Like all of these FTSD posts…..there is nothing current here. Part of it is that I like to wait for the game reports, but, they seem to have fallen behind as well. I’ll come back and post them if they ever show up.
Midland: After the four games of lacrosse at the Waverly Festival, Matthew and I headed north and east for the long drive to Midland. The game was a 6 pm start, conveniently scheduled as part of a double-header after we played our state cup game. Since we didn’t qualify, this game is a pain in the ass on many levels (long drive, ugly time). I can’t complain about the away schedule though…only three away games out of eight on the road and one was an easy jaunt down to Jackson.
Anyway. We travel north. Matthew and me in a car for 3+ hours; good times…had some good conversation, he had to get some of his homework done on the car on the way there as well. So there’s that.
Ask Matthew after the game what he would grade himself at; he says 8.5. I might have gone 9. Since I have some extra time on my hands (hah!), I went through and clipped out every instance of him touching or being on the ball. So, if you click on the photo below, you’ll get that video.
Of course the best place in the video to clip out for a picture is where he makes one of his two…um, areas for improvement from today’s game. He decided once or twice to linger on the ball and take multiple touches for one reason or another. And it didn’t work out well either time. He always works on quick and simple soccer…when it doesn’t happen he knows bad things are going to occur.
So we tie, 2-2. Matthew has an assist…we score an own goal…that never helps. But it happens.
Next three games are at the Canton Cup – they are all basically forgettable.
1) Lost to Knights FC 4-2. Had a back-up coach for this game and he made some serious…um…errors with playing time. Matthew only plays last 3 minutes of first half and first 3 minutes of second half…he’s not happy, parents aren’t happy. Not good. It’s too bad….the team reverted as a group to this ball-first defense I’ve talked about before and having some Matthew-physicality out there. The less said about this debacle the better.
2) Lost to Vardar 5-1. They are one of the two best teams of the state…..this result is not unexpected. Thought the boy played well as playing time returned to normal but we were just overmatched….it was only 2-0 at the half but they just wore us down. That Midland game showed about the best of how we can be in possession; there is still a big gulf between us and a really good possession team like Vardar.
3) Lost to Ole 5-1. I have video of he first half that I may go back and grab stuff from but, again, they are good and giants are we are not. Giants. And sometimes we aren’t even good. Missed two goals where the guy was alone in front of an empty net. Sigh. Thought Matthew again played ok….did not take any physical crap off of those big giants…..and when he stood them up good things happened.
I sent this picture on to a friend to help illustrate the problem of playing Ole. Matthew is not small, you can only see his head between 9 and 11 there. The guy bending over is at least as tall as the other kids. And there are two others at least as tall as them.
This is before a corner kick we are defending. Matthew is the one who gets to the ball and gets it out of danger.
Game and tournament reports for these games? We’ll see……I hope to get them at some point. That’s the end of the season though; we missed the next game (a 4-0 win) for graduation and the last game of the season was a forfeit.
2014 Spring WSSL Standings
2014 Canton Cup U13 White Results
