U14 Weekly

3-0 Win Completes 
Season Double Against Krasnijc

Another solid performance for the 14s on a soggy day.  It occurred to me as I sat in the parking lot waiting for the game that CNY might be the best place on earth for soccer, weather-wise.  Maybe a little chilly in the winter time, but when there isn't snow, it is frequently cloudy, with rain at regular intervals, but without the steady heavy winds of the mid-west (Old joke:  did you hear about the other day?  The wind stopped for a second in Kansas, and everyone fell over...har-har...).  I'm not at all being snarky about our weather here, either.  If I could make the weather for a game, last night is exactly what I'd order up.  Some rain before the game, so the ball zips along, and doesn't bounce high...plus sliding is more fun- diving headers and hard tackles - Calm winds don't mess up the ball flight, or make it difficult to play in one direction or another.  Overcast skies make it easy to see the whole field, look up at the ball when in flight overhead, and especially on crosses doesn't make the players deal with being blinded.



Anyway, digressions on meteorology aside, the boys played well on a park that is rather smaller than preferred.  To be fair, the officials told me that the field we had been slated to play on (and which was underwater...a downside of our climate!) is much larger than the one we were moved to.  C'est la vie...

Interestingly, in light of the field situation, and presuming that Krasnijc would want to avenge the earlier loss to us, I asked the team to be a little more direct than normal in the first 5-10 minutes, and simply try to play long balls behind the Krasnijc back four, toward the corner flags.  We did not do very well on this point, and I suspect it is due to six or so months of me berating the boys into passing to feet at all times and getting them away from the impulse to be direct in the attack at every chance.

Some bullet points on the game:

• Zack Coddington, Ezra Mead and Diego Kagle scored, on assists from Alex Wilcox, Brian Meeks and Josh Spencer. 
• That's 7 goals on the season, scored by 7 different players.  Solid.
• Field was 60X94 (or 59% of a full field...with 22 players on it)
• Scored 7 minutes in, and had opponent on back foot.  After second goal, Krasnijc made aggressive half-time adjustments (went to a 3-5-2/3-4-3 formation) but OSSC bent without breaking for the first 10 or 15 of the second period.  Important lesson for our boys.
• Ezra's goal, the third, was the final nail in the coffin; it's so important when defending a lead to continue to make goal-scoring chances (without compromising defensive efficacy) in order to "finish off" the game.  Once the third goal is scored, the rest is (usually, though certainly not always) academic.
• Due to field size, we adjusted by playing longer balls (tried to) and simply getting into space behind their back 4 before establishing possession.  I'd give us a C- in this effort.  A good introductory example of making adjustments to the game conditions...this weekend's Nordic Cup will offer some great ones in terms of surviving group play and advancing to an elimination game...Just like the big guys competing in the Euros!
• Despite an increasing grasp of the tactics (formation, shape, etc.) the errors which put our results most at risk are not mental errors in these areas...they are, by far, technical errors.  Soft passes, inaccurate passes, first-touch too light/heavy/into the wrong space, and the like.  The next training sessions, probably for two weeks or so, will be very heavy on the technical emphasis, and a bit less on the tactical.
• Josh Houle and Jared George are doing a great job at right back...but neither is going to Nordic.  This week will be a try-out of sorts to see who (of the group that's going) will fill in for those two.

Other notes from the week:

The boys that played Thursday against the U15 girls put together some very good moments; credit the 15s with being an excellent group of players.  They give the fellas all they can handle, and then some.  But...for our purposes, it was a worthwhile exercise in that the shape of the team continued to resolve itself and the boys improved on their decision-making, albeit slowly.  Rome was certainly not built in a day!

As mentioned in the last bullet point above, the technical development which has been so steady is still the most crucial area of these boys' game.  In playing the U15s, it was becoming clear that they know where to be...but the system (any system) is only as good as the technical skill running it.  This isn't to say our boys are behind, necessarily, but I suspect with the advent of outdoor games, I got a little carried away with the tactical stuff (which any coach will tell you is the fun part for us, the chess exercise that makes the coach's impact most important) especially given that our boys are doing very well, are quite smart and enjoy learning about the game.  So motivating to have guys who love to soak up information about the game...  So, while the re-emergence of technical work may not thrill the boys it is the right thing at the right time.  I suspect the sessions will be a little higher energy for this switch, though, as the tactical stuff does slow down the pace and intensity of a training session somewhat.

Lots of kids missing sessions this week, about 1/2 the 22 boys at a given session, and had some emails explaining that there was lots of schoolwork to be done.  Without prejudice, I wanted to mention here that one of the more practical lessons to be taken away from a committed club experience is that of time management.  In my five years as a coach at Colgate (where the workload exceeds the middle/high school workload by a bit) I cannot recall a soccer player being given time away from soccer for school-work.  That's not to say, in the least that Kathy (Brawn - Women's Head Coach) and Erik (Ronning - Men's Head Coach) aren't school-first coaches.  Might be the only two such in DI!  But the rules are simple; never miss a class for training of any kind, only miss class due to athletic dept.-sanctioned travel to away games, and take care of your school work on your time, not the program's.

Again, I'm not upset in any way...just blogging my brain out!  Knowing that school is out at 2.30 (give or take) and the work load is not the heaviest these boys will see, and that our training sessions are planned well in advance, the boys should be able to have work done and out of the way in a manner that ensures they are not cramming work in after training, or missing training.

And I do recognize that other activities can eat up time for these kids...it seems that every evening has some extra-curricular for the boys, and sometimes something has to give.  Which is cool.  I'm sure most parents are preaching time management skills and strategies to their son(s), and I'll give this same speech again to the whole squad.  OSSC boys were the Valedictorian and Saluditorian at Canastota this year, another is going to Georgetown in the fall, and every senior on the U19 team is going to college in the fall...we've bright boys on our teams, and I just want to be sure I beat the responsibility drum loudly for the younger crew!