Let's move communication to the next level for 2014

Hello parents and girls,

Last year the blog was created and it I believe has done well for communication and general team info.  It is not so good for getting out quick communications like today's snow cancelations and restarts.

I have a proposal for a couple new modes of communication.
1. Twitter - (I heard the gasps from all those over 20, but if it can topple governments maybe it can 
                    work for us)
2. Viber - Free text application.

First Twitter:
We have a twitter account but only about 6 people are signed up.  I would like to ask every parent to sign-up and maybe all girls with texting capabilities or e-mail accounts.

There are two ways to get twitter messages:
1. Via E-mail just click the link posted at the top right of our blog and join twitter and follow us.
2. Via Text for those that prefer not to join twitter just do the following:
    Write a Text to: 40404
     In the message type: follow wiekings
You will get a confirmation text back and you are done.

Second Viber:
Now for a stretch, Viber, this is a free app you can get on I think any smart phones, (Android, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.)   Actually my daughters have it there iPods and when they are hooked to wifi we text as a family (not around the dinner table...yet).

Here is the website:  http://www.viber.com/
What I like about this is it is very easy to create and add people to text groups and it is very clear who is in the group.  The other nice feature is the texts are free even if you pay 20cents a text like my wife's plan it does not count against it.

If everyone that has a smart phone does this and e-mails their smart phone number back to me
at serfdelp@fuse.net  I will set up a group for the team so that we have any easy way for anyone to communicate with everyone.  Please also let me know if you have any parents that do not have a smart phone then the app will not work.  Just always leave Viber running in the background, it will automatically start up when you turn on your phone.

Special Note if you want Viber on an iPod:
As far as getting it to work on an iPod like Sheena does, it takes a little more in that you need to get a free phone number from installing an app called "Pinger".  This is pretty cool too because it allows her to make free calls when she connected to wifi.  Once you have the phone number for pinger you use that phone number for Viber.

If you made it this far, thank you for hanging with me.  Here is one more challenge I would like to through out there for an FB'ing parent, (if you don't know what FB is just go back up to the Twitter explanation and get that done. )

I was thinking it might be great to have a "Fans of WieKings" facebook page that parents and the girls can post on and cheer the team on.  I am not sure if any parent would like to create it but I think it is something that could be good for the team.

If there is any parent that would take it on to take it, just comment at the bottom of the blog that you will set it up.  Please just use wiekings@gmail.com as the log-on the password can be "soccer" or something easy for everyone to remember.  Post that then we all can use it, like it, friend it etc.

Anyway I hope at least we can make twitter work if everyone will sign-up one way or the other or both.  Also viber would be a great addition I believe for unrestricted simple text communication.

Coach Eric

3 things to focus on next indoor game

Girls,
Happy Snow Day!
Marta(who goes by just "Marta"!), who plays for Brazil and is by far the most skilled female player in the world, shows great demonstration of hard cuts on the ball.  This is what we practiced last night.

Enjoy the entire video!  But please pay special attention to how she cuts/chops hard with the ball at the:

40 second mark
51 second mark
3:18-3:24 second mark
3:29 second mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsLvmSSo3HU

ALSO, notice how she dribbles with GREAT pace.  Messi is also so good at this.  Landon Donovan for the US Men's National team does this well also.  They dribble as fast as they possibly can taking big touches when space allows, and smaller touches in tighter space.  But they all dribble with great speed, and only slow down occasionally to "set up a defender" so the defender will stab at the ball, and then they use an S4 move and explode past them with great pace again.  Many of the moves are simple shoulder feints. WHICH WE DO NOT USE ENOUGH!

I am going to look for these THREE things at our next indoor game--1. Cutting the ball (remember, it's a very lateral cut),  2. Shoulder Feints, and 3 Dribbling with much faster pace than normal!

ENJOY the video and your Snow Day!

Brian

1/15/14 Post Indoor notes

The team we played was suprisingly much better than I anticipated.  Their size thru me off.  They were much faster and quicker than I expected, and they had a very nice first touch, good movement off the ball, and pretty darn physical for their size--they were well coached.  They reminded me a lot of the u13 top Kings Acadamy team we played last session where we won 2-1 in the final seconds.

You guys slowly broke them down with your great runs, passing, and skills.  Very nice finishes too. In the second half our fullbacks did a better job of keeping possession rather than clearing.  Not giving up a goal to that team was pretty tremendous too, especially without our all-star goalie.  The 4 girls that played goalie did a great job!  And I'll make the rest of this short---the second half looked like an S4 clinic---just amazing... Speechless.  Great job girls.  Wow.

Brian

What is Ballon d'Or ?

Hey Girls,

What is Ballon d'Or?  Take a look at this article with the status in the different section.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/10568224/Ballon-dOr-2013-Lionel-Messi-Cristiano-Ronaldo-and-Franck-Riberys-2013-performance-compared.html

Ballon d'Or is the World Player of the year.  There were 3 players that were in the final run for the best player of the year.

Franck Ribery (French player playing for the European cup Winner Bayern Munich , Lionel Messi (Argintinia player for Barcelona - my favorite team) and Cristiano Ronaldo (portugese player who plays for Real Madrid.

The history has been lately all about Messi.  So the winners the last five years are:
2008: Critiano Ronaldo
2009/2010/2011/2012: Messi

My personal opinion is Ronaldo is the best athelete and most skilled in the world.

Messi of course is incredible but he is a better team player and he has an incredible passing team to complement him.

Ribery is very scrappy and fast like both Ronald and Messi but he had a very good team in Bayer Munich.
Take a look at his stats in the article, he beat out Ronald and Messi in many but not the most important goal scoring.

The Winner for 2013 is:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpDIGQZSFD8

They say Ronaldo sealed the title in the Portugal vs Sweeden game that was going to knock out Portugal or Sweeden for the World Cup.  In the game he scored the 1st goal, Sweden scored twice so Ronaldo scored 2 more times to knock out Sweeden. 

Here are some highlights of an epic battle between 2 of the worlds best players, Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic.  These 2 men scored all 5 goals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLRWirlSSxI

As you may have seen now, Portugal is in the same bracket as the US and Germany so it is going to be hard round for the US.

It is going to be exciting to watch.  We will probably send out some more blogs as we get close to June for players to watch.  There are many incredible players that you can see in the World cup

You got to love it,

Coach Eric

Ladies,

Congratulations on a very strong win today, 15-1. This was probably the best team effort I have seen from this team. You ALL played as a team today both distributing the ball and finishing. Today we saw a lot of skill, passing to feet, passing to open space and 100% effort from each player on the field until subbed. We heard the other coach trying to build his team up by telling his team not to get down, that this was probably the best team they will ever play (What a compliment to each of you).

One of the things I saw today was a total selfless game by each of you looking for the best options. The final score showed that end result. Chris Sturm (Thanks for helping Chris) was totally impressed with the team from the coaching sideline. He told me he got to see positive things with this team that you don’t see from the other sideline.

Let’s keep this momentum going into the spring season!

Coach Gary

Indoor Co-Champs!

Congrats girls on being Co-Champions in the Indoor Session 1, Division 1!!!

Winning is becoming a habit for you girls :)

Brian

Confidence in fakes WITHOUT touching the ball - Great Video Link attached

Girls,

Last session we talked about movement without the ball, and how this movement is designed to get a defender to get off balance, so you can then quickly play the ball past them.  We actually ended our session doing different pump fakes.  Some of the best at this are Neymar (Barcelona) and Ronaldo (Real Madrid).  Neymar is from Brazil (his National Team) and plays club for Barcelona (with Messi) in the Spanish League.

In this video, please pay attention to Newmar at the 1:50 mark.  Look at his movement setting up the defender to finally use an Elastico to go around him.  The defender has no other choice but to push Newmar down!!!  PLEASE COME NEXT WEEK READY TO SHOW OFF as some of you did at the end of last session.  Get creative!!!!  Have fun!

Also, please pay special attention to Neymar at the 2:35-2:45 mark.  You will see it in full speed and slow motion.  You will see his fakes back and forth while the ball is moving--he doesn't touch the ball until the defender finally goes for one of the fake.  Neymar begins to then blow by him, and once again all the defender can do is foul him!!!

These are SOOOO easy.  You just have to have the confidence to use them.  Remember, setting up the defender to blow by them can be accomplished greatly without touching the ball, waiting for them to go for your fake, then blow by them!!!!

Here is the video--remember to pay attention at the 1:50 and 2:35-2:45 mark.  PLEASE WATCH and ENJOY!  Gosh, he is so good!  And you girls can do this stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3in9BW7k9fg

Brian