These kids need a new coach. Because I’m just not getting the point across, or, just can’t figure out the right words to motivate them.
Suzanne brought the new fancy dancy camera, so, we have a plethora of good pictures of the boys to post. Kevin taped, and I’ll salvage some of that video. We’ll talk about the game as we move through the pictures
We lost, 3-2. We played Eaton Rapids again….and after talking before the game about how much better we are when we come out and hustle and take the ball to the other team (like on Saturday), the boys revert to watching and not hustling and we go down to this team, again, 3-0.
This picture probably exemplifies the best of Cpher’s game….when he’s close in on defense he is an imposing force. The problem now is that he’s having a hard time of getting in close; a step slow and late on almost everything. As promised, he came out of the game earlier than most of the other kids on substitutions.
And it’s not like he’s not trying….I think he fully realizes his big body just isn’t built for this sport at this point.
He did have a few opportunities on offense; nothing good came of them, but, they were there. Four more games and Cpher’s soccer career comes to a close….hope he can pull it together for a highlight or two before the end. I certainly root for it.
We haven’t played a TNT game yet this spring, so, you could really say that Matthew has been rounding into shape for the TNT season in these games. And far and away, today was his finest game of the spring. In the 2nd half, when we needed someone to leave it all on the field and drive the offense forward, Matthew was that boy.
For most of my soccer games, I’ve offered $5 ice cream gift cards as inducements; last year, it was for assists on goals because that team was challenged to pass the ball. This fall, I offered it for rebound goals since I wanted the kids to learn to charge the goal. It says volumes about how this spring has gone that I’m at the point of giving the ice cream away to the kid that hustles the most. Today, and it wasn’t close, that kid was Matthew.
He didn’t score, but, he did have an assist on one goal, and that assist was pretty awesome. He got control of the ball before midfield, drove down the right side, beating one, than another guy, and tried once, tried twice, tried three times to center it. Kept control of the ball and finally had the perfect cross in front to his teammate for the goal. Hope Kevin got this on tape…….
A pretty solid performance on defense as well……I needed him to play defense and really push forward to help the offense in the second half and he did that really well.
About the only moment you could find him standing on the field….waiting for a throw-in. I had a sub ready to go in for him late in the second half and the ball never went out of bounds for a stoppage. I love that kid….he never stopped, kept running, I knew he was out of gas and he would still suck it up and sprint across the field and keep the pressure on.
You can see the ball sailing in from the throw-in; love the look of focus on his face and I think he heads this out of here. There was one corner kick the other team had….their best kid booted it towards our goal to center it and Matthew flies up, jumps up, and heads it out of bounds.
Four games left, two practices left. Sadly, I can’t wait for my coaching days to end; because I just don’t know what to tell this group of kids to make them, with a few exceptions, want to leave everything on the field (at one point I had two kids come off the field, I had one out of breath and clearly had been running and running and running. The other kid, nothing. Not a hair out of place.). And that’s all it’s going to take to improve this situation.
