Tough Weekend

Another tough weekend, with two games against tough teams. Overall, we're improving every game. Our defense is doing well, but we occasionally make silly mistakes that lead to goals against us. We'll be working on that in our next practices.

Charlie has certainly earned a spot as one of our keepers with a shutout half against the Lions. One in particular was the kind of layout horizontal stretch that you see at higher levels of play. Scotty has brought a new dimension to our offense, and with that a beautiful combination goal against the Fire Balls. We'll be working on controlling our attacks and penetrating defenses more effectively.

GAME RESCHEDULED Our game against the Blue Jays that was rained out on Halloween has been rescheduled for Sunday, Nov 15, at 3PM on field 18A. This will be a GOLD jersey game.

Rain out, yet again

Will the rain ever stop? Yet again, we've lost a game to the elements. Although the rain had stopped by kickoff, the fields were all flooded and unplayable. Hopefully, the league will find a way for us to make these games up.

Now that it's standard time, the sun sets much earlier than before. So we'll be practicing from 4:30 to 5:30 from now on. I hope that this isn't too much of an inconvenience for parents, but if we start at 5, we'll only have 30 minutes of practice.

Let's hope for clear weather from here on out.

Rain Out & More...

Unfortunately, our double-header weekend was rained out, washed away, whatever metaphor you want to use. A weekend of nothing but rain has postponed our schedule deep into November. The rescheduled games are the last weekend before Thanksgiving.

With that change, our third game suddenly was a rematch with the Ajax. They are a very powerful, well coached team that is aggressive on and off the ball. And while we took pounding last game with them (0-9), I was actually looking forward to this match. In our first match, we didn't have our center fullback, Garrett. We also only had 1 sub for the entire game. On Sunday, the team had had a few weeks to come together. Then a surprise, Scotty joined the team. This unexpected addition brought us to a full complement of 12 players. And for the game, 12 players showed.

So with a stronger defense and a forceful sweeper, 4 subs always at hand, and a strong new midfielder, we took to the field hopeful for an improvement. The first half was complete turn around from the previous game. Our defense was very strong, keeping their offense wide. And when then went wide, our wings pressed hard. About 5 minutes in, Ajax took a great shot that got past our goalie. And fluke error on our kickoff gave them another opening to score.

But after that our defense settled in and shut down their offense. While we weren't able to penetrate much in the first half, I was very pleased with the overall improvement in defense.

In the second half, we became far more aggressive and began to attack the ball in the middle third. We were able to keep better possessions, and make some penetrations on free kicks and corners. Although we couldn't get a clean shot off, we definitely had their defense on their heels. While I wasn't keeping strict time on this, I believe we were at least 50/50 with them on possession time in the second half. A breakaway gave them a final goal, but not after some amazing keeping by Henry. Garrett wins the captain's band for our next game with an outstanding performance as sweeper.

So a 0-3 result is still a loss. But I see it as a major improvement, and a sign that this team is ready to make some major strides in the next few games. I'm very proud of these boys for never giving up and always playing hard. Despite the loss, it was a great game.

Upcoming weekend

So we have another double-header weekend coming up. One game against the Lions on Saturday, and one against the Fire Balls on Sunday. We've had a long relationship with the Lions. We always play well, but they always rise up to challenge us. We've won once, lost twice, and tied twice. I look forward to playing this team, because it gives me a good idea about how we are really doing. If we have our key players, it will be a very close game.

While we know several of the players on the Fire Balls, we haven't played them in at least two full seasons. So I don't know how they have developed. This will be an interesting game. I think we'll be competitive. If we play like we did in our last game, we should do okay. What is critical for me is how we are progressing at penetrating the defensive line with inside runs and wrap-arounds. We've worked on that extensively in practice, but never seem to actually get it going in a game. I'll be stressing that again at practice, and for each of the games.

It will be a busy weekend for the team. Let's hope the rain doesn't interfere with the schedule.

A Tale of Two Games

It was the worst of games, it was the best of games...

What a great weekend of soccer. Our first game of the season was a tough, tough game. The Ajax are a well coached team, and they were probably the worst team (worst in the sense of the toughest team) we could face for our first game with so many new players. We were also missing two players and one, Garrett, is the anchor of our defense. The score pretty much says it all. We were able to put together three or four pointed and sustained attacks. But their defense was very tough and was able to disrupt our passing lanes. We had three bonafide shots on goal, and one almost went in. In all, I was pleased with the way we wanted to play. But we could not pull it together against probably the best team in our division.

Today's game was as if we had a completely new team. This team was making strong passes, defending and holding possession the middle third, and running down and disrupting our opponents attack. By the first 15 minutes, we had scored twice, each time on beautiful centering passes that Charlie one or two touched into goal. At the end of the half, we put together a lovely through pass that Alan-Henry picked up and easily put passed the goalie. At the start of the second half, the Blue Jays put together a very nice counter attack that caught our defense off guard (the only time really), and they blew it past our goalie who had no chance of stopping it. But after that, we sank into a lock down defense. Their only real attacks were called back for clear offsides (after some cajoling from the sidelines).

The Blue Jays are a good team, and we match up well with them. We've beaten them before and we've lost to them before. The difference on Sunday was an awesome team effort. Everyone played as a team. 3 players had scored with assists from 3 other players. Charlie had two goals, Richie had two assists. Garrett, Jared, and the Bens held a strong defensive line, keeping the Jays outside of center most of the game. A really great effort on Sunday. I'm pleased that we came out of the first weekend with 3 points. I think we'll be ready for our next weekend double header.

Coach Steve