This edition features lots of pictures…..
Cpher: Lost 6-5 last Monday to Holt…..not much to report here, the game was played in 25-35 mph winds and turned into a penalty fest (against us) at the end. No penalties for Cpher
Beat Haslett 5-1 on Wednesday. Pictures below.
We dominated this game; lots of time in the Haslett end of the field on offense. So Cpher spent a lot of time in this pose…waiting….waiting…
and getting ready to pounce……
I was talking with another parent and he mentioned how lacrosse is a game for all sizes; big kids in the back, smaller speedy kids in the front trying to score. So what happens at this age is you get these huge discrepancies on the field….
You can really see it here; these are three of the bigger kids on our team, and these Haslett kids are small small small….
These two pictures are the best example of the size issue; meet Jackson. I work with his Dad, and this game is the fourth Jackson-Cpher battle of the year; sadly, Jackson’s basketball team beat Cpher’s basketball team all three times they played this year.
Cpher is going to win this battle….I think one time Jackson scooped the ball and ran away from the goal to get away from Cpher, but, Cpher will give that play up all the time….you just can’t scoop the ball up and head TOWARDS the goal….
Cpher’s almost 5-6’ and about 150 lbs; Jackson is maybe 4-8’ and maybe 80 pounds in a rainstorm.
Here Cpher is trying to swat the ball away to have a better chance of picking the ball up….I don’t this swat got the ball and he was back down battling for the ball…
Another Jackson-Cpher battle.
Cpher’s best moment of the game we have no pictures of…..another kid comes running in; he comes over and knocks the ball away from him, picks it up, takes two steps, and throws the ball upfield. He throws it a long way….it easily gets over the midfield line and our attackers pick the ball up and head towards the Haslett goal. His defense-buddy comes over and gives him a fist-bump. It’s a heck of a throw!
Matthew: Won 8-3 on Sunday….more of the Matthew we know and less of that other Matthew that was just standing around….
I never really talked about what went wrong with Matthew; truth is, I just don’t really know what happened a few weeks back. Just not a lot of hustle, or focus, or much of anything in those games. Out of position, late to the ball, no energy.
After the games on Saturday we talked. We talked a lot. We talked some more. And when we got to the hotel on Saturday night we watched some of the tape that I recorded from those horrible games. Think that was good for Matthew, he got to see some of the things that I was talking about (there was one sequence where he was supposed to be moving up and joining the offense; we counted 25 seconds before you could see him enter the picture, never mind getting involved).
Always a good sign…if Matthew is coming up and trying to get these balls in the air it means he’s involved and playing well….
So the Sunday game of that tournament is a lot better; Matthew’s hustling, he’s battling for balls. And guess what, when Matthew is battling for balls the team plays much better. We lose, 4-3, in what might be the worst referee’d game I’ve ever seen. But, it’s a good note to end the tournament on, playing hard and giving it his all……
When he’s battling for balls, we do well.
We’re winning 5-1 at the half, I think Matthew has an assist or two. Our coach has really (really!) been trying to emphasize one or touch touches on the ball and then ‘making the easy pass’….I’ve never seen him so focused on one message in practices and I like this change. Matthew does well with this philosophy….
He takes this shot but it goes wide…
He’s in position to punch in this corner kick but it bounces off of one of their players and goes in instead. A goal is a goal.
He’s ‘showing’ for the ball….
And he scores the sixth goal….chest bump is the preferred form of celebration for the team….
The cautionary tale: I don’t think the team we were playing was very good….I’m curious to see how it goes on Sunday, we play this outfit again and we play the team we tied 4-4 again. That second game should be a good measure of what’s gone on over the last three weeks.
