We put our field together on Saturday with my 19Us, and training starts today. High of 70 and mostly sunny. Here's to a better year than last. I recruited my team without being able to do an evaluation so this first week is going to be me and my assistant figuring out what we've got to work with. Our first game is a month away so we should have time to figure out how everyone fits together and start meshing these boys into a team.
I hate spring break, and it's extra frustrating that our schools' breaks are staggered and/or 2 weeks long. I can't just cancel training for one week. I have two weeks with only half the team available, and our games start the following week.
Took my kids to tennis this week as a cross training sport from soccer. One didn’t like it. They’ll only be going for a few more weeks until soccer starts—should I make the one that didn’t like it keep going? This was her first time. Or just find a different sport? In my mind, I like the contrast that it’s individual, non-invasion, and upper body, rotational, one-side dominant sport. Things she can’t get from soccer.
I'd at least have her give it another chance. Did she want to try it, or was this a "dad says" deal? If she wanted to try it, I'd be more inclined to have her stick it out through the end. If it was entirely your idea, have her go again and see if she reacts better to it this time. I'd not force it too much and risk turning her off to it for the rest of her life to spite you. Related, my 2017 starts soccer this spring. It's going to be interesting. Yesterday when we were over playing with her cousins, she told her aunt she hates soccer and only likes treats. Shrug.
haha. It was a clinic I signed them up for. Didn't give them much choice since, I think, they need exposure to other sports. It's pay-as-you-go so there's no commitment on our part at all. Soccer starts week of April 5, so it'll be done by next week. But, as you said, I don't want to turn her off for life from any sport.
I've had 1st practices with my youngest (1st grade boys) and oldest (HS girls- mostly juniors). It should be a fun season
We're finally past spring breaks, and I had my full 18 at training yesterday. It was great to be able to line them up like I expect to do for our first game on Thursday. I was pleasantly surprised with the cohesiveness I saw.
Practice 1 in the books. By all accounts it was a fun practice. Adding music while we train is the biggest new thing for this season. This season our overarching objectives are: improve defending as a group, and improve our ability to play the killer pass/through ball (behind the back line) One of the drawbacks of rondos is that all passes are to feet or near feet. They really had a hard time releasing our forwards into space. That's Thursday's topic. Yesterday, we worked on defending in pairs (pressure, cover and not chasing the ball). Worked on finer points like curving your approach, leaving an air gap between you and the attacker, worked covering defender positioning so we don't get split, moving your feet and not stabbing. Then we expanded later in practice to moving the whole defensive block, while still applying above principles. One down fifteen more to go.
We had our first game last night, a friendly against a neighboring club. I was happy with our first half, but we faded a bit as the second hand went on. It looked like we were mentally tired as much as physically. We lost our focus on our spacing and working to give our teammates options in the attack. We gave up a soft goal early in the second half and then struggled to retake control of the game from there. We managed to bundle in a scramble in the box to earn the 1-1 tie right at the end. Real games start Sunday...
6-0 win yesterday after a 2 hour drive. Obviously, that is a good way to start the league. It was great to be able to get my weaker players more playing time than they would usually expect. I have 3 players who are really green freshmen, but they're starting to pick up more and more as the season goes on.
Before game 1 we're already decimated by injuries. Then our starting GK takes a knee to the head at the end of the first half. We played well, but lacking punch up top. Lost 0-2. Which was a shame, our defense played really well. . Two goals we gave up were long bombs our short GK couldn't reach.
My second GK is 5'3" and very green. He gets to start tonight. We'll see how it goes, but I'm not super confident. There's only one way to learn though right?
Well, we gave up two goals, but one was a penalty, and the other was a sloppy play that should have been cleared before the shot was ever taken. I can't blame either of those on my GK. He made a few good saves, and his distribution was better than I expected. I'm comfortable with him playing against this level of opponent.
I'm a couple of weeks into my spring. 1st grade boys-- I lucked into adding another pretty talented player to my roster. It is fun group to coach. We've had a couple of games and practices and I do feel like I saw improvement week 1 to week 2. Biggest issue is on defense, they rush back towards our goal rather than trying to win the ball back. 2nd grade girls-- The downside to playing in masks is that we didn't necessarily end up in a division where games could be fairly balanced. Lots of decent technical skill but far to nice to the other team. I need to work with them on a bit of aggression and not watching what the other team is doing. HS girls-- I love this group. They play an incredibly nice passing game with lots of off-the-ball movement. We've had 2 games and both were significant blow-outs on our behalf. The amusing thing is that in each of them, we've had our typically non-scoring right back switch with an attacker for the last bit. In each game she has scored just before the final whistle (the one last week was her 1st goal since late elementary school). My goal with this group is to not break them
We won again on Saturday. Opponent had no subs and went down to 10 players after an injury. They held us to 2-0. I felt like they were a good team, and would have given us a lot of trouble if they didn't run out of gas playing a man down with no subs. Then yesterday they got waxed by a team we beat 6-0 last weekend. Another game in our league had an 8-6 score.
saw the kids make a concept breakthrough in training yesterday. We have a bye this weekend, gives me a bit more time to work on it some more. Concept has to do about playing it into space inside the penalty area. So far, if we make a pass in the box—it's to feet. This is the type of "trust" pass that is toward the endline that will go out for a goal kick if the teammate doesn't make a run for it.
My 19Us are now 4 games into the league, and we've got 4 wins with a 22-2 goal differential. My weaker freshmen are getting a ton of playing time, but I wish my first 11 were getting more of a challenge. I think we're going to be in for a rude awakening when our cup games start. This league continues to be nuts. Team A will beat Team B by 6, and then Team B will beat Team C by 6, and then Team C will beat Team A by 6. Our one close game was 2-0 over a team who showed up with 11 players and played a lot of the game a man down. Then their next game, they got thumped by 6 by a team we beat 6-0 earlier. I have no idea what to expect from any of these teams based on the results so far. I expected a tough game yesterday based on them winning their first game, but it was another blowout.
I'm here for a humble brag. I am no longer coaching. Spend most of my time on the referee side of things. I'm still seeing players I used to coach come through the system for a few more seasons. Yesterday I am AR'ing the club I used to coach at right in front of the team bench. This is a U-19 game with a few of my old U-12 players taking their last hurrah at club soccer this spring. As we are now in May, I was asking the ones I know about their college selection. The GK I used to train, when he took the occasion to show up to practice. Talented musician and theatre kid, as well, so soccer was not his life. He has been a decent player who got better as he got older but still prone to the hiccups he had back in the U-12 days. He is now like 6'2" maybe 160lbs tops. He's on the bench next to his coach while I'm facing the field. He tells me which school he is going to and I congratulate him on it because its a damn good school. Then he says "I'm playing soccer there." Not only does my jaw hit the floor, but the coach's jaw does too. He is going to play D-1 soccer. Not on a sport scholarship, but a helluva accomplishment.
1. Hopefully he can sti;l enjoy it with little expectation of playing time (by the sounds of it). 2. How did the coach not know that!?
My 19Us clinched our league championship yesterday with a 1-0 win over the best team we've played yet. Through 5 league games, we've still only given up 2 goals. My #1 GK has 4 clean sheets this season. I started this 19U team in 2018, and we'd only had 2 clean sheets total before this season. It's been a lot of fun coaching this team.
1. I am certain he will. Like I said, he is a talented kid outside of soccer, so this is almost like a bonus. Based on the his major I wouldn't be shocked if he walks away from the soccer in a couple of seasons. 2. I should clarify a bit. This is his club coach. Club teams have only been getting together in the past few weeks around here based on the restrictions, plus we had an abbreviated HS spring season that just ended due to COVID. As a fairly non-competitive team, this could have very well been one of the first few times they've been out this spring. Club coach is not his HS coach, who was aware and helped him get an intro to the college coach since he knows him (as do I from a past coaching training I attended a few years ago).
Second season as mostly u11s playing in u12. We have two u12s, one is a GK and the other is one of our less talented players. Just like last season, we are controlling play but having trouble generating goals. Teams are keeping 3 back in front of their goal. Logically, it makes sense. Last two seasons , we were laying ground work in being more of a possession team. This season, we didn’t have a proper season but fortunately have had two consecutive bye weeks, so we’ve spent a lot of time on the technical and tactical of scoring goals, generating chances, and getting shots. Just lots of Reps on shooting on goal n various formats, modeling/showing what success looks like. I’m curious to see how quickly they adopt it into a game format.
I felt like our training was getting stale lately so we switched it up and surprised the boys by playing rugby instead on Wednesday this week. I had 2 goals. First, break out of our training routine to freshen things up and have some more lighthearted fun. Second, do an activity where we could show some aggression and raise our intensity. I think the session was successful on both points, and we avoided any concussions or other injuries. Hopefully I can recall the aggression and intensity they played with on Wednesday for the start of our game Sunday.
I really enjoy watching rugby. Rained out this weekend, so it’ll be a month since our last competitive match. Training has been going mostly well but I worry we won’t be match sharp (not that we were before the “break”)
Our game got cancelled due to snow yesterday. On May 9. That was a first for me, a snow cancellation in May.