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.

9-1 with Some Hardware!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

3-0

At the start of the season we had two games on the schedule for this past week, but one team's school never opened this year and the other game got rained out. We also lost a practice on Monday due to weather, so we had not actually played a lot of soccer since our last win. I was not really sure what to expect tonight other than difficulties and we had a few of those.

Two of our players (including our best defender) were ineligible for tonight's game and a third player was literally pulled from the team right after school when mom received a not-so-great phone call from school today. That left us with 10 players for the game. SO, nine piled in a parent's car, and my van and my wife's van (driven by my cousin who's our nanny for three days while Kate is gone). Our last player hopped in his dad's truck and left before we did, BUT we got to the game before he did.

We started the game - and played most of the first half - 11 v. 9, but you would not have known we were down 2 players the way we controlled the ball for the first 20 minutes. The downside to our crazy schedule/conference this year is that we have to drive 25+ minutes for games like this. The upside is that driving 25+ minutes pits us against some of the smaller schools with less kids (and smaller kids). Our opponent tonight could easily have passed for a U12 or U10 (without their goalie).

The field was also unlike any I have ever seen in that it had a mound right outside of the goalie box on one end that actually created a cliff with a gradual incline of a good foot or two. It made for some interesting attacks in the first half when we were going towards it. Playing down 2 players limited our offensive efficiency but we did manage to knock one through to take a 1-0 lead for the first time this year.

Right before halftime our 10th player (and one of our two leading goal scorers) showed up. At half time it was still 1-0. Our late arriving forward wasted no time in the second half making up for his absence, scoring twice in the first five minutes to push our lead to 3-0. From there I shuffled our line up a little to give some of our fullbacks an opportunity to get some shots on goal. One of our girls scored her first goal ever (and also our first goal scored this year not by our two forwards). A few other players got a LOT of good looks but missed every shot they took. I tallied somewhere near 20 shots that we put on goal.

Defensively, I gave our keeper 7 saves for the sevn balls that rolled up to his waiting arms. Not much excitement for him and our defenders, but otherwise a good moral booster for our team. Actually, a few kids are starting to get a tad bit cocky now that we are 3-0. I have tried to remind them that we have three conference games left in the next 9 days (against three schools larger than our previous opponents) and that we have not won anything yet, but there's not much you can do when you are dealing with pre-teen egos. For now though, we are enjoying the longest win streak in our school's two year history of having soccer.

2-0

This afternoon/evening was one of those games that make me wonder why I coach middle school soccer and then later reminded me why.

If you are going to coach middle school soccer in the city, you have to understand that half the battle is getting the team to the game- and tonight was a battle. During the winter our Lutheran "Super Conference" has four divisions divided by school sizes and locations. With soccer there are only two divisions, which is nice because we are in the "small" schools division- but the small schools are all from the suburbs. Tonight's game was in Brookfield, a 30 minute drive.

Of the 12 players present and eligible for tonight's game, only 4 had rides planned- one had a doctor's appointment and was to meet us at the game. Not necessarily a problem because my van can hold 6 and my wife's van 2. BUT, one player's dad thought he was supposed to pick his son up at the time the game actually started, so he ended up climbing in my van and making it a bit tight for the ride there. Not much traffic, but a lot of stoplights and stop signs- which is enough to drive me crazy driving a van full of middle schoolers wondering if we're going to be late or not.

When we arrived we had time for about 5 minutes of warm-ups, but our kids do not understand our simple two-pass-shot warm-up routine yet and our keeper put his keeper jersey on backwards and the three kids getting rides to the game were missing. 2 managed to show up and we started the game 10-on-10. (Our conference plays 20 minute halves which is really silly- I am used to 30 minute halves and 25 minutes for tournament games, when you are playing more than one game in a day.)

The first 10 minutes were full of "bee-hive" soccer. (My mom and dad coined this phrase when I played grade school soccer because it was easy to find the ball- it was surrounded by several kids moving like a bunch of bees.) A few minutes later our opponents scored the first goal on a pretty decent shot from far out that slipped over the outstretched arms of our keeper who has a particularly long wing span. We had a couple legit attacks, but could not get anything serious going and thus trailed 1-0 at half time. We switched keepers at half time to the keeper that started our last game partly because that was my plan at the start of the season and partly because he was pretty bummed about giving up the goal. This turned out to be my best coaching decision of the night.

In the second half both teams traded decent attacks with our few shots ending up off target and their few shots ending up being stopped in great and not-so-great ways by our keeper. Almost 10 minutes in though we finally broke through and our 6th grade forward scored his second goal of the season to even it up at 1-1.

The final 10 minutes were a classic middle school stalemate. A lot of tired kids kicking the ball everywhere and nowhere all at once. The game ended in a tie and the home coach opted for one 5 minute overtime (as opposed to two). Those five minutes did nothing as neither team could get even a shot off. So we needed penalty kicks (PK's) to decide the victor.

I was excited because I had prepped our keeper to understand that on penalty kicks in regulation the keeper must stay on the goal line, but in shoot out PK's the keeper can come off the line and charge the shot. So I selected our 5 shooters and sent our keeper off ready to charge the first two kicks and fake on the third. Then the referee told my keeper he cannot come off the line. That stunk, but we had a shoot-out to win.

They shot and scored their first PK and so did we. They missed their second... and so did we. They made their third, we missed our third. They missed their fourth... and so did we. Their fifth kick bounced off the top post, off our keeper's head and out. Our fifth kicker was/is probably our most even keeled kid- never gets emotional, ever. He calmly approached the ball and put it deep in the lower corner of the net to tie the PK's at 2 and send us to a second round of 3 PK's.

These 3 had to be 3 new players so now we were down to three kids who have never played soccer before. It seemed that our opponent was in the same predicament. We now shot first and hooked it left... so did they. Our second shooter (a left footer) hooked it right, they shot it over the cross bar. Our third kicker- my biggest attitudinal issue thus far this season - came through with a shot the fooled the keeper. As our keeper headed out I told our team to make sure they piled on him after he won the game for us. Turned out he did not need to be all that ready as their third player missed the goal entirely- but our kids still piled on him to celebrate our second victory in as many games this season.

The good news about winning two out of two so far is that I have been able to challenge the kids to imagine how much better we could be if we: didn't complain about laps, fight with Coach over drills, started listening to the coaching Coach does in practice. I think the kids feel good about themselves (as rightfully they should) and I would like to think they might be coming around to understanding why Coach does what he does in practice.

1-0

On the way to tonight's game, one of my players commented that last night's practice was a "perfect practice"! This was a very telling remark since yesterday all we did was scrimmage so that I could take one more chance to teach positioning and responsibilities to our players.

We had 12 eligible players (permission slip/waiver and athletic fee paid and parent meeting attended), which worked out great because our opponent (who started the year with 10 players) had only 8 in school today due to illness.

Playing 8-on-8 was a little screwy as it erases three players from the line-up and essentially did away with mid-fielders for us. Even though I had to do a lot of "reminding" about where to be and what to do, our kids seemed to have a decent idea of what they were doing.

Our "home" field is regulation size and we bought corner flags and official nets marking the first game we have ever played with a fully equipped field! It looked great. A couple stats that I would love to track - but never could since there is only me to keep stats - are time of possession of each team and time spent on each half of the field. I am sure if I could have tracked those stats we would have dominated in time of possession and time spent on our opponent's side of the field.

With 8 players we opted for a 4-1-2 formation (4 fullbacks, 1 sweeper and 2 forwards). Of course this formation morphed (at times early in the game) into a 2-1-4 (4 forwards) and I had to "remind" our center fullbacks they were not forwards.

The first moment of excitement came about half way through the first half when their forwards mounted the first of maybe only 4 attacks in the whole game. Our fullbacks met them outside of the goalie box, got tuned around somehow and passed the ball back towards our keeper. We were on the east side of the field (staring into the sun) and I thought I saw the other team kick it and told our keeper to pick it up. Oops- can't do that. So they got an indirect penalty kick just inside the goalie box. Our fullbacks actually did a good job of setting up our wall (we only talked about this once, just yesterday) but their player hit a remarkably good shot that went over our wall and just under the crossbar. Kind of a bummer but not enough to dampen our spirits- too much.

We got the equalizing goal within a few minutes on an all-out attack by our forwards, sweeper and 1 or 2 fullbacks. Halftime 1-1.

In the second half we switched keepers to see how our other keeper would do... and never got to see him even touch the ball. In fact, our two fullbacks we were keeping back to defend barely moved at all and we subbed two rotations through those positions with NO action. About midway through the second half we broke through their defense, got a good shot on goal that their keeper got to but did not wrap up. Instead the ball shot straight up, came down off his back and into the goal to give us the 2-1 lead.

The rest of the game we kept the ball on their end of the field. I think the ball only crossed the midfield line 2 or 3 times the entire half. Our kids were pretty tired and excited about the win. I believe (or at least hope) that they learned a few things:

1. Coach was right when he told them how tired they would be from all the running and thus, trust him when he asks them to run laps at practice.

2. Coach was pretty much right when he told them where to be to get to the ball and get in on the action.

I only had to deal with one bad attitude all game, otherwise I think everyone realized how much fun they were having and how much we have to learn and to improve on. Practice tomorrow and then another game Thursday, on the road. But for now, we are the first 1-0 soccer team HOPE has ever had!

Week Three

With the holiday Monday, we only had three practices this week which leaves us one practice (next Monday) before our first game. It should be very interesting.

Our three practices brought our total of players-that-have-been-to-at-least-one-practice up to 18 or so now. However, we have only been able to get 10 at the most to any practice. By the end of the week we were spending at least 30 minutes on offense v. defense. (On our fenced in lot this means setting up cones 24 ft apart in front of the chain link fence and hoping no one kicks it over the fence, but at least twice a practice it happens. Behind the fence is a miniature jungle of weeds. More fun!)

I have learned three things from our mini-scrimmages: 1. Everyone wants to play goalie 2. No one wants to be on defense 3. No one knows anything about positioning, spacing, attacking, defending, etc, etc, etc (Except for one sixth grader who continually schooled his teammates and got shots on goal almost at will!)

I really have no idea what we will look like next Tuesday other than our jerseys and field are all set. I ordered corner flags and nets (along with 6 new balls - so I don't have to pump up four of our "ghetto" balls every practice only to find them flat by the end of practice - and new goalie gloves). When the packages arrived I learned that I had ordered only 1 soccer net (who sells single soccer nets?) and that it was fit for an A-frame (who knew there were multiple kinds of soccer goals?).

This afternoon I drove out to an actual goal manufacturer (where I should have started) and bought an official net set along with some velcro to keep the nets up and take them down easily (since we will be playing our "home" games at a city park this year).

I am confident that I know I have two forwards picked out and that I have two 8th graders I plan on playing one half each until one shows he deserves the spot. The rest of the line-up will be up for grabs by the kids who... A) show up and B) show me they want the spot.

This week was a real struggle for me since I spent all day (as a dean of students for K4-2nd and 6th-8th grade students) working with upset kids and then my soccer team (made up of many of the same kids along with kids who have never played soccer or been on a team) is not sure they want to run my drills and function as a team. This season may be my most challenging yet... the adventure takes a new turn next Tuesday..!

We are still in need of a little financial support. Any gift (of any size) you will receive a team picture. Any gift $50+ and you will get a team t-shirt.