Quick Boys Week 3

QB's Score 4, Win 3-1?

Yet another interesting match with WCUSC for the Quick Boys.

A few individual performances worth noting...Henry shut down three or four 1v1 breakaways (even more interesting because we had been talking about them all week since Ukis scored their breakaway against us, and even did a 20 minute segment on Thursday where the boys helped me get Henry some reps in those situations) and forced another one well wide, allowing Connor to hustle back and clear the ball from the goal line in the second period.  What I really like about Henry's play on Saturday?  The fact that he asked to play more balls short when distributing...not many GKs enjoy having the ball close to their frame.

Haverford/Rosemont

Turnovers

Haverford Hosts Rosemont, Wins The Lancaster Avenue Derby

Box score and story here.
A quick glimpse into the data-driven approach, and what a 5-0 win looks like:

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.

Quick Boys Week 2

Points Dropped Versus A Point Gained

A sharp start to the match with Ukrainians boded well, scoring a good goal inside the first 5 minutes...a counter attack goal the other way in the first half tightened the match up.  In the end, we'll certainly feel that with a lead, a missed PK, and a very good second half, we dropped two points rather than winning one.  But that's football and a hard lesson learned in defending a lead.

The First Half

Both teams defended very well- credit to the Uki side for the job they do as a team, their shape was very good and they pressured the ball nicely.  As both teams valued defending, the game was very compact and narrow.  For our part, in the first period, spectators may have noticed a couple players called toward our bench for a quick word.  Because of the ball pressure, and lack of space in the middle of the game, I was asking the midfielders to find longer passes, even just dumping the ball in behind the Uki back 4 to stretch the game out and pin the opponent a bit deeper.  Two primary obstacles befell us at this point:

Firstly, while the Quick Boys are fine players, we're a little, well, little.  The guys just don't have enough strength to hit 40 or 50 yard balls, especially out of a tight space.  In time, they'll all become strong enough, but at this point, we'll just have to make do!

Secondly, the Uki boys ran very hard at the ball, but not as individuals as most teams do.  They pressured the ball as a group and worked very hard to clog up our passing options.  As a result, the QB's found the game a bit disjointed, and the attacks we did muster up were lone ranger deals; not nearly enough support!

What I Did Last Summer

Hiatus Over

Cooled my jets a little back back in July and then had a hard time getting back to writing at the end of the summer...new home, some vacation time, pre-season and so on made it tough to carve out time to get on the blog.  But things are settling back into the more normative routine, and it's time to resume regular posting.

Anyway, to keep it light in the early going, some bullet points from around the soccer world, both locally and internationally.  Lots of the heavier soap-box stuff in the pipeline, too.

• USA hosts Mexico in Ohio tonight at 8pm in a crucial MNT World Cup qualifier.  Two regional heavyweights stunned last week, and about a million story lines within the matchup; not the least of which includes the firing of the Mexican boss on Saturday.
• Gotta brag on my boys a little; Haverford was ranked #14 nationally last week after a 2-0 opening weekend...stumbled at home to Kean (pronounced, by the way, "Cain") on Sunday and are no longer so honored.  Fun while it lasted.  Still, 3-1 to open the year hints at much higher expectations than ever at Haverford.
• Quick Boys (LMSC U-13s) took a nice road win at the USTC over Lionville, 2-0.  The scoreline flatters though, as the second came mere seconds from the final whistle.  Regardless, a good shutout to open the fall.  Evan and Danyal scoring, Wyatt assisting on Evan's while Danyal's was a terrific "put-back" of a clearance, chipping the GK cleverly.
• Bob Bradley, former USMNT coach, is tearing it up with the Egyptian MNT, on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup...great documentary trailer- presumably, once they qualify, and the World Cup has passed, we'll see the finished product. 
• ESPN is carrying good college matches (men's and women's) Kansas and San Diego Friday (women's) and Clemson v. NC State Saturday (men's)
• Haverford hosts Rosemont in a cross-Lancaster Ave. derby on Thursday at 4.30PM on Walton Field.

Quick Boys

Looking Ahead To 2013-14 

Coming out of the rather enjoyable GTT tournament at the terrific Lawrenceville School's facilities the Quick Boys squad began to emerge in a tangible way from the fog of the post-tryout season.

Without too much preamble, some notes from the weekend's experiment:

• Clearly, the size of the field is a significant factor.  All the boys will need to attend to their ability to play passes of 20 yards or more on the ground, and drive balls 35 yards or so in the air.  While the boys looked to play many good passes over the weekend, far too many were left short, and a substantial number of those turned into the counter attacks which doomed our results.
• Defending was good in many ways.  Mainly, while we did concede far more than we'd like, given that the worst break downs came on set pieces and counters, the team defending was pretty good.  Any time a team tried to pass or dribble through the side, they found three or more QBs in close proximity.   As the back four become more adept at snuffing out counters, this bodes well for the team.
• The weekend provided confirmation that the group we have contains several solid fullback options, all of whom have the ability to play high up the field and contribute offensively.  More on this in a bit...
• Our wingers played well, and attacked with determination.  When they don't have the ball, however, we'll need to see harder running, more determined running.  More on this in a bit...
• The holding midfielders linked the team nicely, but found the bigger and faster opponents very difficult to manage when seeking space (time) to play passes.  They need to use the lateral pass to stretch out the defense in order to find the space necessary to play more attacking balls...longer, forward passes require more time to prepare, more time to find the target, and more time to evaluate the positions of the defenders.
• We're not a big team.  You may have noticed.  Defending wide areas effectively will be a key for this group.  If a team is swinging in cross after cross, we'll struggle.  
• The team can effectively (and with no real effort at refining the strategy in training...yet) hold a high back line, while simultaneously defending in a low pressure fashion.  More on this in a bit.

The Back 3

Napoli's Back 3:

Invite, Exploit, Opponent's Possession

They might use a back three, but Chelsea is outnumbered 8 to 5 in this attack.
Result- goal kick for Napoli.

 Jonathon Wilson discussed the use of the back 3 in Italian soccer (he claims 11 of 20 Serie A clubs use a back 3 regularly) and offers a great analysis of how Napoli can play with three in the back, yet not seek to dominate possession.  In 2012, with the loss of Dzeko & Lavezzi, it will be interesting to see if Napoli go the same route...(ED. Note, 6/30/13: they did.)