has not overwhelmed us enough to bring about a loss on the field. On Thursday, our madness finally caught up with us.
We have had 13 players are on our roster this year. One was pulled by her parents this week, two were in detention Thursday until 5, and one more (our leading scorer) had a family obligation- leaving us with 9 players to start our game Thursday. (One of the detention players planned to make it to the game by half time.
Our opponent looked to be the best we had faced all year- which is to say that they had a couple players with strong legs and decent dribbling abilities. For the first 10 minutes of the game, we were able to withstand their attacks - despite their 2 man advantage - but could not get a serious attack of our own going. Then one of our fullbacks went down with an injury that he felt he could not play through- that left us with 8 vs. 11. Not much after that, our opponent snuck a ball past our goalie - playing an incredible game up to that point to take the lead 1-0, which is how the first half ended.
At half-time I convinced our injured fullback to just play the entire second half in the half circle that sits at the top of the large goalie box. (It's about 10 feet wide and three feet long.) He agreed that he could do that and off he went. A couple minutes into the half, we got back our best defended bringing us up to 10 v. 11. From there it was a ba-ttle. We did a decent job of answering their attacks with a couple of our own- only their attacks ended with great shots and ours lacked the shot part. Our goalie was playing out of his mind! (Or as they say in Canada during hockey games, "Standing on his head!" - I think I have that right.) It was easily the best middle school goal keeping I have ever seen- we should have found ourselves down 5-0 at the least, but we were still right in it at 1-0.
With around 5 minutes left we finally got our chance as our second leading scorer broke through the defense and was all alone with the opposing keeper... only he tried too hard to set up his shot and ended up nubbing it right to him. Frustrating! We never managed another shot and lost for the first time this season 1-0.
I was extremely proud of our kids for playing 10-9-and 8 on 11 and almost sending it into OT. (If we had gone to PK's again I KNOW we would have pulled it out!) For all the frustration that this team has given me this year, they really played their hearts out. Friday morning I was kicking myself for not approaching the opposing coach before the game to tell him our situation and seeing if he would mind playing equal line-ups, oh well.
Two games and a tournament to go- all next week. Let's hope we can keep 11 kids eligible and get them all to the remaining games!
We have had 13 players are on our roster this year. One was pulled by her parents this week, two were in detention Thursday until 5, and one more (our leading scorer) had a family obligation- leaving us with 9 players to start our game Thursday. (One of the detention players planned to make it to the game by half time.
Our opponent looked to be the best we had faced all year- which is to say that they had a couple players with strong legs and decent dribbling abilities. For the first 10 minutes of the game, we were able to withstand their attacks - despite their 2 man advantage - but could not get a serious attack of our own going. Then one of our fullbacks went down with an injury that he felt he could not play through- that left us with 8 vs. 11. Not much after that, our opponent snuck a ball past our goalie - playing an incredible game up to that point to take the lead 1-0, which is how the first half ended.
At half-time I convinced our injured fullback to just play the entire second half in the half circle that sits at the top of the large goalie box. (It's about 10 feet wide and three feet long.) He agreed that he could do that and off he went. A couple minutes into the half, we got back our best defended bringing us up to 10 v. 11. From there it was a ba-ttle. We did a decent job of answering their attacks with a couple of our own- only their attacks ended with great shots and ours lacked the shot part. Our goalie was playing out of his mind! (Or as they say in Canada during hockey games, "Standing on his head!" - I think I have that right.) It was easily the best middle school goal keeping I have ever seen- we should have found ourselves down 5-0 at the least, but we were still right in it at 1-0.
With around 5 minutes left we finally got our chance as our second leading scorer broke through the defense and was all alone with the opposing keeper... only he tried too hard to set up his shot and ended up nubbing it right to him. Frustrating! We never managed another shot and lost for the first time this season 1-0.
I was extremely proud of our kids for playing 10-9-and 8 on 11 and almost sending it into OT. (If we had gone to PK's again I KNOW we would have pulled it out!) For all the frustration that this team has given me this year, they really played their hearts out. Friday morning I was kicking myself for not approaching the opposing coach before the game to tell him our situation and seeing if he would mind playing equal line-ups, oh well.
Two games and a tournament to go- all next week. Let's hope we can keep 11 kids eligible and get them all to the remaining games!
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