Mead Cup Results and moving forward

Girls (parents, feel free to not read--BUT PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR DAUGHTERS DO--I WILL BE ASKING THEM ABOU THIS--thanks) ,

First, congrats on making the Semi-Finals of  the Mead Cup!  Remeber, there are 16 teams in the division--only one leaves with the win.

Some thoughts...

Game 1: We played well the first game, with the result being a tie.  We all know we had many opportunities to finish, and they had very few.  It wasn't our best game, but it was good.  I would have liked to see better movement off the ball and better passing to feet.  We tried to pass to space way too much, especially when they were playing off of us, and feet was the better option--they were sitting back deep.  Remember, when they play off of you, that is when you play to feet. You still tied a good team--a team I think we should beat 8 out of 10 games...

Game 2: We played our very best soccer EVER in the second game of the tournament!  Some reasons I felt this way...

• The first reason was that we did it against a good team.  That team was much better than those we played last week when we won the Cincinnati West Soccer Tournament.  And, besides our team, they were the best team in our bracket!
• The second reason was that we were definately the more physical team, winning 50/50 balls, shouldering girls off the ball to win balls, being first to balls, etc.  We set the tone early that we were going to win every ball no matter what.  And if we didn't win the ball, you got it back within a 1/2 second!
• They saw our speed right away, and decided to play off of us; and we passed to feet!  The passing was very nice.  The movement off the ball to be an option was terrific.  Our first touches were nice. We wore them down.  We used skill when we needed to create more time/space for ourselves!  They became unorganized and had multiple girls chasing the ball; which lead to us finding the open person. This led to many shots on goal.  We only finished one, but the set ups to all the shots we had were very very nice.  It was a 1-0 result, but it was total domination against a good team!

Game 3: Rainout--automatic Tie (hate that rule!).

Game 4:   Girls, DO NOT GET DOWN ABOUT THIS GAME.  I will put this loss on my shoulders.  Let me take this loss--all of it.  Here is what you need to know (Please read all of this). Let me tell you who the Four teams were in the semi-finals.  The two teams that played after us are both in the MRL.  Ohio Premiere Red and GTFC Impact both are in the MRL League. Ohio Premiere Red won 1-0.  Ohio Premiere Red actually plays The VERY TOP Kings Academy team (the Red Academy Team) the 28th of this month.  The team that beat us to go to the finals, CUSA Courage Premiere, plays BOTH in The Premier League and in the Buckey League--State Division. Girls, this division is basically the top 8 teams in Ohio. Remember, the Mead Cup is a tournament that the very best teams in Michigan, Ohio (Ohio is the soccer mecca girls), Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and other states play in.  When you put the very best teams from all of these states in a tournament, I hope you can see how even the "Silver Division" will have to have these types of teams in them.   Now, do NOT think you CAN'T play at this level.  Girls, Javanon and Kentucky FC both will be playing these teams.  And I believe they will do very well against them.

So, what can we learn from this...  Here is what I learned.  I think I (and coaching staff), have gotten you girls to a level where we can now DOMINATE teams we had just lost too THIS past spring (think of last tournament as proof of that).  And we can now compete with teams in very high divisions such as MRL and Buckeye.  But, what I learned, is we played a team today that plays the EXACT type of soccer that I envision, but only better. They were not like Lexingto FC (State Cup winners) who were very quick in playing "Up, Back, Through"--somewhat very direct, but extrememly fast, so it workded for them.  No, this team today, played a style very much like us.  Anyone watching that team would have been very impressed; just as they would have been impressed watching us that second game.  So, what's the difference then...  Three things:

1.  Their touch on the ball was perfect.  For example, when a ball came to their feet, their first touch to space  or teammate was perfect, and their pass was placed perfect.  Our first touch, even from our most skilled girls today, was not perfect.  And against a team that put that type of very quick pressure on us, we didn't have time to correct our imperfect first touch.  For example, if a ball was passed to you, your first touch may have put it in the air.  By the time you tried to use your thigh to get control of it, the defender was already on top of you--making your first touch now a 50/50 ball!!  On the other hand, their touches were equally as good with their left as their right.  So, how do we get to their level??? As many touches from here on out at our practices, AND ON YOUR OWN, as possible.  For those girls not playing highschool ball, you really need to be touching the ball for at LEAST 1/2 hour a day (remember, your teammates are practicing 1.5 hours per day with their teams).  TOUCHES, TOUCHES, TOUCHES (and most with your weaker foot).  

Why was our touch better in the 2nd game than the last game???  Well, the pressure wasn't as strong, so we had time to correct our first touch, and we were able to take a little more time to make the perfect first touch.  In the second game, many of us also panicked with the quick pressure, making more errors for ourselves.  We've now have got to learn to make that perfect first touch a LOT quicker under much great pressure.

2.  Our lack of organization on Defense (All 11 of us on the field, not just defenders).  Girls, this comes with talk and understanding the correct rotations.  It was 0-0 at halftime.  If we stay organized on defense (starting from forwards back), we have the opportunity to take that team to a shoot out, and possibly upset them (yes, it would have been an upset--they were the better team).  But, we began ball chasing.  And, if you are guarding a girl, and she passes the ball, and you run to the girl she passed it too (ball chaser), who already had your teammate defending them, you were now leaving your girl open.  We did that so many times.  WE DO NOT BALL CHASE.  We talk and rotate.  Girls, I GUARANTEE you ran twice the mileage than the other team due to this.  They hardly even had to sub.  We were exhausted because we actually worked TOO hard.  If we work smarter, we don't need to run that much.  

Again, I will put this on me (YOU CAN TALK--THAT IS ON YOU), but I think I do need to show you proper rotation when we are playing high pressure ( Example:  when they try and switch fields with their fullbacks, our outside midfielder needs to leave her mark, and step up to deny the pass from the farside fullback,  while our outside back QUICKLY steps up in front of their outside mid--while our other fullbacks shift over).  We will go over this.  Seriously, in 5-10 minutes of going over this, you girls will see the simple breakdown that took place on our defense.  For whatever reason, our center Mids (all of them) were also leaving their mark in the middle to go gaurd the outside mid.  Again, we will show you the correct rotation.  We NEVER leave middle open unless 100% necessary.  So, this was leaving the middle open throughout the entire game--again, my fault.  Many of you only thought you were doing what was right.

3.  Lastly, I ended our very last practice, after breaking down every position, showing you how much more there was too learn.  Remember, I said "You girls should be so excited of the things I want to teach you"?   I even gave you an example of how the outside mid could make a run directly towards the inside midfielder for an overlap to lay the ball off, and how the inside mid would then roll off making a run towards far post!.  If you remember, Coach Eric said, "Yes, let's focus on everything you learned today, and when we master that, we will take you to this other level Brian wants to show you..."!  Well, from the beginning of that last game, that team was making those runs--the runs we have not even taught you yet.  Those runs caused a lot of confusion on our defense.  Some of you may have been thinking "do I stay with that mark, or hand her off"?  And that's the result--making the defense make those QUICK decsions and making them pay for any hesitations or mistakes!  Again, back to number 2 above, we will go over this simple rotations on defense so you know how to defend against this type of play.  BUT, I want you to know, that these girls were making runs off the ball that we have yet to show you girls AND WILL SHOW YOU GIRLS IN TIME.  We just are not there yet.  Here is why--In speaking with both Coach Eric and Coach Gary, we feel that YOU MASTERING YOUR TOUCH ON THE BALL comes first.  So, be patient.  It will come.  We will most likely not be playing a team nearly that good in our league.  We have time.

Let me share with you some information to make sure we are all together on the same page to support the above:

Girls, we had the opportunity to join the MRL league this fall.  We were invited to the MRL league for being finalists in the State Cup.  We denied the invitation because we knew that numbers 1, 2 and 3 above have to take place first.  BE PATIENT, but continue to work hard.  TRUST ME.  You will be at the level of the team you played today, and I believe that will come within a year.  Coach Eric and I talk of this vision all the time. You showed it the second game, but I hope you see how beneficial our last game was today.  It simply showed our areas needed for improvement.  It has turned my focus back to help concentrate on demanding that your girls get 10000's of touches on both feet.  Remember, TECHNIQUE (good skill) before TACTIC (runs, spacing, overlaps, formation).  I am glad we spent tons of time on tactic this season.  We had ALWAYS focused 95% of our time on skill, and 5% on tactic.  By spending more time on tactic THIS season, it was the "icing on the cake" to dominate those teams that just beat us in the spring.  BUT, now we see to be competitive with the very top teams, we need to get our focus in practices back on Skill/touches.  And once we feel your skill has gotten to another level, then we can get back to more tactical runs--like you saw today.

Thanks girls for working so hard this weekend.  Even with todays loss, you really didn't give up.  I was proud of you for that!  Enjoy your day and congrats on playing the best soccer of your lives that 2nd game!!!!

Coach Brian