U17 - First Friendly Match

The U17 Welland boys had their first pre-season match today.  The venue was our indoor field in Welland, which still has boards from the American style of professional indoor soccer.  An example is in the photo below.  Ours is similar, without the 20,000 seats.

Our indoor soccer building was built in 1984 and has served the community well.  The artificial turf is on it's last legs but our new building should be done by next November. 

It was a good break from training and a good chance to get re-acquainted with each other in a game situation.  Have exhibition games for U16/U17/U18 is a tricky venture as it's difficult for them to not turn up the heat 100%.  As a coach you're looking for them to build some game fitness and chemistry and do some assessment for planning purposes.  Winning is nice, but it's not priority number one.

There were some instances of rough play and players hitting the boards, but everybody escaped relatively unharmed (one banged knee) and the boys now have a new focal point going forward.

There were a lot of notes I made for the coach to review ... but the biggies were:

• deciding when and when not to go forward, and having the support behind if you can't go forward
• 1v1 defending
• speed of passes in all directions

It's only their first game and they've been away from each other for 10 days so there was no need to beat on them for a lot of small sticky points that would probably be rectified by fixing the issues above.  As we continue to correct their shape in possession a lot of other problems will disappear at the same time.

Even though their 1v1 defending technique was poor, their desire to challenge and want the ball back is admirable and a great characteristic to build from.  And they are not afraid to shoot which is always helpful ... if you want to score goals.

At U17, mental toughness and physical durability will play a big roll as games get more physical and the verbal warfare moves up a notch.  That was also evident today.

Indoor Soccer Arena in Canton, Ohio, USA