An Unfitting End to a Good Season

Our conference championship game today had about as much build-up hype as you can get for middle school season. Going back to the start of last season and up until today, our record was 19-2. Both losses were to today's opponent. Last year we got revenge on our only loss with a victory in the championship game. This year it turned out a little different...

Last weekend we rolled through three opponents on our way to a repeat championship at a tournament in Neenah (WI). This past week of practice was decent, but not great. Each day we were missing key players due to homework, ride or attitudinal reasons. Due to all of that, I was going to have to shuffle my line-up around to reward the faithful players who were at practice all week (and all year) and penalize those that missed this week (and all year). My plan was to put my best foot backward- by having my best players play defense for the first half and then move them back to their normal positions in the second half for our attack- and it almost worked.

The game was played at the local Lutheran high school so we were on a regulation high school field- translation: MUCH bigger than middle school kids are used to playing on. We spent the majority of the first half fighting off their attacks and never really even got one attack going. They missed a couple point blank shots and our keeper was playing very aggressive and we looked to be right where I wanted us to be until the 19:30 mark (each half is 20 minutes) when they finally snuck one past our keeper to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.

I had 3 players not make it to the game and 1 player who made it at half time without any socks. SO, while my plan to lay back had worked for one half, I did not have the players I needed to get our best line-up on the field for our second half push. We decided to stick with the plan but to give our normal forwards (now playing fullback) more freedom to attach when we got a push going. It ended up not mattering as they scored four times in the first 7 minutes of the half and then once more before the 12 minute mark to explode to a 6-0 lead, which would be the final score.

We ended up not even getting one legit shot on goal and our kids were tired and frustrated- which is understandable. In our 10 wins this season, we outscored teams 49-4. In our two losses (both to the same team), we were outscored 12-2. We were vastly superior to ever opponent we played but one- who was vastly superior to us. There was not much to say to the kids other than to hold their heads up because we were a good soccer team this year and we brought home hardware to put up at school twice (our of two opportunities).

Next year we bring back several players who played several minutes this year, including one of our very good forwards. We also bring back one of our main fullbacks but will need to fill the rest of the spots on defense and in goal. We look like we are in good shape to keep our new tradition of excellence going.

10-1 With A Repeat Championship

Today we played at a tournament in Neenah which had 20 teams divided into 5 divisions. Two years ago we were in Division 4 and won only one game. Last year we were in Division 5 and easily won all three of our games to take first place. This year we were back up in Division 4 (though I requested Div 3 if there was room) and the results were still the same as they were last year.

We scored quickly in our first game and rolled to a 5-1 victory. One of our seventh grade girls got her first goal of the season on a rebound shot that was fairly exciting.

Our second game was against our sister school from back here in Milwaukee. Each year they graciously invite us to ride their bus with them in the tournament. Two years ago we got of the bus and immediately played them (and won), this year they gave us each a game before our match-up. We played this team earlier this season when they only had their 5th and 6th graders present. This time they had some of their older players present, but the result was the same as we ran away with the game 6-0.

Our third game's opponent split their two games with our other opponents (the tournament was a round robin) and did not put up much resistance as we won 6-1. Their lone goal came we our keeper caught a shot and then rolled it right to their forward who lolli-popped it over his head for the score. We got another score from another seventh grade girl in this game as well.

Overall, our spacing and passing was as good as it has looked all season. We had countless beautiful passes (and corner kicks) from the wings right on goal that we just missed (when we weren't nailing them into the back of the net). Our defense was tight, the only saves that our keepers made were balls that rolled up to them or they ran out to pick up- nothing serious the whole day.

We look like we're finally "getting it" and with one week to go in the season and before our rematch against our only loss of the season for the conference championship, we appear to be peaking at the right time. Although, we still need to get through a week of school and practices first...

Back to What We Do Best

Tonight's game was our most important of the season. Lose and our season ends this Saturday with an all-day tournament in Neenah. Win and our season is extended by one week so that we can have a rematch with the only team to beat us so far this year.

Before the game, however, the drama of coaching middle school sports resurfaced. Of our 19 player roster, two players have not been to a practice or a game in several weeks now. 5 more players were in after-school study hall (mandatory after missing enough assignments). This left us with 12 players and needing to start another new player in goal.

To add to this, 24 minutes before the start of the game I remembered that my ref for the game told me last week that he would not be able to ref tonight's game. I'd like to say that this is one of the reasons I keep my whistle and stopwatch in my car and an extra uniform and shorts at every game, but it just ended up being fortunate I had these things. So- for the second time in three years- I was referee for my own team's game.

This opponent, much like several of our opponents this year, had to dip all the way down to 4th graders to field a team. But they had several girls who looked like they have played before and, probably, the best individual player we have played against this season.

Our opponent came out in a very odd formation of goalie + 4 defenders back, a huge empty space, and then 6 forwards. This lead to us getting several attacks early with a lot of momentum behind them, but our shots were off target or their keeper made some nice saves. Eventually, though, we broke through with a couple goals near the 5 and 10 minute mark of the first half. We held off their two strongest attacks to lead 2-0 at half time.

We started the second half off scoring in the first minute and then again a few minutes later on a beautiful upper-90 goal from our 8th grade forward. Then we switched up our lines to give our girls another shot at some offensive action. While they got a couple good looks, it was a 6th grade boy who knocked in our 5th and final goal. The last 5 or so minutes was back and forth in the middle until the clock ran out and we won, 5-0. This secures our second place finish and a place in the conference championship game for the second straight year.

Based on our first encounter with regular season champ, we will have to prepare better than we have so far this year and play our best soccer - which I do not feel we have done yet. Hopefully, three games in one day on Saturday will better prepare us for the rematch.

6-1

Today's game was actually a scrimmage against a split-school (2 schools combining) team in our basketball conference that was too late to get into our soccer conference this season. Their home field was normal width but very short, so we played 9 v. 9 (I was hoping to play 8 v. 8).

Small fields like this always make me nervous, since the size of the field neutralizes our speed and always helps the less talented team. (Especially when every goal kick and punt by the goalie has the chance to get to the other goalie box!)

The game started out slow and congested, nothing really to worry about nor was there anything to get excited about. Our opponent actually struck first scoring in the 6th minute on our third string goalie. (Our main goalie missed practice this week due to homework issues and did not come to the game, our back-up goalie also missed practices for homework, did show up at the game but did not want to play goalie. Our third string keeper actually asked me to give him a shot in goal, so this game made sense to give him a chance.)

Giving up the goal must have upset our kids as we scored three straight goals over the next 10 minutes to take a 3-1 half time lead. We added another score on a Penalty Kick early in the second half and then- with all new line-ups in- we finally got a goal from one of our girls, who has been missing by inches for a couple weeks now on all of her shots. The final score was 5-1.

This week we play on Tuesday and a win secures our spot in the conference championship game. Hope Monday's practice is well attended and focused, at this point of the season we cannot afford to have small, lazy practices.

A Few Firsts

The good...

Saturday we picked up another win (4-1) including the first hat-trick (3 goals by one player) of the season. Our opponent only had 10 players so we played 10 v. 10 and had numerous attacks on the goal early and often that fell short, or wide, or right to their goalie. We did manage, however, to score three times before half time. To start the second half, we shuffled up our line-up to get our all-girls attack going again. With that line-up we managed a couple good strikes, but no goals to show for it. Later in the half one of our forwards recorded his third goal of the game to secure the win for us.

The bad...

About half way through the second half our fullbacks (playing too far forward) let an attack through and our keeper was about 6 inches away from a save and - unfortunately - allowed the first goal of the season against us. Final score: 4-1

The ugly...

Tonight we played the other undefeated team in our conference (who also happens to be the only team to beat us last year- but whom we defeated in the conference championship game) and we played flat. We gave up a goal within the first 5 minutes but battled back to even the game scoring before the 15 minute mark. We were not able to get many good attacks going and our defense was kept very busy and unfortunately allowed another goal one minute before halftime.

Trailing 2-1 was not a big deal, but giving up two quick goals in the first 5 minutes of the second half was. Shortly after that we gave up a goal on a Penalty Kick that our keeper made a great save on- only he was standing six inches behind the goal line. Our opponent scored a couple more for good measure before we managed one more goal before falling 6-2.

The silver lining...

We were the first team this year to score on this team and we scored twice. AND - if we win our last conference game (next week) we will get a rematch in the conference championship game.

This is probably (hopefully) one of those "good times" to lose as it helped our kids get a better picture of just how good we really are and how much we need to and can still improve in our last 2+ weeks of the season. Our kids were already talking about wanting to play this team again, hopefully they will back that up with some hard work the next couple of weeks.

Another Shut-out (And Another Win)

Monday's practice we had several players missing either due to unresolved homework issues, forgetting their gear at home or just not feeling like coming to practice. The players we did have show up worked hard and it felt like we got a few things accomplished. The highlight of the practice was when some guy driving through the alley next to our land leaned out his window with a huge grin on his face and yelled out his window, "Y'all's playing...uh...football and you needs ta play soccer... uh...wait... y'all playing soccer and..." and then he was too far away to finish his ribbing.

Tuesday we loaded up in four cars and got to our closest park for some full field practice, this time missing less players. We are still struggling to use our time wisely, but it appears we are starting to learn enough to help us grow as a team.

We took the day off on Wednesday.

Thursday was our first away game of the season and - like all away games in middle school sports - getting the whole team to the game was half the battle. In the last 10 days I sent home the directions for tonight's game twice and I still had at least four parents show up at school to follow me to the game. The Mapquest directions we a tad bit confusing but ultimately got us to two blocks away from the field, close enough to see the field and figure out how to get there. We only lost a couple cars from our caravan on the way- which was enough to shrink us to 9 players at kick-off. BUT- as we ran out to start the game, two of our players ran to the sideline and before halftime we had 6 subs. (It turned out that we had played at this field two years ago against a different opponent and I had flashbacks of having trouble finding the field then as well.)

The discombobulation of our warm-ups contributed to our slow start. We got a couple good attacks early but nothing serious, while our defense actually allowed our goalie to see some early action for a change. Once we settled down, our forwards locked in and we scored three goals in the final 15 minutes of the first half to lead 3-0. One of the goals was off of a corner kick (something we spent a lot of time working on this week) where our player kneed the ball off of one bounce into the back of the net.

We scored a fourth goal two minutes into the second half and then I switched up our line-up to again move all of our girls up front to attack. Just like the last time we did this, our most aggressive girl got two great looks at the goal but missed twice, inches off from scoring each time.

So, we now sit at 4-0 on the season (3-0 in conference play), having outscored our opponents now 18-0. This Saturday we play a conference foe who is usually one of the top teams in the conference and then on Monday we play the best team in the conference (our only loss last year and the team we beat in the championship). Come Tuesday morning, we will know for sure if we really are as good as our record and our scores indicate thus far.

Still Rolling

We had two conference games this week, but before those games we had to get through quite possibly the worst soccer practice I have ever been a part of as a coach. I don't know if our players were overcome by all that is Monday, if we were full of ourselves for having won so easy the previous week or if the weather was changing but there were way too many poor attitudes and missing players to accomplish much. After "surviving" Monday's practice I was not sure what to expect at Tuesday's game.

Our opponent actually got to our home field before us and as soon as we saw them it was apparent that they were a small team. Small- as in needing to dig down to the 4th grade to field 10 kids. We agreed to play with 10 kids on our side and scored 3 goals in the first 5 or so minutes. We moved our line-up around and subbed in some younger players and scored once more before halftime. In the second half we moved all of our girls up front and they attacked with reckless abandon- but were unable to punch one through, although they did have several shots barely miss. We picked up one more goal to finish with a 5-0 victory.

Thursday's opponent was a tad bigger school with a couple bigger players (including one that our players thought was a coach - oh the irony). The first half we had numerous scoring opportunities foiled by offside calls (legitimate calls) and some good goalkeeping by their big guy. We did manage one goal to hold a 1-0 lead at halftime. The second half it took about ten minutes for our forwards to finally get their act together and score twice to put us up 3-0 with 15 minutes to go. Within 5 minutes we added our last goal and then switched up our line-up to get other kids a shot at scoring, but were unable to get another goal (though we had a couple great chances including a shot off the post). Our goalie (who never touched the ball in our first game and got three saves/touches in the second game) finished with 6 saves and had a great move rushing at a forward and causing him to wildly miss another shot.

So, we are 3-0 and 2-0 in conference and it appears our schedule is getting harder as we go, which is a good thing. We are learning some good things about spacing and using teammates, but still have a lot of room for improvement.

Off To A Good Start

Our first game of the year tonight was against our closest and "fiercest" rival. When I first got hired at HOPE and started coaching, my principal told me that all I had to do was beat this school. We have played twice in basketball (both of which we won) and once in soccer two years ago (which we also won). Tonight, we kept our streak in tact.

But first we had a small scare with our uniforms. Earlier last month I had numbers screen printed on the back of our jerseys and the turn-around was so quick that I thought we might have enough time (if the funds came in) to get our school name screen printed on the front. When we had several generous donations come in, I took the jerseys in and was told they would be ready two days before our game. Having not heard from the company yesterday, I called to ask how they were doing. A salesperson fielded my call, put me on hold a couple times, then assured me they were in production, then asked what time the game started the following day, then assured me they would be done by Noon today. To their credit, they had them done by 10am, so I was able to step out of school briefly to pick them up without any fanfare.

After two and a half weeks of practice I felt so-so about how we would look as a team. We have pretty much figured out how to get the whole team to a local park once a week for a practice on a full field and we ran through situations (ie. kick-offs, goal kicks, corner kicks and free kicks) once- so we were about as ready as we could be for such an early contest.

Upon greeting the other team's coach I quickly learned that their 7th and 8th graders were not present due to a school camping trip they do every fall. (This would explain why their team looked MUCH smaller than ours.) Needless to say, I was a tad less excited about what I would learn from the contest.

After needing to restart the opening kick-off three times before it was done correctly, we wasted no time in scoring our first goal just 37 seconds into our young season. Our second goal followed the first just over a minute later. We then needed nearly three more minutes to score our third goal, after which I subbed out our two primary goal scorers.

This sub slowed our offense down enough to limit us to just one goal over the last 15 or so minutes of the first half. Though our defense never let our opponents even get the ball near the goalie's box, let alone near the goal.

In the second half I moved some of our lines around and left our best players next to me as our younger kids got a chance to do a lot of running. Late in the second half we snuck one more goal past their keeper to give us the final margin of 5-0.

Overall, our defense was great as our goalie never even touched the ball. Our spacing was pretty good as I got a small picture of who will get the most minutes on defense. Our main half back was pretty good in covering the field left-to-right and north-and-south.

The kids were pretty jazzed as were the numerous teachers and students who made it to the game. I might get around to telling them they beat 5th and 6th graders if they come to school tomorrow talking smack. Either way, we start of our second consecutive season with a win.

Week Two

Monday and Tuesday we saw our roster grow from 9 to 13 to 17! Suddenly our little plot of land that has been serving as our practice field (while we search and pray for a van) was feeling a little cramped. On Tuesday we attempted to shuttle our team to a local field to get some drills in on a full field with goals and nets. While it was nice to get onto a full field, we lost nearly 40 minutes of practice time en route (20 minutes before and after practice to take two trips to and back to get all the kids there). Hopefully, we can get a few parents to volunteer vehicles to get out squad to this park once a week for practice.

Wednesday we had players from the Milwaukee Wave (our local pro indoor team) running practice...

Thursday we ran some drills and then went through positions for our first game next Thursday. Then we scrimmaged a little to go over how each player should be moving during a game at their position.

We are probably not really ready for next week's game, but no team really is at this point of the season. Offensively we are set and it looks like we have our goalie set as well. All that lies between our forwards and goalie will be our biggest question that needs to be answered.

Week One

We started our 2010 season off with two practices before school started and had seven kids at each practice. These were the players who either responded to the postcards I sent out or picked up the soccer info when they registered for the new school year. Of those seven, we lost two who were not actually registered students at our school- but picked up a couple returning 8th graders and by Thursday (our last practice day this week) we had nine players who look to stick it out. We should pick up another six or so players on Monday after I went to all of our middle school classes the last two days of the week to recruit.

A few things I know so far...
1. We have got to get to another park to practice. Our school built our present building just last year with a fairly large, fenced in "field" next to it to be used for future expansion. We planted grass in early August last year, but recess and our practices pretty much gave the grass no shot at growing strong.

This year we are adding on an addition that will not be done until the first week of October and the building crew and their gear has taken up nearly 85% of our "field". That leaves us with about a 20 yd x 80 yd portion of mostly dirt terrian on which to practice. Plenty of bumps and mini-holes that make dribbling difficult. Hopefully, between my new assistant coach and I we can transport our kids a couple times a week to a nearby park to get some real practice in.

2. We are going to be solid on offense. This year's squad has last year's two best goal scorers (who are now 7th and 8th graders) and we have picked up a 6th grader who appears to have played a little before this year. Both returning goal scorers appear to have played since last year and look to be better- so we should be able to score some goals this year.

3. We may have our goalie figured out. At the end of Thursday's practice I decided to make a goal using our flag poles and the fence around our land that has trees and bushes hanging over the top making it nearly impossible to kick the ball over the fence (I say nearly because one player managed to get a ball over). After starting the drill in goal I turned the gloves over to an 8th grader who really wanted to try out goalie. Once I explained to him the basic idea and that he cannot be afraid of the ball or getting hurt, I sent him in. He immediately came out aggressive- diving for balls and charging offensive players causing several shots to be hurried and off-target. I am eager to get him in a real goal this week and see if he keeps it up. If we learned anything last year, it was that a great goalie can take a team a long way.

Our first game is over a week away, so at this point I am pleased with where we are. Hopefully in the next week we pick up some players, get to a park and start to build some momentum for the start of our game schedule.

FC Fortis 2010

We begin our title defense of our 2009 LAA Lower Division Championship this Monday. We will return about 6 or so players off of last year's squad but only a couple played significant minutes or made significant contributions on last year's squad. Our biggest strength this year will be that we bring back over 2/3 of our goals scored last season in our two forwards (now a 7th and an 8th grader). The core of our dominating defense from last yeaer all graduated so we'll have to raise up a new goalie and strong fullbacks.

Our schedule this year is bigger as we picked up three non-conference games in addition to our six conference games and one out-of-town tournament. Our practice field at our school has been reduced by almost 80% due to a small addition to our building. There is still enough room to work out, but no much. There are numerous soccer fields within a 3 mile radius of our school (all with goals and nets) if we had the means of getting our kids to them (ie. a 15-passenger van)- but until we see that happen we will more than gladly make due with the luxury and convenience of walking out our school's back door right onto our fenced in field.

Hopefully, our school's running tradition of a stud 8th grade athlete transferring in continues, but if not I am sure that this year's Tigers will make the season a memorable one.