I have to be better during lacrosse season about these posts….I just lose track of what happened when there are so many games over a short period.
Monday the 12th: Lax cancelled due to rain.
Wednesday the 14th: Matthew plays; Christopher has to skip because of Kevin’s final orchestra concert. Matthew’s team beats Dewitt 8-7 or something like that…..
Picture 1 of 5: This is what Matthew does best this year. I don’t have the pictures before this starts, so, I just don’t remember how he grabbed this ball. He is equally adept at scooping it off the ground in a scrum as he is at picking off passes. I think, just looking at it, that this was a simple scoop after an errant pass.
Picture 2 of 5: He’s about to cross the midline; you can see the middies have figured it out and one has his stick up to indicate that he is ‘staying back’ and we won’t be offsides (actually, I clipped it out, two of the middies have their sticks up and once they talk it over one steps up and joins Matthew on the attack.)
Picture 3 of 5: That group of kids following Matthew were mostly playing attack for Dewitt; they can’t cross the line. So Matthew is now cutting back into the middle of the field as he continues to shake the pursuit.
Picture 4 of 5: I’d say Matthew is equal parts getting up the field and passing it off and equal parts going in for the shot. Here, he’s clearly trying to get a shot off because he has the one guy on his left that he’s charging through, the guy on the right about to chop into his stick and the imminent introduction of Dewitt’s defenders into the play. And Matthew is showing no inclination towards passing the ball….
Picture 5 of 5: One of the reason he isn’t trying to pass is some pretty crummy spacing…those two attack for us shouldn’t be right on top of Matthew like this; they should have been taking off and heading for the other side of the goal. The numbers finally catch up to Matthew here, he loses the ball in the next second or two without taking a shot and heads back upfield to await his chance to try again.
In the second half; he’s heading upfield again! A very wet and cold day….
Friday the 16th: Matthew has a soccer game against Wolves Black on Friday Night. Matthew rated himself an 8.5 in his post-game grading talk and I’d have to agree; this was one of the better games Matthew has played in a long while. We win 3-1 against a pretty good side…..a nice win for the team.
You can click on the picture below to see video highlights of Matthew’s day. I recommend the final 20 seconds….more on that after the photo….
One thing (among many) that I like about how Matthew plays….very unlikely to take shit off of anyone. After this sequence (the Wolves kid goes down, Matthew gets the foul) Matthew gets up and looks at the kid who made some type of crying/scream as he went down and says “Quit acting baby!” before he trots off. This gets Matthew and the Wolf summoned back by the ref for a little talk….
Coach Stu’s Game Report:
DATE: 05/16/2014
TEAM: 02 Boys Blue VS Wolves Black
RESULT: 3-1 Home win
ATTACKING STRENGTHS
- In the final third we were very dynamic and ran at the opposition.
- Link up play between the striker and mid’s was very good.
- Very creative ideas and willingness to take on players.
- The full backs moved wider and helped us start off attacks as well as the midfielders being able to open up the game and help the ball swing.
ATTACKING CHALLENGES
- With us unable to practice the week before we made very similar mistakes.
- Changing of runs…not enough diagonal runs or runs between the lines. This is something we will work on to help us this weekend.
- Set pieces. Didn’t feel our movement was as good today as it could have been.
DEFENDING STRENGTHS
- Shape and ability to win the ball high up the field was key today.
- Read the visual cue of the opposition well and dropped in when the opposition had time and space.
- Very good in the air today.
DEFENDING CHALLENGES
- TACKLING! I still had to demo the ART of tackling at half time!
- Still get dragged across the field too easily. Need to be more disciplined in our positioning.
OVERALL COMMENTS
- Boys looked very sharp and the movement off the ball was very good! I was pleased with the style of play the boys put on for us tonight and the amount of good goal scoring chances.
- We need to have a little more conviction in our shooting especially from distance as we tend to not really ‘WHACK’ the ball, I would rather we missed by a country mile hitting the ball well then have the keeper making easy saves.
- The boys showed lots of quality in their build up play and patience, there was a lot more moving of the ball backwards and not just playing forward.
- I was also pleased that after the boys conceded we didn’t capitulate and continued to play well as create chances.
Coming Soon:
FTSD – The Lost Weekend of Lax Edition
FTSD – Bruises Edition
FTSD – Canton Cup Edition
Letters to and from Kevin
