Final score aside that was a great game for the U8 Sharks. The first quarter was a little bit like last week's game but then they came alive and played with energy. Sam E. was clearly setting the tone for the team and he was relentless in his attempts to possess the ball. He was also fierce on the attack when the other team had the ball and that was a great improvement over last week. And he had his first goal from the field. He was hitting the ball hard all game and finally got one to go in.
My plan for the game was to focus on defense with our older players, Owen, Conner and Nathan, and keep the younger kids up in offense as much as possible. Coach Cook's team is very disciplined about staying in their positions so I figured that if Sam, Elizabeth, Austin and Jackson could get into their space with the ball they'd have some room to work and probably be facing a lot of one-on-one situations. Their team also has a couple of really skilled players who'd like nothing more than to have you crowd your whole team into one corner chasing the ball on defense so it was best for us to have Owen and Conner back there alone facing them one-on-one. Before kick-off I told Austin, Sam and Elizabeth that they should not go back into defense but should try to stay up the field all the time, save their energy for attacking and trust Owen and Conner to get them the ball. Sam bought in right away but the other two seemed skeptical and couldn't help but chase the ball all the way back to our goal repeatedly. As a result, whenever Sam did make a few moves and get out into the open in the other team's side he had no help and so ended up taking good shots from too far out. I do think that by the end of the game Austin and Elizabeth were starting to get what I was asking them to do so we'll see what happens next week.
Jackson bought in right away too and as always was showing amazing field awareness and making good decisions. He really gets that maintaining your spacing makes it possible to move the ball quickly in the right direction. So many of the kids, even the older ones, still get too focused on the ball and don't think about where they need to go with it or even when it's best for them to just get out of the way. But they played better this week. There was more "touching" the ball for control rather than wildly kicking at it, although there was still some of that.
Nathan was solid in keeper again and was great about playing in there an extra quarter with Kaleb and Addie out for the game. He also showed a lot of hustle on offense. Owen and Conner did play some good defense in that two-back scheme but the other team was swarming the goal a lot and they couldn't help but get overwhelmed a few times. Conner played with great energy and had a few break-aways that he wanted to take all the way up field. I'll let him know next week that he is welcome to do that. Owen was bravely using some moves late in the game to try and get some offense going. I like seeing that kind of play. It was good to have Zach back this week although it took him a few quarters to warm up and show his usual speed.
One funny story from the game: in the second quarter I put Nathan up front and as we are walking onto the field he asks me where he's playing. At that moment I was saying to Owen that he should play the "left" side. Nathan says "Aww, I wanna play left field. Can I play left field?" I looked at Owen then at Nathan and said "sure". "Okay, where is that?" I looked at Owen again and winked. "Left field is right behind the short stop, okay?" I said as I walked off the field to which Nathan replied "Got it."
Those U6 Sharks were back in the groove this week and despite having to manage without Ava they played very well. There was much quality play and I think overall they did much better this week staying out of each other's way. Samuel was working the ball beautifully in and out of traffic and he and Diego had so many attempts on goal that I lost count. Karolyn was fabulous in defense for the most part although she and a few other players showed a strange tendency to stand back and let the other team's better players take shots. Still though I was very happy with the way everyone played.
The Bears played like they'd all been up late the night before. The other team has some kids who have really blossomed into good players with good basic ball skills and I think after a few minutes of that the Bears were, as a whole, resigned to the outcome. So, they played in slow motion for a while. Zychick played his best game yet in some ways and was more actively engaged than he has been. He continues to be a very solid keeper. Jackson was the one player who played with endless energy and I wish the others had followed his example. Maybe next week.
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