Taking it to the next level!

Great job on the weekend girls! We were in tough all weekend long and throughout the weekend we gradually increased our level of play right up to the very end where we narrowly fell short to a very solid BC Games team from Vancouver (Zone 5). It'll be interesting to see how our (Zone 6) BCSG team fares against them as they sure had some 'weapons' (remember that shot Taleah;) Good luck to our local team in July!

It was great to see you all really start to gell as a team both on and off the field. We should all have some 'take-aways' from the weekend which might range from the following:

1. This can be a very physical game! Once we get stuck in and decide to 'own the ball' we can play at that level. We need to always play with confidence. If we're worried about the size of our opponants all the time we'll be thinking about that rather than using our skills. Remember to try to get your opponant thinking about you by defending tough and playing smart!

2. Rest and hydration are keys during long tournaments. By the end of the weekend we had some tired soldiers that when put in were raising their hands within minutes to come off again.

3. The better teams (as we've seen) are faster and more skilled than we're used to playing against. Skills will come as long as you're dedicated. Extra "backyard" sessions are great places to get extra touches on the ball. The highly dedicated kids increase their skills on their own desire to improve as well as weekly sessions with the team. They'll also get some running in on off days on their own to help with the fitness side. If you're finding yourself behind a step, maybe some interval training will help...If you'd like some guidance on 'extra's' please let me know...

4. Keep it simple. All the time we spend in practice working on passing and receiving need to be brought into the games. Playing a simple game, playing to feet and the way you face, receving in the direction you want to go, opening up to the play, sheilding the ball from the defender, moving off the ball, jockeying (not diving in). These are all skills that we work regularly. When we kept it simple, we were on fire and saw a lot of success. When we started to panic, we lost our composure and just 'kicked it'. Now, those teams were very good at applying quick pressure so it was very difficult to find time and space but I thought you gradually improved once you got used to the pace of the game.

This is all part of developing as a player. You're getting used to playing at a faster pace. I watched a couple of you play an extra spring league game last week and you really played well. The difference is that the pace wasn't as fast as you're getting used to. There were some nice little give and go's and ball movement. I suspect that when you all come back to play on your respective club teams during the season, you'll be used to playing at a higher level and you'll notice that our gold level is not as fast as what we're playing right now in competition and it just might seem easier...

We've got another hame game, a couple weeks of skills training and then we're off to the Baker Blast to cap off a great 3 months of soccer! Keep up the good work, get healthy again, and we'll see you back on the pitch!