U13 - League game - We'll keep working at it

I am having a reverse type of coaching nightmare.

Most coaches complain their boys do not train as hard as they play.  Our problem is we do not play as hard as we train.

Our mission to roll our efforts at training into a strong game worked … almost.

After 2 productive sessions this week we had our league game Thursday.  We played a team of boys who were physically and visually intimidating.  But once the game was moving, we were out-playing them for the first half.  Almost.

The boys were playing 2-touch soccer, keeping their shape, making good penetrating passes and creating chances.  Our back 4 were receiving balls from midfielders and wingers and doing a good job restarting the attack.   BUT … there’s always a BUT …  every time a situation came up where a physical confrontation was required to keep possession or win the ball back, as a team, we weren’t there.

A 1-0 lead for us turned into a 5-1 loss.  We were up 1-0 for the first 38 minutes until they scored with 2 minutes left in the first half.  But that goal was coming as they had several chances before that.  Our GK did a solid job keeping us alive.  Every goal could be traced back to a challenge that didn’t happen.  And while our GK was smothering balls we were still making our way into the attacking third!

Our pregame talk reinforced our topics covered during the week.  Including challenges.  Our warm-up had some ball movement then a short small-sided-game stressing the 2-touch passing and shape to keep the ball moving and people involved.

Our halftime chat revolved strictly around the fact that we were doing a lot of good things but they get flushed down the toilet every time a challenge is ignored or a ball is not attacked.

We will keep working on all the things we’ve been working on and keep working to simulate the physical conditions of a game when it comes to challenges.  Every boy needs to appreciate the amount of plain, good, old-fashioned hard work it takes to compete in a full U13 11v11 soccer game. 

We said it before and we will keep saying and coaching toward it ... you have to compete for every ball, all game, every game.

Our job as coaches is to continue creating situations away from competition to prepare them for competition.   Sooner or later it will have to happen for each player.   

Our job as coaches it to remember that the last person to be blamed is the player.

One piece at a time, one practice at a time and one personal success at a time, this team will come together.  We can't complain about their efforts at training and that is a positive thing. 

Coach Paul had a few line-up ideas to help some boys get more out of their minutes on the field.  We will have to hash those out as I think he might have a good point on a few of them.