A couple of things from the weekend. I'm tired of of my 2nd grade girls playing against teams where the super-fast kid scores 6 other kids on that team score 2, my team score 2. At some point coaches need to work on getting them to pass. That being said, I'm really proud of how my girls played yesterday. They were making good decisions on spreading out and making passes. We still need to work on shape but there are only 2 weeks left in the season. My 1st grade boys won in a blowout. It was 3-0 and half and I gave them the sportsmanship speech about what they needed to if they scored again and also told 2 of them their job was to pass the ball to other players. After our 5th goal, I told them if we scored again, I didn't want to see any big celebration. When we scored again, one of the boys started to do a big yell, and another one said "we aren't doing that now." I was proud of him for showing leadership. Day ended with the worst refereed game I'd seen in awhile, we got about 50% of the out of bounds calls wrong, called zero fouls and called a couple of weird handballs.. It was one of those ties that feels like a loss.
Chaos league struck again on Saturday. We tied our final league game... 8-8. My weaker players started the game and played a ton of minutes so I expected it to be more of a fight than it should have been, but even when I rotated my regulars in, we couldn't figure out how to stop their 10 who was really good about playing between our lines. It was super frustrating to watch. I'd explain exactly what was happening, and the guys would nod like they knew what to do, and the kid would still get the ball unmarked again. Sunday's game was our first cup game, and it was against a premier division team. We bounced back from Saturday and kept it respectable losing 2-0. Overall I felt like that was as good a result as we could have expected against those guys. 2 more cup games this weekend to determine whether we make it out of our group. If not, golf season starts next week.
My HS girls just won their league today with a game to play. They've won 5 and tied 2. They are an amazing group of girls that play well together and seem to like each other. Apparently there is a super-active team chat.
Don't think I've shared this. I'm letting my 1st grade boys go after this season. I'm dropping them in favor of a kindergarten girls team that I will co-coach with a friend that I started coaching with in the fall of 2012. Her daughter will be in kindergarten this fall, and we've joked for years that I was going to coach her when she got this age.
Today was a nice "check for understanding" day. Girls put the other team to the sword today without breaking a sweat. 5 pass sequences were common, back passes to maintain possession, switching sides. It was good stuff. Question is what to work on next. Building blocks are there, we just need to have our actions sharper/faster.
Our U8 somehow got matched with a U10 team. We are mostly 6 and 7 yr olds. They are mostly 9 yr olds. Big physical difference. I want to ask the league to force U10 team to forfeit. I don't see how it's fair when you have kids that are almost double in body weight (and they push a lot on top of it). Would I be reasonable in seeking this?
Spring season is in the books. HS girls had to forfeit because we only has 5 available players at the start of the game due to the SATs. 1st grade boys won pretty convincingly and 2nd grade girls had a moral victory and played better soccer. Looking over the season, I think the 1st grade boys showed the most growth as a team and are all playing great soccer. It is sort of shame that I'm not coaching them in the fall.
Here is what I shared on social media about the season: The 1st grade boys learned how to play as a team and has some kids with the best skills I've ever seen. The 2nd grade girls have gone all in my teaching about what soccer should look like while not giving a darn about results. Their free kick goal today was a thing of beauty. The HS girls are the most dominant team I've ever coached. My goal with them is to give them the space to do what they are capable of. They won their divisio
I always ask my 19Us about conflicts before our league scheduling meetings and have parents sign off on their lists with them. Track meets, SAT/ACTs, quinceneras, Mother's Day, and whatever else. If there's a weekend date they won't be available to play between spring break and early June, I need to know about it.
Our league went to a strict "no rescheduling" game policy a couple of years ago, with 500+ teams it became unmanageble to sort through requests.
I complained above that we (U8) played a U10 team. So we just played that same club's U8 team and we won 15-0. But we lost to their U10 team 1-10 the week prior. Interesting how much variance there is. I guess in retrospect we held up pretty well against the U10.
After a slow start, mostly due to a non-existent preseason where most of the kids had not played from Nov-Mar, we are hitting our stride. We had a month lull without matches due to weather and scheduling quirks so we had our "preseason" then. Last three matches 3-0, 18 for, 1 against (a silly keeper mistake). The caveat is, while they played as we wanted them to: playing good soccer, moving the ball well, etc, the teams we played weren't very good. We have a tough tests tomorrow and coming up in the tournament, so curious to see what's what. I want to see if they can play our system against more athletic competition.
The last thing on my spring 2021 season is to run a session for coaches that are coaching rising 3rd grade teams. We will go over the rule differences, how to train keepers, formation and some basic practice ideas
At those ages it seems to me that lopsided wins/losses come with the territory. There's just too much of differences in physicality and even experience as some started playing at age 3 or 4 so already have a couple years under their belt while others are brand spanking new. At our U8 you see a lot of 6 yr olds going against 8 yr olds, which I don't get, but that's how it is. An 8 yr old is usually far more developed than a 6 yr old, so the matchup seems unfair to me. The 8 yr old has lived 33% longer than the 6 yr old!
Lost 0-3 last night to that more athletic team and it was frustrating for several factors: -I'll lead with goalkeeping, but we didn't really lose because of the goalkeeping. On one shot, my GK is moving her hands TO the ball and for some reason pulls her hands back and the ball just goes in. WTF. Like she thought it was going wide or something. But then a few minutes later the opponent hits an absolute screamer that's going upper 90 and she gets up and bats that away. I felt bad, because i was so dumbfounded that she made THAT save and alligator armed an easy one that I couldn't even celebrate. 2nd half, different goalie, 25 yard freekick that just arcs high and goes in the goal. It's about two steps to her right and saveable, but she just flaps at it. Oh yeah, this keeper shows up at the game with an ankle brace—already not the most mobile kid and she's got a leg problem (why even bring your kid?). -This other team is comprised of players from the same club team that half my players play on. They hadn't beaten us in 3 seasons. We used to win and lots of draws recently. But for some reason, my players were really intimidated by them. Writing this, I think they were intimidated because our opponents were very physical, not in a dirty way, they just knew how to use their bodies to win the ball. This psychological barrier (living rent free) has been there all week, heard them chatting about it at the last game, last practice about it. I think this was the key, they were beaten before the game started. -In previous games, we were connecting 3–6 passes almost all game. This one, we had zero sequences over 1 pass in the first half. Only 3 sequences in the second. We weren't committed to giving good support and possessing the ball.
Sorry-- that is so frustrating. It is always tough when the players come in with the "we're going to lose" attitude. I've seen it so, so many times.
Random ques - do you guys do a team cheer? (you know, all the kids gather around and puts their hands in the middle and say something on 3). How did you come up with it?
I don't have an "on 3" cheer. I have 3 that we use at the end of practice and games. The 1st two I just feel like I've known them forever (like maybe even when I was a kid). I learned the 3rd someplace around 10 years ago from a player on my team. "Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate. TEAMNAME" "Potato chip, Potato Chip, munch munch much, we think TEAMNAME are a mighty fine bunch" "Octopus, Octopus, squid squid squid , we the think the TEAMNAME are might fine kids." When I run sessions for other teams, I always teach them the 3rd cheer.
Last activity for the spring season is in the books. I helped run a session for coaches moving up to 3rd grade in the fall. One guy did rule changes (this is the year where they move from 4v4 to 7v7 so tons), one talked formations, one did how to train goalies and I did some basic passing/spreading out drills
Reached a bittersweet end to my tenure with my current team today. The team is folding after this season because players are going to club teams and I am moving to a new city. My daughter’s intermittent, undiagnosed knee problem flared up during warmups and couldn’t play in yesterday afternoon’s tournament game. We also made it into the playoffs yesterday. My co-coach will take care of the match but I’m sad I won’t get a proper goodbye into the players or go out on the field with them. She’s a competitor and if we take her she’ll want to suit up and that’s not how her knee thing works. It doesn’t just clear up with a night’s rest in the past. We are seeing pediatrician and PT this week about it this week. Same for me, I’m also a competitor and want to be out there with my players. It’s just not meant to be. Got em to this point, now everyone gas to go their own way.