Inferno Soccer
I have become a soccer coach. I know, I know, but Rick you never played soccer and know nothing about it. Yes but I can learn and my job really is to motivate these girls to realize they can perform better than they did last season.
I have taken coaching courses and now have my National D license. I am taking over a team who lost every game last Spring and has very little confidence in their abilities. We no longer have a keeper as our keeper from last season has moved to Albuquerque. Four girls who have a lot of soccer knowledge and love the game have decided they are going to play up 1 age bracket on the under 13 team where they will get less playing time and less touches on the ball.
We are just over half way through the first half of our season and we are 3-1-1. The girls are starting to believe in themselves and it is a beautiful thing to watch. Our game today was against a team I thought we might have a little trouble with at full strength, and we ended up missing our starting keeper, and one of our starting defenders, and one of our midfielders. At the last minute I had to throw Eva in goal because the girl I was going to use shows up with a sprained finger.
Needless to say things did not go as planned the first half, the score was 3-1 at halftime. I do my best Chuck Knoll impersonation to fire up the troops and use what I hear the other coach say as the girls come off the field. I hear him tell his girls that "We own this team." Of course what happens next, the speech works and we score 5 goals and win. NOPE. We allow a weak goal and are now down 4-1. The girls now start to outplay the other team for the next 15 minutes but can not break through and get a goal. Finally with about 10 minutes to go we get the second goal. We continue to battle and I realize that the other coach is subbing at every opportunity to slow down the pace of the game and try to hang on for a win, but it does not work. My girls then played the best 10 minutes of soccer we have played all year long. We pressured the ball all over the field and were able to keep the ball in the offensive half for most of the time. We scored 2 quick goals with about 3 minutes to go and had their keeper under siege. The score is tied with about 1 minute left. We have the ball in their box we are crashing the goal like I have not seen all year and our right wing sends in the cross and BAM its in the back of the net and everyone goes crazy!!!! Until I see the flag is up. We are called for offside and the goal does not count. They take the kick and the whistle blows. We end with a 4-4 tie. My girls come off the field excited and happy. We just came back from 4-1 down with ten minutes left to play. This is why they call this the beautiful game. A few of our girls were yelling "You do not own us!" which may not have been appropriate but it was funny.
Three games left in the Fall season. Hopefully we can take this momentum and get 3 wins and have a chance to move into the Premier division for the Spring.
I have taken coaching courses and now have my National D license. I am taking over a team who lost every game last Spring and has very little confidence in their abilities. We no longer have a keeper as our keeper from last season has moved to Albuquerque. Four girls who have a lot of soccer knowledge and love the game have decided they are going to play up 1 age bracket on the under 13 team where they will get less playing time and less touches on the ball.
We are just over half way through the first half of our season and we are 3-1-1. The girls are starting to believe in themselves and it is a beautiful thing to watch. Our game today was against a team I thought we might have a little trouble with at full strength, and we ended up missing our starting keeper, and one of our starting defenders, and one of our midfielders. At the last minute I had to throw Eva in goal because the girl I was going to use shows up with a sprained finger.
Needless to say things did not go as planned the first half, the score was 3-1 at halftime. I do my best Chuck Knoll impersonation to fire up the troops and use what I hear the other coach say as the girls come off the field. I hear him tell his girls that "We own this team." Of course what happens next, the speech works and we score 5 goals and win. NOPE. We allow a weak goal and are now down 4-1. The girls now start to outplay the other team for the next 15 minutes but can not break through and get a goal. Finally with about 10 minutes to go we get the second goal. We continue to battle and I realize that the other coach is subbing at every opportunity to slow down the pace of the game and try to hang on for a win, but it does not work. My girls then played the best 10 minutes of soccer we have played all year long. We pressured the ball all over the field and were able to keep the ball in the offensive half for most of the time. We scored 2 quick goals with about 3 minutes to go and had their keeper under siege. The score is tied with about 1 minute left. We have the ball in their box we are crashing the goal like I have not seen all year and our right wing sends in the cross and BAM its in the back of the net and everyone goes crazy!!!! Until I see the flag is up. We are called for offside and the goal does not count. They take the kick and the whistle blows. We end with a 4-4 tie. My girls come off the field excited and happy. We just came back from 4-1 down with ten minutes left to play. This is why they call this the beautiful game. A few of our girls were yelling "You do not own us!" which may not have been appropriate but it was funny.
Three games left in the Fall season. Hopefully we can take this momentum and get 3 wins and have a chance to move into the Premier division for the Spring.
posted by ROMA | 15:49
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