The U4 Green Slime were on fire this week with some brilliant play that lead to at least four goals. Prior to the game I reminded the kids about the trouble they'd had the week before with getting in each others' way and admonished them to keep looking around to see where their teammates were. Well, they executed that better than I could have expected and I saw them consistently making the effort to get ahead of the ball rather than simply chasing it. Eileen made a great run to the goal as Mason brought the ball up the left side and Mason's pass was right to her feet for an easy shot. Later Mason fed another great pass in to Maddox for a goal. Diego managed a couple on his own with more of that great, patient ball handling of his. He really seems to see a few moves ahead.
Delaney had her best game yet with one sustained run with the ball. Abby was having a much better time this week than last and she shows great potential in practice where she is very interested in working the ball around with her feet. Right now though she's still a bit uncertain about running into the midst of the crowd. Mason was in a head on collision that demonstrated why Abby's attitude is prudent. He dealt with that crash bravely but needed to sit out the final quarter to recuperate. It was a shame Mason got knocked out of the game because he and Maddox were developing some sort of give-and-go play that worked for them twice in a row. Both times Mason ran into a wall of defenders near the glass and smartly turned back to pass the ball(to drop it, as we say in soccer) to Maddox who was a few yards behind him. Each time Maddox calmly settled the ball then turned toward the center of the field and passed the ball up to his open teammates. It's a thrill to see players developing that sort of instinctive teamwork.
The other star of the game was Ashley who had a goal and who was doing great work with the ball. She is so fast and can turn so quickly with the ball. She just needs to develop the kind of confidence in her skills that Diego has then she will easily run around defenders and she'll be putting up hat-tricks every week.
We play at 10:10 next week.
Oh, those Sharks. I'll admit that they had me frustrated last week. They were playing their best opponent and didn't put in their best effort, but I did feel that they were playing loose and having fun. They were just unfocused. This week they were very focused and both line-ups just played brilliantly the whole game. We work on game strategy a bit in practice because I think they can handle a bit of it. Our expectations are high because they are a talented and motivated bunch. But when you actually see them, these little kids, playing as a unit like a pack of wolves, and yet they're still loose and laughing with each other and squealing like the kids they are it just takes your breath away. When Elizabeth pulled the ball out of the corner and calmly dropped it to Austin who then smartly passed the ball to the eighteen for Sam E. I was cheering like I was at a World Cup game. It was just beautiful.
The first and third quarter line-up was Brandon, Luke, Sam A., Samuel, Kendall and Braiden. Kendall was in at keeper and the other team's only point came on an own-goal when Brandon did the smart thing by passing the ball back to her. Unfortunately Braiden was in tight to the goal on defense and shielded Kendall from seeing the pass which got by her and into the net. That happens. They were all three playing solid defense but just ran into some bad luck. After that they got the ball out into the other team's end and rarely let it back across the half-line. Sam A. was doing great work sweeping back and forth in midfield and his anticipation is fantastic. The goal for this group came on a nice play where Brandon carried the ball into the corner on the right then brought it through a couple of defenders toward the goal where he let go a great pass to the middle which Samuel easily deposited in the net. Luke had a couple of great chances at goals but got blocked by some tough play from their keeper. Braiden was doing a great job in defense, covering for Brandon in the first quarter when Brandon bolted up into offense, then showing Samuel the ropes in the third quarter. Before the whistle that quarter Samuel asked me what he was supposed to do. "What's defense?" he asked. I told him to just keep the other team from getting the ball to our goal. The other team's best player probably had two inches and ten pounds on Samuel but he did as I asked him and blocked that kid repeatedly, just getting in his way over and over again and stealing the ball. Awesome.
The second/fourth quarter group was Sam E., Austin, Elizabeth, Jackson, Aiden and Ryland. Ryland gave us a solid start in keeper allowing Jackson to play out in that sweeping midfield spot. Aiden and Ryland held down the defensive side solidly allowing Jackson to focus on keeping the ball up in the other half where Sam, Austin and Elizabeth could run their give-and-go drill offense. Austin was the main beneficiary with two impressive goals. On the first Austin dribbled through a couple of defenders to get to the left side of the goal and then fired in a low shot from a very shallow angle that still got past the keeper and into the net. Sam, Austin and Elizabeth were talking to each other constantly and shouting out for passes. Amazing play.
In the last quarter while Sam E. did get a great shot in from way out it was really Jackson's turn to shine and he made some moves to get past defenders that were just fabulous including a little twist-off that faked the nearest defender right out of his shoes. On an earlier run Jackson had shown some unusual speed coming along the wall on the left of the goal and after bulling his way past a defender he went one on one with the goalie and put the ball in. If he hadn't gotten that one we'd have scored anyway as Aiden was right there to get the rebound. Great stuff.
Before the game I asked the Green Wave: to remember what we did in practice and to try to put that to work in the game.
They did that for the most part and the result was a very nice win in which they maintained possession of the ball most of the game and had a lot of good attempts on goal. It was great to have Lydia back to demonstrate for everyone what good ball handling looks like. Twice she dribbled around the last defender to go one on one with the keeper and she'd have had two easy goals if she had just taken a few more steps toward the goal before shooting. Gabrielle was leading the offense, mainly with her speed and had a nice goal from distance. Zach, Logan, Cody and Nabil each had nice turns in midfield and our midfield play was really our strength in this game and we made it so hard for the other team to get anything started or to even get over the half-line. Cody had what would have been our fifth goal but it was disallowed as Cody went into just a bit of a slide to kick the ball and in indoor that's a no-no. Still, it was a great effort. At practice this week we'll be working on learning to use our bodies more effectively to corral the ball. If we add that skill to the ones the kids are already developing we should be in great shape.
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