doing it for the kids:
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Posted: February 15th 2010
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So, what do you want to read about first? The u16s’ drinking session, the u12 girls’ best ever performance, or the u6s being “in the zone”?
Ok, the booze up it is...
I mentioned in the last blog that the u16s had a grudge match coming up. It was the second derby of the season against our ‘sister team’ from within our club, the one with whom we have enjoyed (endured?) somewhat strained relations over the years. However we had also always enjoyed close matches...until completely out of the blue they turned us over 7-0 in the second week of this season.
So this return game was an opportunity for revenge...not that we should use words like revenge when coaching kids, even ones who’re virtually young men...so let’s call it an opportunity to redress the balance.
But as I say they’re all but young men...so much as they try to ape professional footballers (all stepovers, scowling at the ref and squaring up to each other) on the field...it’s a pub footballer’s pre-match routine which they ape, namely ‘big Saturday night out before a Sunday morning match’.
However, when my lad calls from a house party at just after 11pm asking for a lift home and apologising for being drunk, it’s still something of a surprise, as he has been far slower than many of his mates to start dabbling with the demon drink. The results, as he learns the hard way that cider and Smirnoff Ice don’t mix are, frankly, both amusing, and a relief – seems like he’s not going to be an aggressive drunk, nor a melancholic one...just more & more giggly til it suddenly catches up with him and he collapses (it must be in the genes).
It’s only when we get him safely to bed (deciding to leave removing the glasses and beard he’s had drawn on his face til the morning) that we start to speculate on the knock-on effect for the next day’s match...
As it turns out, I’m with the girls this week...but the texts from the boys’ game (2-0 down after 15, 5-0 after 60) give me the answer I had feared. A battery running out means that’s the last I hear, so when I get home to find that we rallied a bit and the final score was 6-2, I reason that at least it’s better than 7-0.
I ask my lad how he got on, and am pleased that not only did he manage to get out of bed and complete a full game*, but by all accounts put in a pretty decent shift. He does report that on shaking hands at the end of the game, one of his friends on the other team did say “you look hangin’ mate – rough night?” Apparently “hangin’” is youth speak for hungover – I rather like that expression – and in this case, it fits.
A bit more probing reveals that at least 4 of our squad were at the party...and none of the oppo’s was (bar one who’s injured anyway). Such are the perils of entering your u16s in the Sunday morning League rather than the Saturday pm alternative.
(*unlike one of his drinking partners who plays for another team within the club – on being collected from the party, he happily regaled his parents with all manner of jaw-dropping “oh no he didn’t say that to them did he?” gems that will follow him for life before conking out and never getting anywhere near being up’n’out the next morning...).
I hate missing the derby game...and couldn’t help feeling I’d drawn the short straw as the girls had been drawn in the Cup against the League leaders who’d already defeated them 12-0 and 8-0 this season.
How wrong I was.
What I witnessed was the kind of performance that my coaching partner and I had always thought the girls had in them...but feared we’d never actually see...the sort of performance that has had parents sending us congratulatory emails all week.
Our pre-match talk was of the “nothing to lose” variety, emphasising that the oppo would be bound to start the game somewhat complacently, and that “they’re just 11 girls like you, not super-women”.
However, though I say so myself, a couple of tactical masterstrokes were at the root of this ’best ever’ performance.
We’d always planned to at least start with a damage-limiting 4-5-1 rather than match our superior opponent’s 4-4-2 We’ve also learned that if you get too technical regarding the formation with girls, they soon switch off (unlike the ever-anal boys).
So we just spoke with two key players to outline to them their roles within the formation. Our best defensive midfielder was told to sit five yards in front of the centre backs and focus purely on protecting them. Our best attacking midfielder was told that she must stop her habit of constantly sprinting back to cover the defence (often ending up behind a struggling full back)...as whilst on a mini soccer pitch she then had time to get up the other end and score, on an 11-a-side pitch that just wasn’t possible, so we needed her to trust in the defensive steel we’d put in place behind her, and play in the hole behind the loan striker. Meanwhile, our third central midfielder is new to football this season and hence we didn’t fill her head with any tactical stuff, knowing she’d need no second invitation to (ahem) “put a foot in”.
And this “4-1-3-1-1” worked an absolute treat. Not only did the usually free-scoring oppo find us nigh on impossible to break down, but we also frequently had them on the back foot in what was a genuine end-to-end game, in which whilst we couldn’t deny their technical superiority, we won the majority of the 50:50 balls. A classic cup tie.
Alas (and sorry if you were getting carried away here) there was no fairy tale ending. The favourites did manage to scrape one slightly fortuitous goal in the first half...and then two minutes from time, when I still believed an equaliser for us was at least as likely as a second for them, they sealed it with a Geoff Hurst-style “off the underside of the bar / did it cross the line” goal (leaving our goalie apoplectic and our centre half loudly questioning the lino’s judgment and asking how he felt he could make such a decision whilst sporting sunglasses).
Cue huge praise from oppo management & supporters at the end (not one bit of it condescending), and some very proud parents on the touchline.
We’d love to think this was a massive corner turned...but as one local kids’ football sage remarked to me later in the week, “you know they’ll revert to type next game”. And yes, I do know he’s right.
A Sunday off for both teams this week for half term, but our u5/6/7s sessions continue as normal. And there’s one thing that fascinates me about them.
As per FA guidelines, we focus exclusively on ball work, and for most of the session, every child has his/her own ball at their feet. Thus when we get to the obligatory game at the end, we always have a large number of balls gathered next to the pitch, and plenty of coaches / watching parents around to pass the nearest one to the nearest player for every throw, corner or goal kick.
However, despite the fact that all these balls are identical training ones (at this age we don’t have special match balls), ALL the kids seem determined that the whole match will be played out with just the one ball. As miscued strikes shoot into touch or roll down banks behind goals, kids swarm after them, hell-bent on retrieving “the match ball”, purposely deaf to the cries of “leave it, there’s another one here”, oblivious to the five identikit balls they run past as they head for “the one”.
Why?