Week Five. Teamwork.

All three teams showed their best this weekend and I am, to be honest, quite proud of them all. Obviously with the Sharks and the Wave it is the quality of play that I'm happy about. Both teams work very hard in practice and have consistently brought whatever we do there to the games and then executed what they learned with commitment and teamwork. With the Slime, though, it's more than how they play. They play well to be sure and this week they dominated from start to finish even though a few of our players seemed to have a little less energy than usual. But what I really take pride in with this U4 team is their discipline. They pay attention when we are warming up and they all make a real effort in the drills we do. That shows in the way they play once the whistle blows. Kids their age are going to act up and be rambunctious but compared to what I see going on all around us out there this group is really focused and easy to work with. They set a great example for everyone else in the U4 division, especially for the parents and other Coaches, who get to see what is possible for kids this age. Coaching U4 is difficult and takes patience. Dealing with crying kids and embarrassed parents is part of the job and I'm grateful to all of the parents who stepped forward this session to become Coaches. Part of what I've tried to impress upon these new Coaches at our meetings is that while the hard work of repeating basic skill lessons over and over again can be an uphill slog they will, eventually, be amazed at what kids this age can "get" about the game and the extent to which they really can play the game.

Well, right now your Green Slime is setting the standard and here's what they did this week:
After a great warm-up in which we played some "shooting gallery" the Slime came out strong and controlled the ball basically from start to finish. In the first quarter we had goals from Mason and Diego and Diego had an assist on the goal for Mason. They make a great team as a combination of speed and grace, Diego being the grace part. His natural tendency to carry the ball on one side of his body and shield defenders off the ball is going to serve him well as he gets older. Mason is the speed and his dribbling improves weekly. He had several good runs this week where he took the ball into the corner (the dead corner against the blue wall) then fought through the defense and streaked directly into the goal box. Great stuff. He scored again in the third quarter. Also in the third we had a goal from Eileen off of a beautiful assist from Ashley. Their teamwork on that one was beautiful as Eileen headed straight for the goal when she saw Ashley taking the ball up the side. After getting around the defense Ashley made a nice pass right to Eileen's feet so that all she had to do was turn and put the ball in the net.
Lincoln and Abby did great work in the warm-up but weren't quite as engaged in the game as you'd like but they are improving weekly and seem to always be having fun.

Now, as for the Sharks, they are a fairly disciplined group but they have a lot of energy and I couldn't handle them without Coach Mike's help. Mike has been working them hard at practice and it keeps paying off in really unbelievable game performances. Like the U4 team the Sharks keep setting the bar for what is possible for teams in their age group. As a team they have great fundamental skills with good ball control habits and good field awareness but the thing that is most impressive is their communication. They yell to each other for passes the way you'd want a U10 team to do. Just a few highlights:
Elizabeth received a pass from Sam E. that was right on her feet at the eighteen. She settled the ball smoothly then quickly stepped to her left dragging the ball with her right foot to get around the first defender. A step back to the right took her past the second defender then she let go a nice pass to the right post that found Austin waiting. He was so wide open he could have walked the ball in but of course he blasted it in with authority. That was Austin's second goal of the game.
Sam A. was doing great work playing the left wing and had a few chances too. Jackson was backing them up as midfielder and as usual was always one step ahead of the other team's forwards. One of those forwards, Oliver, is a good player and practices with us on Mondays. Oliver just could not get ahead of our defense to score, though. Brandon's best play of the game was one where he ran back into our half and beat Oliver to the ball then turned in towards the center of the field and shielded Oliver off the ball with his backside (and hip checking him into the wall. oops.) so that he could casually bring the ball back out to midfield for another run. Finally I want to mention the play of Braiden and Aiden this week. Neither of them had a goal but they both played better than they ever have and played smartly too. Their work in practice seems to be taking them to a new level of confidence with the ball and now I can't get anyone to play defense...they all think they're shooters. Good work from Ryland too. For a new player he is really contributing a lot every week. Really fearless on defense too.

The Green Wave had to play one down with only seven players and no subs but somehow that seemed to help them. Zach had our three goals in this 3-3 tie and two of them were strong shots from some distance. He was assisted in the attack by good passing and ball possession from Logan, Jordan, Cody and Ashley (late but not too late!). I hope everyone noticed the courageous play from Cody. He is fearless and fierce and went up against the other team's star player over and over again. During one of those encounters he took a fall and was feeling some pain for a few minutes but in the final quarter he went back out there and kept attacking the ball. Great work Cody!
The Wave was moving the ball with confidence and putting everything we worked on in practice to work in the game. That was a real gutsy performance Wave. Well done.