Girls, very well played game today.
Once again, you are making decent teams look "not very good" with a very nice 3-1 win, that could have been 8-1! Today's team pressured their defense up very high, looking for offside traps. We did a decent job at playing to feet, and then exposing their flat line in the back, and playing thru balls allowing numerous one on ones with their goalie--making them pay for playing that style of defense.
I am not sure why they continued to play that way, and not play a little more cover/depth in their defensive back. Our speed was way to much for them to handle. But, that's how they played, and we did a great tactical job by making runs and playing the ball behind their defense. Just remember, if they would have played with greater depth, we would have had to play to feet a lot more. But, we did do a good job of making 2 and 3 passes to feet to work it up the field, and then made those through balls.
We definitely didn't switch fields enough. We continued to play balls up through the middle. Fortunately though, we were fast enough to outrun their central defenders and cause great pressure on the goalie--I think Maleah actually scored a goal this way when the goalkeeper's clear deflected off Maleah, who then finished for a nice goal. Just remember, it makes it much easier to play from the middle to the outside, back to the middle. Many times, those balls played from our back straight up the middle simply go right to their goalie. So let's focus on switching fields a lot more next game and our long balls/clears going to corners flags versus down middle to their goalie.
Our high pressure defense was pretty outstanding today. Very nice rotation. Fullbacks, great job in stepping up to deny their outside mid fielders, and the other fullbacks did great in rotating over. Outside mids and forwards, great pressure on their backs! Your high pressure was the best I've ever seen you girls play it. And it was done so well!, because you ALL rotated so quickly. Remember, if one girl falls asleep on that high pressure, we could have a quick counter on us. Well done in not allowing that to happen!
We worked on heading in the last two practices and I am SOO happy to see that evolve to game play. Their coach (girls on the bench heard this too) said to his team "this team (talking about us) has headed the ball more this game than you girls have your whole life"! And what was so nice, was you girls were heading the ball with purpose--a pass, a clear, or a shot on goal. The passing head flicks were awesome today! Megan, passing by head to Jenna, who passed by head to Kylie, who finished for one of her two goals--well done.
Eric and Gary also heard the other coach tell the refs after the game, "you guys had your work cut out for you today reffing a team with so much speed and skill." What a great compliment to you girls!
We will continue to work on movement off the ball, and perfect one and two touch passing. I always say that we learn the most from our losses. I continue to think back to our one loss this season and remember how well that team moved off the ball and passed so perfectly with both feet. That is our goal--we are not far off, but it will take a lot of practice to get there. Let's continue to all have that same focus/goal in mind!
Good luck to all the girls who have high school games this week!
Brian
One additional comment. As I thinking about the game last night we had an additional advantage over the other team, we didn't play with 11 players but rather all 16 were involved in each play. Each girl that was rotated out kept their head in the game, I heard a lot of encouragement and support from the bench. I cant tell you how many times I heard Man On, Turn, Over lap, Great Play from the bench yesterday. Ladies, that's how each one of you stay in the flow of the game for all 70 minutes. You learn, support and play both on and off the field.
ReplyDeleteGary