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.