Weekend Round-Up

Players & Parents,

I wanted to take a moment to recap the weekends matches.

I think the tournament was a success overall. I could see the progress the girls have been making with their passing combinations & team understanding in attack. On the other side of the coin, our work on pressure/cover is slowly starting to pay off although we still need work dealing with teams that play direct.

It was disappointing to lose another final, but my hope is that this just adds more fuel to the competative fire. We came out strong, but we fell into a pattern of thoughtless passing & aimless kicking of the ball. The Velocity kept the ball better and the pressure wore us down. I still feel their goals were more our own doing then anything they created: The first was a long punt our defense allowed to bounce and then we failed to deal with the result; the second was a case of us panicing in defense - if we would have remained calm, we could have played out of pressure - but we got flustered and presented the ball to an attacker.

We will play that Woodland team again, the next time with our full compliment of players, and next time we will be ready for them.

I want to thank all the girls for their efforts this weekend. Everyone continues to improve with every week of training - this is a good thing.

I look forward to this weekends matches because it is another chance for the girls to get battle tested. Looking at the teams in our bracket there will be some really competetive matches and ones that will really test the girls.

Main Soccer Problems to work on in training:
(1) Passing Accuracy & power (avoiding the Umpa-Lumpa pass)
(2) Team defending - Pressure/Cover/Balance & forwards responsibilities when they have the ball
(3) Reading the game - Reading your teammates
(4) Heading
(5) Playing out of pressure
(6) Mental toughness
(7) Fitness

Bottom line - We are improving. The girls are playing better soccer and are making big improvements in understanding the game. I expect this to continue and our performances to reflect overall progress.