From The Sports Desk – PR Edition

Monday was the Greater Lansing Jr. Cross Country Championship…or some long name like that.  The last cross country meet of the year.

Had been encouraging the boys to try and catch the kids in front of them.  Happy to report that this meet was the PR (personal record) for each of them.

The best thing about this photo?  I’ve never seen Cpher running with this other kid before.  He really stepped up and ran flat out for 2 miles..

A little later….he’s pulling away from that kid and passing a lot of other kids.   I commented to the friend I was watching the race with that I hadn’t seen Cpher with any of these kids when he ran and, in fact, noticed the kids he usually runs near were way behind him.  Thought that might mean a dramatic change in his time….

That’s just short of 2 minutes faster than anything he’s pulled off this year.  It was so much faster that it caught me off guard; I though I would have time to walk back to see him finish…turns out I almost missed it because he ran so much faster than he usually does.

 

Was a little surprised by when I saw Matthew….his friends Parker and Greg were way ahead of him.   Not sure why he didn’t take it out faster or why they decided to start so fast….

But I yelled out to him when he came back “Go and catch Greg!!!”….

Mission Accomplished.  Barely!  That time is still about 30 seconds faster than anything he’s pulled off this year. 

Both boys seem intent on continuing to run some through the winter and open to practicing with the high school team this summer.  We will see….

From The Sports Desk – Doink! Edition

Cpher:  Lost to Grand Ledge.  I don’t even remember the score and I was there for the whole thing….36-14?   Just a long season getting longer.  Cpher complained about leg in his pain and didn’t play the second half.  He said he played through it in the first quarter so I don’t know what was going on.  Was not an issue when he was warming up to run the next Monday so who knows?

Matthew:  Tied the league leaders 3-3.  Completely dominated the first half; had a 1-0 lead.  Went 2-0 up early in the second half; they responded to make it 2-1.  It’s tough to say the game turned on this play, it isn’t fair at all, but, this goal, if it was a goal, would have made it 3-1 and things probably would have been a lot different.

You can click on the picture to see the video.

A few things here:

1)  Zach, over there on the right, has just centered the ball to Matthew, who is there in the center at the 18’ and has just shot the ball…..

2)  We are playing on the new turf field.  The bleachers and lights are in and it really looks great.

3)  The ball that Matthew has just shot is above they yellow player in front of him…..after the game I was a little critical of Matthew about this shot because he didn’t drive the ball like he has been working on.  Seeing it on replay make me take that criticism back; think he did about as much as he could with it.  Except be maybe one inch shorter on it.  The ball bounced down, hit the goalie in the back, and then went sideways, not into the goal. 

4)  Gopro.  Finally, after a long (probably too long) experimental period, have it figured out where I can tape the whole game.  No wifi enable, need battery pack charged to full capacity.

Anyway, he missed, they scored the next two to make it 3-2 them and we were lucky to equalize late to make it 3-3.  Which is too bad; we really dominated the first half and probably deserved better than that. 

 

If you are curious, you can click on that picture above to see what I’ve started to do for games; make a 7 to 10 minute highlight video complete with captions and title screens.  This play is TKO’s second goal; you can see the ball between Matthew and Zack over there on the left coming in from a corner kick.  They both miss it; the guy you an barely see in front of the other player doesn’t…..he heads it in for the goal. 

Game Report:

DATE: 5^th October

TEAM: 02 Boys Blue –vs- TKO CREW

RESULT: 3-3 Tie

ATTACKING

ATTACKING STRENGTHS

Created good chances in the first half and looked dangerous every-time we attacked.

Looked to exploit the opposition’s high line.

Looked very dangerous from the wide areas and players in the centre of the park got looked to get on the ball

Good through balls.

ATTACKING CHALLENGES

Wide players not bursting up the field the join the attack but just giving us a safe option when we were counter attacking.

Wasted too many set pieces.

Final ball was a little over hit.

Still need to be a little more clinical in the final third.

DEFENDING

DEFENDING STRENGTHS

In the first half especially we were first to most balls.

Defended well from the front.

Dropped back and got ten behind the ball very quickly.

Very good at battling for aerial balls and stepping onto the ball.

DEFENDING CHALLENGES

Stepped up a little too high with them playing with two strikers.

Got caught out a few times with players on the centre of the park not giving the best defensive shape.

OVERALL COMMENTS

This was a very good team we played and we did some excellent stuff against them. We talked about playing with more freedom and not worrying about the results. The boys seemed to take that on board at the start and played the ball around well and created the much better chances. We could have gone in with a much bigger lead at half time however I was pleased overall. We started the same way in the second half and were 2-0 up. We made a few mistakes and they had a few moments of magic and suddenly we had to claw our way back into the game. There were several times when our center forward would pick up the ball and run and we would be supporting him wide but never SPRINTING beyond him or joining him. This left our forward isolated and until we made some changes to our system we wasted too many chances. We must be more prepared to gamble forward when we counter attack. Overall I think we shaded the game against a good team and took a few more chances then in previous weeks. I also felt that we worked a little harder off the ball then in previous weeks which helped us manage the game better.

Kevin’s Yearbook - 2014

While Kevin appears a lot in this edition; I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t cover quiz bowl or Quizbusters very well (one picture that I’m not even including here).

 

I had never seen this picture…it is at the hotel before the State finals.

 

More not thrilled; why does the title have to be a somewhat derogatory term?  SMH as the kids say….

 

 

 

Another picture I’ve never seen….and I have no idea where it is at or who he is with.  Will have to ask him….

From The Sports Desk – Who Turned Out the Lights Edition

Matthew:  That soccer game I thought was a must-win?  A 0-0 tie.  Still have a shot at Premier One but it is getting a little dicey.  Again, we had more than enough chances.  Again, the boys who are entrusted with scoring the goals for our team can’t seem to put a shot on net to save their lives…..I counted at least 5 good (not good, great, incredible!) opportunities where when 1 on 1 with the goalie we can’t even put the ball on frame.

Thought Matthew played ok.  Not his best outing, but far from the worst thing I’ve seen on the field this year.  Unlike a lot of his teammates, he was at least hustling and trying to create something….a couple of players ended up on the bench for uninspired play.

Play the league leaders next weekend.  Getting any result, tie or win, would be a huge boost.  Continuing to piss away chances in front of the goal will lead me to speculate openly out here about what I think we need to be doing…..

Game Report below:

TEAM: 02 Boys Blue VS Carpathia Kickers

RESULT: 0-0(AWAY)

ATTACKING

ATTACKING STRENGTHS

Had numbers up in the final third and had good runs in behind.

Looked dangerous from set pieces.

In the first half got in behind to great effect especially in the wide areas.

Created more chances then the opposition.

ATTACKING CHALLENGES

Not good enough finishing. Had chances to toe-poke to score and didn’t take them

Too many players didn’t impact the game or get on the ball often or good enough.

Decisions in the final third were a little too slow.

Full backs weren’t wide enough quick enough

DEFENDING

DEFENDING STRENGTHS

Didn’t have a great deal to do. Thought that a few players played well and won their individual battles.

Centre mid’s tucked in and covered well for players.

DEFENDING CHALLENGES

Wingers and fullbacks got beaten a little too easily.

Took our eyes off the ball when we went to make challenges.

Some wingers didn’t track back and this was an issue in today’s game.

OVERALL COMMENTS

Just didn’t impose ourselves as well as we could have. We have some exceptionally talented players but players didn’t seem to be on the same page today. Too many players go missing throughout the game and don’t command or demand the ball. I think too many players are going through the motions and doing the simple things but not taking enough chances. We need to play with a bit more confidence and freedom something we will try to install in the lads this week.

Cpher:  No football; we couldn’t make the logistics work.

Cross-Country One:  Two meets this week; the first in Haslett on Monday. 

 

 

 

Ran well; at or equal to his best time.  Said he walked for a brief spell after the big hill. 

 

 

 

Not this boy’s best outing according to him.  Matthew said (and other kids from our team agreed) that the start was not what they were ready for…seemed like everyone was off balance when the gun went off.  Matthew said he cramped up in the first mile, and when they came by the first time he was well behind other kids he had been ahead of in previous races.  Made up some ground in the second mile (you can see the one kid from the other team with the glasses who is just ahead of Matthew in the first pictures is well behind him in this picture) and finished with his best time of the year.

Have challenged Matthew at the next meet; we picked one kid from his team that runs 30 to 45 seconds ahead of Matthew.  On Monday, Matthew’s goal is to stick with him as long as he can.

Cross Country Two:  No Matthew here; soccer-first means that Matthew is off at practice instead of running here.  But Cpher journeyed out to a course with the biggest hill I’ve seen yet!

Not enthused with how this boy started the race; just a slow jog out while talking with one of his friends.  So, he was a little further behind the group than usual.

 

 

I will give him full credit though; he sprints in very well and passed five or six kids this time towards the finish.  Not the greatest of times (because of the slow start) but for the second race in three days we have no complaints.  He has the same challenge as Matthew; picked out the kid in front of him (just the way the team works out the kids is a minute faster than Cpher) and his goal is to stick with him on Monday (foreshadowing;  after football this weekend I’m not sure Cpher will even run on Monday….the injury bug is visiting us).

Iphone Photo Dump – It Has Been A While Edition

I haven’t done one of these posts in a while; I just realize I’m not taking as many random pictures any more.  Really need to work on that!  Pictures not presented in any kind of order….

Since my promise of a puppy is on hold until the saga of Wiley is over, there are a few things that have been done around here to thank a boy for tackling cross country.  One of those things is a trip to Potter Park Zoo; he loves it and it is pretty quick.  We went early one Saturday morning…it was kind of cool out (thus the sweatshirt) and the animals were all out.  Had a good time with the big guy.

 

This is from the week I was in Boston with Kevin for orientation; both Fric and Frac were signed up for lineman camp (it was cheap and an easier way of dealing with them for the three mornings I would be gone).  The trophy belongs to Matthew; who won the award in his age group. 

 

Wiley, master of the car ride, journeyed out a Sunday or two ago to help the boys run the cross country course before the first meet.  Wiley, well, he struggled to walk all the way out here from the parking lot but did it.  No leash necessary at this point…..

This series of texts occurred during that same lineman camp…..Cpher ended up getting a hold of Mom and talking through it.  We still aren’t sure what was going on; didn’t eat right in the morning, ate something funny…who knows.  But he did sound like he almost fainted doing the wind sprints at the end of the day…

Finally, after hanging onto my 4S for a loooong time, I have moved on to the Iphone 6.  Suzanne is going to get the Iphone 6 Plus…we’ll have an update on just how big that thing is later…..

 

When this boy crashes, he crashes hard.  Marino was happy to have him there!

This came in the mail….might as well post it here. 

 

This wasn’t the last photo when I started the post, but, I had to put it here, since this photo has the most ‘story’ to it…..

As Kevin has left, a great cleanup of the Kevin “stuff” left in his car has occurred.  And this week, I found this slip of paper at the bottom of a stack of papers in the center storage of the CR-V between the driver and passenger seat.  Resolve to myself to ask the boy what the heck this is the next time we talk! 

Had a nice talk with the boy; at first he is like “I don’t know” and then after I say I guess I’m going to have to traipse down to the East Lansing “"PD and get the police report his memory returns!  He “slightly bumped” someone on Grand River Avenue!  There was no damage to the other car but the woman insisted on filing the report because it wasn’t her car that she was driving.  Kevin says it happened because he was adjusting the defroster and misjudged the stopping distance.  Said he was hoping this was something that he could confess to at Thanksgiving five years from now.

Sigh.

Whale Watching – Cape Cod Edition

We’ve gone on whale-watching cruises in Alaska, Washington, California, and Hawaii.  We’ve pretty much agreed; this trip in Massachusetts might have been the best!

Why?  Well, there were lots and lots of whales, and that’s always a good thing.   But, in marked contrast to Hawaii, when the whales were close by, the operators here didn’t seem to have any, um, qualms, about firing up the engines and chasing after them.  In Hawaii, it was repeatedly, no engines with 100 yards, and so, encounters were at a distance and if you were lucky and the whales were heading toward you, great, but, if not, tough luck.

That being said, we’ve NEVER had whales head toward the boat like they did at one point on this trip.  And that video is totally awesome!  So, if you don’t normally click on video on this site, you really should watch the first one.  It’s only a minute, and you can see the people on the boat in the last twenty or thirty seconds to provide some contrast.  Click on any of the pictures to see the video.

By the way, those are not my kids ooh’ing and aah-ing…they know better!  Glad that boy was having fun, but, come on, really??

(the videos are presented here in chronological order….except this first one, because it is so awesome!  And you can see another whale spout out in the distance as these three cruise in towards us!)

(Yeah, that’s three whales in one screen-shot!  With people in the foreground for contrast too!)

(a whole lot of whale tails on this trip!)

(on any other trip this video would be the best we have….here it is almost the worst of the ones I chose to save because the whales are moving towards the boat and I have to track them towards the people…I was standing on the second deck in the very front)

(after trailing those 3 whales for a while we moved off and checked out these two.  Just a ton of whale out here today!)

From The Sports Desk – Gloom, Despair, Agony Edition

Cpher:  Lost, 37-0, to Grand Ledge.  I stopped taping after the 3rd quarter.

For all of that, I’ll say he played…better.  The majority of the time was holding his blocks; not placed in a bad position where he had to deal with a quick guy outside.  Came away from the game feeling pretty good about how he did. 

The Offense huddles….

I didn’t take either of these pictures; this one is not from Grand Ledge, but is from the Holt game previous….

Matthew:  A long drive on Saturday (1 hour 45 minutes) to lose 2-1 to a team that we probably should have beaten. 

(Matthew has been starting more recently.  I don’t know if I read too much into the coaches decision regarding starters…I do know that any concerns I had about Matthew in August are long gone!)

Our failure-to-convert problems still exist and they really caught up to us this game….if you don’t score you let random factors influence the game.  And that ref up there in the picture above….he was bad.  Atrocious level bad and he made several decision that cost us.  Add a goalie-disaster to that (still not sure what he was thinking…) and that’s that.

(A lot of his teammates are hitting their growth spurts….if Matthew is like Kevin, and I believe he will be, he will hit it late.  So, kind of surprising to me sometimes to see him still a bit taller and heavier than his opponents.)

A lot of our players, and parents, spent time during the game and after the game bemoaning the ref and how he cost us.  Am happy that Matthew was not one of those doing it during the game and Suzanne and I talked a long time to him on the way home that it is a reason but it is not the only reason you lost and Matthew (and his teammates) have to be good enough to get past events like that.  And that we were very proud of him for not reacting during the game….but instead doubling down on effort trying to make things right!

All that being said, Suzanne and I agree…..this was Matthew’s best game in about a year.  He was everywhere; you can really see the cross-country and how it has changed his stamina and his running stride (a lot of other parents…and his coach…have noticed it too….Matthew runs completely different now).  The other team was taking it to us in the second half; from the moment Matthew subbed in until he was subbed out late he was a ball of energy and we were back on top of things again because of it.

 

(being a little heavier is a good thing in very physical games…which is what this turned into because of the ref.  Combine that with the extra ‘speed’…that’s the wrong word, I’ll talk about that when we get to the cross country section…but Matthew had an advantage on some of these kids)

If the goal for this Fall is to make Premier 1 in the spring we are quickly reaching the point of ‘must win soon’.  I think next Sunday is a must win.

The Game Report (includes the note from the email as well): 

“Hi All,

Please find attached that game analysis from this weekends game vs Wolves East. Obviously this was a very frustrating game in many ways and we just need to have a good week in training and get things right for the trip to Carpathia.

It would be easy to bemoan the ref this weekend, as he had a massive hand in them getting there goals and effecting the game. However we were good enough to win this game and did not finish our chances and must play up to our standard for the rest of the season not down to the opposition.

Thanks for you continued support and we as coaches will get it right over the next few sessions.”

DATE:  20th of September

TEAM:  02 Boys Blue VS Wolves EAST

RESULT: 2-1(AWAY Loss)

ATTACKING

ATTACKING STRENGTHS

Possessed the ball well at times in the game and made some good runs off the ball.

Had numbers up in the final third and good runs in behind them.

Created more chances then the opposition and had some lovely touches and ideas in the final third.

ATTACKING CHALLENGES

Didn’t finish the chances; we certainly had enough.

When confronted with attacking 1v1 situations we didn’t make the right decisions often enough.

We had too many players making runs and not demanding the ball.

We need better runs into the channel.

DEFENDING

DEFENDING STRENGTHS

Aside from the goals we dealt with them very well as a back 4. Their strikers were not able to turn and get at us which was pleasing.

Some good individual tackling especially from midfielders.

We stepped up better then ever as a unit and this was pleasing (although once or twice we stepped a little too high).

DEFENDING CHALLENGES

The big lad on their team walked through 3 players to create the situation in the box that led to the penalty kick.  We needed to do a better job defending him.

Individual errors cost us today in a game we should never in a million years lost.

OVERALL COMMENTS

Thought the boys played well enough in this game to get at least a point if not all three. We looked good at times and had some nice play in the final third without really making it count. We lost a little patience towards the end of the game and this was frustrating as it would have been nice to have had a little more composure in the final third to get the goals that we needed. Obviously the field played a massive part in the game and we need to play a little more direct a little quicker on fields like this. We have to fix a couple of little things for the next few games to turn dominating teams into wins.

Cross Country:  The second meet of the year is at Holt.  I remember this course as the one where Kevin won the rest-of-the-kids race; Kevin, when told where the boys were, remembered a) that he won and b) “that course sucked!  It had so many hills!”

The boys, they would agree.

(Matthew and his buddy Nick.  First time Matthew has beaten him…although Matthew says Nick was “hallucinating”???)

(wish he had a better outing.  Oh well, there is always next week.  I’m just glad he’s doing it!)

I think the day was a success for Matthew, who was only 17 seconds off of his last time (they aren’t publishing the meet times here but the general feel is that most kids were way slower than the last go at it).  Cpher should have listened to his parents who said he should go for a short and not very strenuous run Sunday night….he ended up struggling with all of the ups and downs and walked a bit when the runners were out of sight of the parents.

A note about running:  as mentioned earlier, others have noticed a big change in Matthew’s running…Mom and Dad don’t see it as much as others claim too.  But I see a huge change in how Christopher runs….much more ‘normal’.  Before he liked to just bounce along, hands flopping any which way.  At least the cross country has helped that improve for both boys!

About that Matthew-speed comment above:  I’m not convinced he’s any faster…I don’t have any real proof one way or the other.  What I do believe is that he is now more willing to drop into a flat-out sprint at any moment and he’s willing to do that over and over and over.  Think he has completely embraced the “you have to work outside of soccer to be good at soccer” mantra…..in hindsight, am very glad he is doing cross country and not football.  Much better for him.