Practice Attendance

Practice attendance is still pretty good, with my boys being two of the more frequent skippers due to injuries and sicknesses. Ned and Nayef are tied for the lead with 13 sessions, Dario, Zaeem, Jarib and Sebastian can catch them with 11. Joel and David are still in the hunt for the best attendance prize.

Let's keep it up, I'm learning skills just by watching what Tiago is teaching the boys. I like the way Tiago teaches a skill at slow speed and then works it up to game simulations.

Don't forget your Red Bulls skill of the week. Click on the link to the right for this week's episode:

Red Bulls Skill of the week

Tiago has given us a link to the Red Bulls skill of the week located by clicking this link or by pressing the top link on the right above all the other useful links like roster, schedule etc.

What we'd like the boys to do is go to this week's video, every week, and practice the skill. They will not likely master the skill right away or even this year. But they will be expected to try it. Every Monday, Tiago will test the boys out on this skill and it will be embarrasing if they don't even know what the skill is.

So give it a try, the videos are usually less than a minute and the skills are fun.

Third Game. Another excellent win!

Congratulations boys. We all pulled together and and won a good game. The scoring was spread around three different boys and our defense shut them down completely. We were so far ahead I decided to pull the starters and give lots of playing time to the new boys. It was great to see Freddy in offense, Nayef taking shots on goal, Ned in at stopper and Brandon trying out defense.

I hope I didn't give anyone a heart attack when I pulled Jack out of sweeper but I figured by then we had the game in the bag and it was time for him to try out the bench.

The whole team was there so substituting people in and out was a challenge but it was made easier by the boys getting leg injuries one after the other. Liam started out with a sore leg, Joel hurt his, then Jake, then Sam. I hope you all take the next few weeks to heal up.

Jake getting carried off after being taken down from behind.

Tiago got a chance to see the boys in action and will use the knowledge to direct his training efforts.

Third Game

See you all today at 3 PM to prepare for the third game of the season. It is a grass field so wear the appropriate cleats. We will be wearing blue but, as always, bring both shirts. Tiago will be attending to see where he needs to concentrate training.

I signed us up for the Memorial Day tournament. Could you all all please let Josephine know if your child is attending today so that she can calculate how much each parent needs to reimburse me. She will be collecting the money over the next few weeks.

And anyone who wants one of those lovely car magnets to help support the club, come and see Bruce after the game to buy one for $5.

Tournament

The votes came in overwhelmingly that the parents wanted the boys to play in a tournament this spring and were willing to pay about $30 per child to attend. Well, I looked for tournaments and couldn't find any good ones until finally we were invited to the

Cougar Soccer Club
Memorial Day Tournament
May 25-28, 2012

This is a pretty good one that I have attended before with my older son's team. It's in the Maplewood area held over Memorial Day Weekend so I hope you can all make it. Below is the receipt.

As you can see, the cost is $495 and we have already used the club tournament funds so this one comes out of our pockets. A quick math check tells me that if all 16 boys can make the tournament, the cost will be $31 each. So I need to know who will be able to attend so that I get refunded all the money which is now on my credit card. (Except for the $62 for my two children of course) Hopefully we can all attend but, if not, the price per child will be a little higher.

Practices

As you know, I keep tabs on who attends practice and who not. Why? Because this is the biggest benefit the boys get from joining the team. They get $1,750 worth of training each season, fall and spring. This money goes to professional training and those who attend practice get the benefit. They learn things here, get to try them in games and improve their skills. So who wouldn't want to attend practice?

Before I took over and started keeping track of practice attendance, we would get between three and five boys at practice sessions. The old adage of: "That which is measured gets improved" works. Look at fall's numbers:

This Spring season's numbers are looking even better. Lots of boys are taking advantage of the training and the team is improving as a result. Here's how we're doing so far:

I keep this updated and post it on the bottom of this blog.

This year I decided to award a special prize, at the last practice, to the boy who has attended the most practice sessions. So keep track of the leader board and get those boys to practice as often as possible. So far Ned and Nayef are in the lead but Jake's right behind them and lots of boys are right behind Jake.

See you all on Sunday for another win.

Free Passes to Red Bulls Game

Below is a message I received from Tiago:

I want to take this opportunity to send you an exciting benefit/opportunity that the kids can have from their Red Bull Training. One of the most exciting aspects of taking part in a Red Bulls Training Program is the unique opportunity to attend a live match at Red Bull Arena. The Red Bulls strongly believe that an important part of a young player’s development involves exposure to live soccer matches. Children can learn by emulating the skills that they see their role models perform.

All players that are involved in a Red Bulls Training can attend a designated match free of charge, when accompanied by a paying adult.

For the Spring season we are inviting all players to join us at our match on June 24th, our opponents are Eastern Conference rivals DC United.

Order Information:

For more information and to order tickets go to: http://www.redbullsacademy.com/matchday.aspx

If you can’t make the match on June 24^th, there are four other opportunities.

Practice During Spring Break

Looks like most of the boys can make it so we will practice on Monday and Wednesday from 5:00 to 6:30.

While enough parents voted yes on doing a spring tournament, I couldn't find one that was convenient to us and still open for extra teams.

TBS Games Rescheduled

Looks like I successfully rescheduled the two games that were requested to be moved by the opposing teams. One has been confirmed by the other team, the other is being whined about right now but I think they'll accept. I really didn't want to make these away games so I was limited by the availability of Wayne fields.

So they seem to be scheduled for Satuday, June 9 at 3:00 PM and Sunday, June 10 at 8:30 AM. Both games will be held at Barbour Pond. Hopefully those times work for you all. It was difficult coordinating between two teams and the Wayne fields coordinator.

When I have confimation on both games, I'll post them on the calendar. But notice what this does to our early schedule: No game Sunday, a game on the 15th, then no games on the 22nd or the 29th, then games every week thereafter.

To keep in trim, I will be scheduling some scrimmages with the coaches who have been asking me to do so.

Second game, second win!

Another great game boys! I was worried about this one. Coming into this morning I knew we were missing Jake and Joey and Joel had a sore knee and Freddy was suffering from the flu. Then Jarib was late. Yikes!

But Joel played the whole game and kept us in there with great save and stopping their fast breaks by leaving his penalty box at the right time. Freddy stepped in for Joey, Jarib showed up and we played well. David put in a great goal, then Sam finished off another breakaway and we were looking good at the half. Nayef and Ned took turns at midfield and our defensive line of Jack, Sebas and Liam shut out all their offensive efforts.

Dario had some great breakaways but couldn't quite turn his crosses far enough around to the boys who were playing a perfect far post position. Roberto struggled with his right foot but, after me making fun of him, asking how he could stand with only one leg, (sorry about that, Roberto), he placed a nice right-footed shot almost inside the post.

David gave us another score in the second half and bounced another breakaway off the crossbar.

Jarib received a verbal warning  by the ref, then one from me at half-time about yelling at the opposing players but shouted again, earning him a yellow card. Not wanting to risk him missing a future game, I pulled him for the last ten minutes.

Zaeem was a constant presence on the breakaways, always a threat to score. And Brandon was like a Tasmanian Devil in the middle, always involved with the ball. Whenever I substituted him, he was full of smiles but exhausted from his efforts.

What I liked to see was that we never gave up on offense or defense, we played tough and, unlike members of the other team, never cried. What I'd like to work on next week is better marking on defense, calling for help when you find yourself double-teamed and better switching back to defense by the midfielders. Our offense was just fine.

Congratulations, boys!