Version User Scope of changes
Oct 26 2008, 3:59 PM EDT (current) daburkert 416 words deleted
Mar 30 2008, 10:44 PM EDT tcockrum 407 words added, 22 words deleted

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After every weekend, I reflect back on what we did well and what we were able to accomplish. During training, I was encouraging our players to be more creative and attack with more selfishness in the offensive third. We have too many girls that are way too content just passing the ball. That's great in many parts of the field, but not in the attacking third. I want our players to flex their 1v1 skills and attack with speed and unpredictablity, get to goal, and make things happen.In our first game, we had fits with the field conditions, and trying to possess the ball proved to be nearly impossible. Our second half was one of the worst halves of soccer I've seen this team play. So, I had to reassess my plan for the weekend and try to determine what else we could accomplish positively regardless of game results. I decided we need to work on playing more physical and much more direct. It isn't the prettiest soccer, but is certainly effective in certain situations.Some of our players aren't used to playing this style of play. Others...this style fits their skills well. Normally, we control the midfield by being more technical than our opponent and when our shape is good, we can string together 8 or 9 passes with ease. This weekend, we had to control the midfield by being more aggressive and more direct than our opponents.Throughout the weekend, we seemed to get better at playing direct and physical. So much so, that we were called for a significant amount of fouls on Sunday. I think a few of the girls really enjoyed being given the chance to play "fast and furious." A few girls who aren't used to having to tackle hard and win the ball by strength seemed to gainconfidence in their ability to overpower other players.I think we showed 1v1 superiority throughout the weekend when the field allowed and our "greediness" in the attacking third improved some. When we played against a very skilled player in the final, we defended well as a team and shut her down.All in all, given the circumstances, I think the areas we improved upon will help us later in the season. Now, we can enjoy a couple week break from games and rest some injuries.When everyone is back together in a couple weeks, we'll scrimmage the White team and the Academy team before we head into our first MRL weekend.