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.