Crazy Parents: Sunday was really busy, and the reason why many quite sane families choose not to double-sport their children. Matthew had a soccer game in Livonia at 11:10; he had a football game in Okemos at 1:45, and another soccer game back in Livonia at 4:30.
How did that work out?
9:20: Leave for Livonia to be there at the requested time, 30 minutes prior to game start, 10:40. Arrive around 10:25…
11:20: Game starts 10 minutes late
12:30: Head out for Okemos….leave right after handshakes, can’t stay around for after-game coach talk
1:30: Arrive Okemos. Includes a 6-minute stop to hit a Wendy’s drive-through for lunch. Average freeway speed = over 80. The team is requested to be there an hour before the game….obviously don’t make that.
2:15: Football game starts late. This does not bode well for getting back to Livonia on time.
3:35: Game ends. Not really able to pull Matthew before then (more on this in the next Football(!) post…), leaves before the handshakes…
4:40: Arrive in Livonia. Have to stop for bathroom break in Brighton. Average freeway speed = over 80.
Game 5: Really hoping that playing some different teams will spark a better result……the offense is still out to lunch and we lose 4-0.
Guess this is as good a place as any to into why we’re in this tailspin (fall record: 0-5-1)
#1: Maybe the simple truth is we’re not as good as the other teams. I’d be hard put to disagree with that. I’d like to think that the answer is that we’re not as good as these teams right NOW. So maybe the question should be is that a) why aren’t we as good now? and b) what will it take to be that good in the future?
Matthew taking a direct kick…..sadly, he drills this one right at the goalie….
So, why aren’t we as good now? I think it’s a combination of things….we don’t practice together as a team, because of that, we don’t practice game strategy much in practice. We haven’t played as much soccer as the other teams…..Most of these teams played two preseason tournaments that would at least be six games total; we played one and were rained out of two games. I think that the top five or six kids on our team are as good as the top five or six kids on the other team….the other half seems a little iffy to me. I think those teams have been coached to get the ball and control the ball; we react, or choose not to react, to the other team a majority of the game. And if the other team is going to dictate the game to you, well, that’s not good.
Can we get better? I think this fall season is a loss. We have two regular season games left and then the playoffs, which I assume will be one and done. There’s a lot more practice time available before the playoffs, but, until there’s a fundamental change in how we go about practicing, I don’t see how the end result is going to change much.
Can we get better for the spring? I think that requires a different commitment than the club (90%) and the coach (10%) has been willing to make so far. I think we need to practice as a team, not with the other team that’s playing 6v6. I think we need to play more, 8v8, in the winter. I think we need to play in a tournament to start the spring season (we’re not scheduled to do so now) so that we are ready to go for the spring season.
There’s a lot more frustration on the sidelines….in some games we’re not competitive and we only become competitive when the other team switches players out to give others a chance. Lots of complaining from the parents…..I’ve taken to moving away from the crowd to videotape so I don’t pick up audio….
It’s hard, as Matthew’s parents, to complain too much. We miss at least one practice a week because of football conflicts. But, Matthew always tries and doesn’t give up, and I’ve seen other kids do that…..I have a hard time pointing to Matthew as the problem when he’s logging as many minutes as he is (and on defense, he’s frequently left out in the lurch on breakaways). As long as Matthew wants to double-sport, this situation seems to be the best for him. If he was soccer-only right now, I’d definitely be thinking of moving him to a club near Detroit next year and sucking up the travel for practices and games.
This picture is a good example of what the other team’s do….pressure, pressure, pressure the ball. And we don’t, we sit back and wait, a lot, for them to come to us. I was watching the tape (trying to salvage what little highlights there are) and you can count the number of passes the other teams make, 4, 5, 6, on each possession. We’re lucky to get two, and too often our time with the ball is a kick, at best, out of the area and back to the other team to start their build-up all over again.
Another slide that looks worse than it is…..but it’s clearly legal, he’s on the ball and not into the other player at all.
Game 6: We arrived late. We had told our coach that we’d be late, and this was the third game of the day, and we weren’t sure how much Matthew would have left in the tank. Learn later that we were down 2-0 when we arrived, we’re losing 5-0 at the half, and it’s a 5-1 final. And there is no way we should have lost, much less lost and not been competitive, to that team.
The pictures above are from another parent; one bright side is that we have a nice share site and there are a lot of pictures posted after each game. I have very little video of Game 5, and almost zero of Game 6…..just nothing there worth saving.
Ugh.
The football post coming next is a lot better!
