Indoor: Season Three

WHAT AN INDOOR SEASON!


As I have mentioned in the past, my goal was for the team would take the next step in their development and compete with the area travel teams. Well, the Crushers exceeded my expectations. They won three games and lost three games in the Last indoor session at Soccerzone. They played against five travel teams and one house team. They lost to three travel teams. Two of their three losses were by one goal. They lost to one team 7-0. But that team, the Ballhawks, won their games by an average of 6 goals no matter who they faced. The Crushers really surprised me.


I described the first two games in a previous post. So I am going to pick up the story with our third game. In this game we played the house team. As luck would have it, they were short players. We gave them some of our players and we played the game. We ended up winning 8-1, but that was not really the point of this game. This game gave me an opportunity to play kids in new positions. Forwards played full back, full backs played midfield, midfielders played keeper and so on. Some really cool things happened. Gretta got her first goal of the year (read about Gretta and the other players in the Meet the Team posts). My 5 year old son, the Bull Dozer, got to play in the game. He is usually restricted to the role of team manager at games, but regularly plays with the team at practice. The smile on his face when he got to play is one of the moments I will remember about this experience. So, the game went into the win collum and we all had a lot of fun, especially the Bull Dozer.


In our fourth game we played one of the TKO teams. Now TKO is one of the better travel teams in the area. To be honest, this was one of the games I circled as a test. The the team we played was young, but talented. Just before playing us they had gone to indoor nationals, and placed second after loosing a hard fought battle in the finals. I was concerened before the game started because the team was not into it during warmups. They were distracted, their heads were not on soccer. Now this is where my wife ususally reminds me that they are eight and nine year olds. The point is they were not ready to play. It showed in the opening minutes. We gave up a quick early goal. Players were out of position, others were standing around, and there was no energy or determination.


During this indoor season I have realized that the Crushers, more than any team I have ever coached, model my emotional state when they play. If I am intense, they play with intensity. If I am disinterested, they play half heartedly. Most teams model the personality of their coach. This team does it more than any I have ever seen. So, I have to walk a fine line between being intense (not a problem for me), but not being so intense the kids stop having fun. Some days I do a great job, others not so well. After our poor start, I substituted for as many players as I could and we had a "discussion." The intense conversation made all the difference in the world. They went back in the game and played like champs. We lost 4-5 but I was extremely happy with how they played. It seems I got the balance right on that day. This was a pivital game for the Crushers. They learned a very important lesson on that day. The team learned that they could play with any team if they as a team and played hard for the entire game.


On a side note, the parents on this team kill me (I mean that in a good way). I have really been working hard this year on not pushing the players so hard. I have been trying to just let them play, figure somethings out on their own, and not yell as much. I have been trying to talk to them on the side lines instead of yelling to them on the field. Again, I have had good days and days where I have not done as well. As a kid, I was coached by Bob Knight type coaches. While I have never reached his extreme as a coach, I am not the touchy feely kind of coach AYSO strives to create either. Anyway, back to my parents. They keep coming up to me and saying things like, "you can yell at my son, its ok" or "you can push my daughter harder, she needs it." It is a very interesting dynamic.


In our fifth game we played the best team in the league: the Ball Hawks. This is a fast team that plays very physical soccer. If they played any rougher, they would need helmet and pads. During the game, Taz did his best to get us a goal. I think he spent as much time on the ground as he did on his feet. After almost scoring a goal early in the game, two or three guys from the Ball Hawks would attack him and literally knock Taz off the ball everytime he touched it. The defense played good. With a final score like 7-0, you would not expect a coach to say his team played well. What you do not know is that in the first indoor session three months ago, the Crushers would have lost this game by twenty. The crushers played hard. We made some mistakes but we had our chances to score during the game as well. Long story short, it just was not our day. As a told the team after the game, while I was not thrilled with the result, I was thrilled with the individual effort of the players.


In the last game we played a team from Marshall. We won 8-2. This is a team we played in the second game of the season. We won that game 6-5. The Crushers have never played any better then they did on this day. The defense was phenominal. They finally played our defense the way I have had it pictured in my head since August of 2009. For the first time, I felt sorry for the Professor(read about The Professor in our Meet the Team Posts), our keeper or goalie, because he looked so board. One back attacked the ball, while the second back covered the free player and prevented any passes from connecting. The midfield hustled back and attacking the ball or covering opposing players. They shut down the other team almost completely. It was a beautiful thing to watch.


Taz showed up ready to play on this day. He scored six goals in the game, five in the first half. I had to pull him off the our opponents early in the second half or he would have scored more. Now I know why teams always send pultiple players to defend him. When he is on hsi game, you cannot stop him with one player. In the second half, players got to play new positions and everyone had fun. It was a great way to end our indoor season. And it was nice, finally, to master our team defense.


So indoor season, session three, was awsome. I hoped they could compete with the travel teams, and they did. All but one loss could have been reversed with one play. Hard to believe this was the same group of kids that I started with last August. They have come so far and I am very proud of them. Having said that, its time to work on team offense and finishing around the goal. We have about 15 weeks before the Florida Games begin, its crunch time, and I can't wait!


Its that time where I ask you to look at our list of up coming fundraisers and solicite donations. This is a great group of kids and many of them could really use your help. If you would like to make a donation to the team, please send it to U-10 National Team, 315 North Street, Paw Paw, Michigan, 49079. Please make ckeck payable to AYSO Region 250 and we will make sure they are depositted into the correct account. All donations are tax deductable.


Go Crushers!