Springbok's Week 1

Rocky Start

West Mont brought industry and effort to the match this weekend, and should be given credit for the win.

As the center official put it to me after the game, we played more soccer than West Mont, but to our own disservice.  He asked, specifically, why we didn't have Olivia take the goal kicks...before I address that, consider that a comment was made in the team huddle that a Springbok wanted to play on the side away from the parents because it's so onerous having to listen to the negativity coming from the sideline.  Not in so many words, of course, but that's the gist of it.

Parents...grow up, or hush up.

The Goal Kick Thing

OK...here we go:

If our GK can't take her own kicks, we keep every opposing player onside every time we hit a 6.  If we play long and lose the 50/50 (which at the pro level is the exact outcome of any long 6 or punt...50/50...at our level, it favors the defending team because they can just thump it back at us; our kids have to actually control that 40 yard bomb) it's essentially a jailbreak.  Never mind that every kid who plays in the back line becomes a superfluous player, only needed when we don't have the ball.  One reason former Colgate University GK Ashley Walsh (older bio...but you get the idea) was dropped from the US Youth National Team pool, and from the Western NY Flash was because despite being an otherworldly GK in most situations, she can't hit a 6 to the center circle.  So it's a disservice to a kid to prevent them from taking their own goal kicks.

Secondly, playing out of the back is a skill our players have to learn...and the long and short of it is, either they get sick of giving up stupid goals from thoughtless turnovers and start connecting passes, moving off the ball, and making better decisions, or we'll keep losing.

That the official was very complimentary was telling in this regard.

Coaching Adjustments

As the first half went along, it became very clear that unless we played some long balls, the WM team was going to keep us pinned into our half...so the halftime adjustment was simple, and pragmatic.  Essentially, the order of the day was to get the ball behind their back four (by contrast you might read the Quick Boys recap) at all costs and force them to recover back toward their own goal, and move the game into their half.  This approach worked and we had a bit more of the ball, and more offensive push.  What we didn't do was possess the ball in their half, so it ended up being Lexi or Bruck, mainly, on their own trying to create a breakaway.  That 50 or 60 yard run with a ball at their feet is a very, very long way to go as defenders chase them down.  Our focus will be (as it has been since August 2012) to get the ball into those areas at our attackers feet, and then connect passes with the midfielders in order to draw more of our players up the field, ensuring support, opportunities to combine, and the ability to press the other team when we are out of possession.

So we fought fire with fire a little bit, and the game got stretched and we had some chances.  Certainly more interesting in the second half, but essentially just two teams lumping balls forward thoughtlessly and the game was little more than a test of which forwards were fastest.  Hardly soccer.

Lest I be accused of sour-grape-ing here, truly I'm not.  We got thumped, and it's fine.  Here's why; our back four, I cheerfully argue, certainly attempted if not completed, more passes than the WM team in total.  And we had chances to score, not the least of which was the PK miss, and so, while it's tough to lose, in this manure pile of a start, we sow the seeds of some attractive football.

Quite simply, this is the risk of trying to play the game in a thoughtful and attractive (read: fun) fashion.  It is, without a doubt, the hardest possible way to play the game.  But to do anything else is the exact equivalent of saying, don't teach my kid Calculus...long division is as much as she'll need in life.  I'd rather lose than patronize the kids I coach, or dumb down a game that has so much more to offer the players who strive to fully understand it, and master it.

So, tough day, but not without some bright spots...