I watched the game film a little and it reinforces some of my impressions of the game.
Against the wind, we did a good job of keeping them away from the goal. It was a very physical and athletic game. Anyone who was not in good physical shape looked like a fish out of water and there were players on both sides that looked like fishes. I actually thought at the end of the game that we looked like we were in a little better condition than they were – looking at the entire teams.
I felt they had better midfield play, but we had better defensive play. Neither team was very effective in the box or around the box, but I think we had a few more chances than they did to put the game away.
It was definitely a much faster paced game than we are used to practicing. The only way we will be able to correct this is if we put more pressure on each other AT practice. Give the players even less time to settle the ball so they will get used to the idea of handling the ball under extreme pressure. They definitely did a better job of being first to the ball and had a better touch under pressure.
Bravo is the faster team, but without the ability to control the ball WITH speed, that advantage doesn’t help you much. Having ONE player run down the field with the ball only to run into 4 defenders is NOT an opportunity UNLESS she has players who take up a following position to support her. The player with speed also needs to understand that the strategy in a soccer game is not unlike that used in war. The idea is to occupy enemy territory – this is the other players defensive 1/3 of the field. The longer you can hold on to that territory and get as many of your troops (players) in that area, the better chance you have of victory (a goal). So just getting there is not enough… no, you have to stay there for as long as possible. Because the longer YOU are there, the more time you allow your teammates to come forward and also occupy some space in your offensive 1/3.
We did a good job of getting there, but need to be more purposeful about staying there. This will create many more opportunities for Bravo and allow us to spend less time playing defensive and more time playing offense. On a field as large as the one we played on, there was lots of space in their defensive 1/3 that we didn’t take advantage of by playing the ball wide, playing the ball around (instead of through) the other team, and not taking advantage of early switches to open players who had lots of free space. I think this will be evident when we watch the film.
There were a couple of things that I think we really need to improve on…
1. The most obvious problem we were having was controlling our own throw-ins. Why? Too many players around the ball, no patience by the thrower to wait for an open player to throw to, and too many balls thrown to the head instead of the feet. We need much more work on that.
2. It was a physical game and it was obvious that they wanted to negate our speed with their physical style of play. It worked. The only way to offset the physical play is to play quicker. Lots of give’n go’s and lots of overlaps. If they know you are going to play the ball one or two touch, then they won’t get the chance to play as physical. You can also take their physical style of play out of the game by playing the ball with a better first touch. We had a great number of balls that were played into pressure instead of away from pressure.
3. Maintaining possession after the GK (Haley) distributes the ball was not very good. I thought Haley did a pretty good job of distributing the ball to the outside midfields; however, we did not do a very good job of winning those balls.
4. Mental lapses. There were some things that happened in the game that completely took us by surprise. A couple of short goal kicks, a couple of free kicks, throw-ins being called for one team or the other. There are very few times in a game when you will gain an advantage by doing something (freekick, throw-in, PK) QUICKLY. The key is to recognize when there is an advantage (and do it quickly) and when there isn’t an advantage. Sometimes, you execute a throw-in quickly and instead of catching the other team off guard, you catch your own team unprepared. We need to learn how to recognize when there is an advantage and when there isn’t. A good rule of thumb is this. There probably isn’t any advantage UNLESS someone else on your team sees the advantage of doing something quickly. In other words, if the ball goes out of play and you pick it up quickly and you see one of your players making a run down the sidelines, then there probably is an advantage to throwing it in quickly. When there is no advantage to doing something quickly, then you should generally allow enough time to make sure it’s done right! There are a couple of things that we can do to improve dead ball opportunties.
1. Get to the ball quickly. Moving to the ball quickly should be a sign to your team that you are looking for an advantage in doing things quickly.
2. Look for someone else who has taken advantage of the lapse in play and moved to a position where you AND your teammate KNOW that you can get her the ball with less pressure than by waiting.
3. Execute and don’t panic kick or throw the ball. After executing become their safety valve so if something goes wrong or they are under unexpected pressure, then ask for them to play the ball back to you.
Here is a scenario that you would use for a goal kick.
Put the ball in place quickly.
While you’re getting the ball into place, see if any of your players (outside backs, stopper, midfielders) are moving to a position where they can receive the ball without pressure.
If you see someone you KNOW you can get the ball to without pressure, execute a pass to them INSTANTLY.
Immediately move to a position where you can receive the ball without pressure as their safety valve.
OK, we have plenty of things to work on so the next time we meet Fusion we can play a more tactical and effective game against them.
I should add that in the 2nd half, there were some very nice passing sequences in the midfield that I would have like to see a lot more of throughout the game. Those are the kind of short passes that disorient your opponent and result in opportunities around the box. Very nice.
I think I would like to break the team into two groups for viewing the film. This will allow us to focus on our defensive play separately from our offensive play. So the defenders and keeper should view it together and the midfielders and forwards should view together. I just finished getting the tape off the camcorder for the 4th time in an attempt to get a little better resolution with a little compression. I’m not sure I’m done yet because the quality is not very good for viewing on a big screen. I need another day or two to experiment. I definitely want to watch it before our game Sunday – maybe even Wednesday night if I can get it ready to go.
