No pictures or video here; this game ended the streak of soccer in beautiful weather; cloudy and drizzle all game long. Second weekend in a row with a two games….
Despite the score, I’ll remember this game for a long time….because what happened here is one of the big reasons I felt that Matthew should switch clubs.
If you would have asked me before the game I would have said this was an absolute lock for a win. But I realized in the first half that Coach Stu wasn’t playing to win…he was having the boys play a certain way and didn’t care if we won or lost.
We did score in the second half, Matthew had a nice pass over other other team to spring our striker in for a goal. And we gave it right back and that was it for the scoring.
In the league we play in, the parents are on the same side of the field as the coach (this approach is a hallmark of a league that had a nasty parent-versus-parent fight in the past). So Suzanne and I sat up near Coach Stu and listened to him coach the boys. Coach Stu definitely had a plan and was going to go with that the entire game…and boys who decided not to do that were going to get chided. A pretty funny day.
So, not playing a game to win ended up with more than a few parent comments….and with the game reports there was quite a detailed explanation of what was going on. I may be the only one who cares about all of this, but, we’ll reproduce both the email and the game report below.
Matthew played the entire first half at center-back; played center-mid the 2nd half and may have been benched for not doing what Stu wanted a one point…it was hard to tell if the benching was part of a plan or not…he certainly wasn’t doing what Stu wanted, even though he had a sweet pass for the goal.
Coach Stu Says Part One:
Hi All,
I hope this email finds you well. Attached is the game analysis from this weekends games. I have to say that at times in both games the boys played some lovely eye-catching soccer. However, like you would expect from players at this age playing on such a big field, we made a lot of mistakes too.
I wanted to take a few moments to explain why I am doing a few things I am doing. I few of the boys told me at yesterday’s practice that their parents were annoyed that we didn't win on Sunday. Also that we passed the ball backwards too much and that we didn't go forward enough. And although you are not completely wrong it kind of reminded me of when I bring over new coaches and they watch American Football! They always get so frustrated when the running back run towards the offensive and defensive line and that they should just run around everyone (it does sound easier the just gaining a few yards hoping someone opens a lane for you). We could have won the game playing direct. We could have won the game taking a few long throws. We could have won the game playing every one in their best position. We could have also won the game playing the exact same way we did and just converted a few of the chances we created in the first half in 2v1 situations (about 7 times!). However what is the point in beating weaker teams when you are 11 and 12 years old if you play a style of soccer that doesn't allow you to beat good teams at 12,13 and 14. Its all about the future. Premier league clubs will sacrifice a result at this age to play the center-back and forward the other way around to challenge them mentally and that is what I am trying to do. Don't get me wrong I WANT TO WIN, but not at all costs.
I have asked all the boys to start watching more premier league games since they are all on NBC. The boys need to do this to see what I am talking about in training. If the only soccer they are watching is what we do then it is going to be hard for them to grasp the big picture. If you watch the premier league or the Spanish league or any top league will see that teams try to keep the ball to break down the opposition. Sometimes its hard to know if you don't know the players but the center-mids will drop back to receive the ball and they could be the deepest player as everyone else moves forward and checks to get the next pass. There is patience and then when they get in the final third their is urgency! We cant always go forward and we must get more used to passing the ball and building out the back!
Although we over-played the ball this weekend I wanted to make them do more. The last few weeks the stats have shown that the number of passes per possession have decreased as we have gotten away with playing and winning on athletic ability alone. We are passing the ball fewer times, however, virtually any time we pass the ball 5 times or more we create a goal scoring opportunity. We must add this to our game more like we did against LCSC in the second half of the rush tournament. Yes we over-played it this weekend but it is all about learning when and where to build and the result will speak for itself in the future!
I just ask you to trust me that I am trying to build something special and we have a lot of the pieces in place to do so. The boys are learning so much and we must be patient. I will push them HARD when they need it but I ask for more patience from you at home and if you have any questions PLEASE call me as I would be happy to chat and explain why we are doing things.Thanks for all your passionate support and trust me we will get the balance right quickly!
Coach Stu Says Part Two:
1ST HALF SUMMARY:
| I told the boys that if they played the way we did yesterday that we would win and win comfortably. But then what would we have learned from our defeat? They all agreed that they wanted to play ‘BEAUTIFUL SOCCER’ and pass the ball around and use all the players on the field to draw in the opposition and create very good goal scoring chances. I would rather tie 0-0 and never give the opposition one touch of the ball then win 5-0 against a weaker team (obviously I would rather win 10-0 playing beautiful soccer and also have the opposition only touch the ball to kick off). I challenged them to switch the ball until we drew in the opposition then quickly attack; playing good quick combos and no easy goals (i.e. Long throws) since I wanted them to have to do all these things while the score was close and not make it that easy! This may seem a little strange but results mean nothing this fall and we must develop our players to play the right way so when we play great teams next year we are capable of keeping the ball. We had a great start from the boys. The boys were patient and drew the opposition in and when it wasn’t there we swung the ball. We ended up with some outstanding chances in the wide areas by switching it and then creating good 2v1s with the full backs and wingers combining! We got a little sloppy as the half went on when there wasn’t as much purpose to our play. The reason to switch is when there is more opposition on one side then the other. If the opposition is spread out then we start to find the midfielders more! It was also difficult with the wet conditions to do this, which added to how hard the boys would have to work to keep the ball. |
| 2ND HALF SUMMARY |
| We started off a little sloppy in possession. They pressed us higher (as we expected) and that should have helped us break them down easier but we didn’t get our head up quickly enough. We then scored a goal that was directly from our style of play. Because we had tried to keep the ball they had all 10-outfield players squeezing us and we hit the long ball and scored. Obviously this is the type of goal we will score a lot, even against good teams, if we draw in the opposition, and this one was done within two passes after receiving the ball (but still directly in relation to us keeping the ball the previous possessions). Then we made a few mental errors and conceded a very poor goal. You could see the boys panic and wrestle with the demons of “do we go direct or do we keep the ball”. Unfortunately we were often of two minds for the rest of the day. The boys played too many passes short or long without putting enough communication on them and gave away the possession of the ball too easily. Although we still created a few great chances there wasn’t the same swagger or confidence as we had the first half. |
| OVERALL |
| OK well I expect a little flack for this one but I told the boys that we have to go back to basics after the Wolves game. During the Rush tournament the boys played the ball side to side to break down the opposition but didn’t have the killer instinct and couldn’t find the channels into the striker after we broke the opposition down. Now that we have worked linking with the strikers and wingers more the boys have played too direct the last few weeks. It is all about trying to find the right balance. If you take little snippets of every game and put them together that’s the beautiful soccer I want. I want us to be able to keep the ball and draw the opposition as well as to be able to quickly counter attack. I want to score goals from direct play to keep the opposition honest and I want to score from set pieces and throw ins. The 11v11 game is tough enough when you are 6 feet tall never mind the bunch of little guys we have playing it. I just want the boys to blend all these styles over the next two months and then I can really get the details of third player runs and switching positions over the winter. If I sounded like I wanted negative soccer on the sidelines I apologize, but when you have a bunch of talented athletes like we have (that can win without my help in games like this) every now and again I have to really push them to a style that puts them under pressure to play the game the right way. Their athletic ability alone will not beat the Crew or Wolves or Vardar so we have to have a style of play that can help us keep the ball and then break down the opposition. There were a lot of encouraging signs this weekend and now I have to help put it all together! I am looking forward to more games in two weekends time and seeing if we can better blend the two styles!!!! It is a process and wins at 11 and 12 don’t translate to wins at 14, It must be our style over wins at this age and I will continue to get us playing the right way. As us Brit’s say lets just “stay calm and carry on.” |
| Goalkeeper: Better build up play through you and just need to make sure that your continuing to talk to your team in future games |
| Defenders: Good build up play in the first half. Little quieter in the second half and the ball didn’t move as quickly as I would of liked. |
| Midfielders: Great stiff at times but as the game wore on too many passes were played in front of players and we lost possession of the ball to easily. |
| Forwards: Some good link up play in the first half little bit wasteful in the second half Must remember that a 1-2 is easier then just beating players and the play of two 1-2 to start the half of was what we should be doing all the time! |
