First Scrimmage

The boys had their first scrimmage today. It was certainly a learning experience for all of us. I learned that we had better have the boys show up 45 minutes before the games in order to be properly organized and lined up. I also learned to bring balls with me in case I beat the trainer there.

The boys focused on three things today which I want them to carry over to the first game:

1. The left forward says in the left quadrant of the field, the right forward on the right. This opens up the field for the far post play and keeps that person's defender away from the ball.
2. The right fullback covers the right-most offensive player, the left fullback covers the left-most. This frees up the sweeper and stopper to cover the middle.
3. There are three places you can be to stop an opposing player from scoring: Standing right in front of the player's foot as he tries to shoot, being in between him and the goal to intercept the shot or the goalie as the last defense. We need to do better sensing when the player is about to shoot and getting our foot in the way.

We played around with the line-up during this scrimmage to decide which children play best in which position and with whom.
We learned that:

• Danny will make a great back-up goalie for Joel but, given how few subs we have, we need to find the right field position for him to play and focus on that.
• Justin should stay in sweeper and move Joey back out to one of the full-back positions
• a 4-4-2 line-up might work better for this team
• Sebastian can handle himself quite well in defense
• Joel knows how to move well without the ball in forward to open himself up for shots on goal
• the children are in poor shape after a summer away from the sport. They need to get some conditioning in. We pay well for trainers and I don't want to waste that money sending them running laps. I can do that. So I encourage all parents to get their children running, jumping and stretching on their own time.

Rumors at the parent's meeting that Justin and Adrian were leaving the team were incorrect. I talked for a while after the game with Charles and he assured me that the players were available to play at all games this season. His concern is that they are practicing three days a week for another team and playing another game on Sundays. I told him that if he brings the children early to games so that they can warm up with the team and tries to make as many Friday practices as possible, (this is where we will set the line-up for the next day's game) both boys can play on Saturdays.

Remember that you all pay for trainers as part of the money you paid at the beginning of the season. Those who choose not to make practices are missing out on taking advantage of this time. Training has two benefits:

1. Your child improves his soccer skills
2. Your child gets used to playing with his team-mates.

Taking practice with another team covers item 1 but item 2 can only be made up by coming early to game days and learning quickly in the games. Having as few players as we do, we have to make allowances for Justin and Damien's needs.

With Franco and Roberto back for regular games, we will have 2 subs available. We are still working on getting more players to flesh out the team so that we still have subs on those days when not every child can be there.

Remember to vote on whether or not to hold practice on Monday