doing it for the kids:
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Posted: September 23rd 2009
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Friday night
Yes, Friday night. In our efforts to get the u12 girls up to speed with what for them is this new-fangled 11-a-side thing, we’ve squeezed in one more friendly before the League season kicks off...on a Friday night...6pm kick off...on the other side of town.
With most parents understandably unavailable (and my Blades-mad co-manager having a prior engagement at the Steel City derby), the 11 players who have declared themselves available are squeezed into a 3 car convoy.
It proves to be a brilliant move. The ‘Road Trip’, with girls screaming at each other car to car across the rush hour traffic about their respective sweet consumptions, means team spirit reaches a new high by the time we roll up pitch side.
Ah, the pitch...it’s huge...now we know not every other team is as lucky as us in having access to a couple of smaller pitches on which to bed younger teams into 11-a-side...but this one was big for my u15 boys last season. At least the oppo look even more confused than our lot...they’ve actually taken the option of sticking to 7-a-side for another season, but decided they fancied one 11-a-side friendly early doors.
Of the players missing, all seem to be defenders. So, having tried to get the girls used to the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 scenarios...I feel I have little choice but to drop a 3-5-2 on them...it minimises the number of them I have to ask to play in a position that is (even more) alien to them.
Our inexperienced as well as under-staffed back 3 cope remarkably well. The oppo get behind us a few times, but when we counter, with the slope in our favour, we look sharp. The oppo are much more physical than we’re used to, but after the initial shock, our girls give as good as they get. We’ve agreed to play 3 x thirds...after the first 20 they’re exhausted but elated. 0-0, and it’s a bit of a cracker.
Early in the second third, our star striker has the back of her leg trodden on. We deem it over-enthusiastic/mistimed rather than malicious, but with the League opener less than 48 hours away, she is withdrawn as a precaution. The oppo choose to stay at 11 – which I’d have expected in a League game, but in a friendly...
Our response to dropping down to 10 is immediate, as her fellow striker is set up beautifully by a passing move across our midfield, and buries the chance. 1-0.
With players on both teams tiring, the light closing in, and the council park keeper dangling the keys to the car park gates in a threatening manner, we agree that the final period will be truncated to 10 minutes. Alas we fail to hold on. With no linesmen available, we’d agreed with the ref that he’d just blow for blatant offsides, but he chooses to turn ablind eye to one. Full time: 1-1.
Whilst international friendlies are often viewed as a waste of time, and pre-season games for ‘real’ clubs little more than fitness exercises, this for us has proved to be a hugely beneficial experience. As a Redknapp (senior or junior) might say...a top, top workout...
Saturday morning
The canteen is stuffed to the gills...the cricketers with whom we share the facility (and who get just a little territorial in the summer months) have finally cleared off for the winter – and don’t Makro just know it, as we clean them out of Haribos, Maoams and Drumsticks.
Our new u5s group is ushered in seamlessly. I watch them....then look over to the u6s...and tell my fellow u6 coaches we should take some pride in what we’ve achieved in the last year, as the gulf between the groups is bigger than I’d imagined*, so we must have been doing something right (*bar one u5, for whom there is no gulf...resplendent in his Brentford kit, he runs rings round everyone and could more than hold his own a year up...the Academies will no doubt be parked outside his front door for 3 years til he’s old enough to be snapped up...this lad could be the cause of a future transfer embargo scandal).
A lot of the girls and the u7 boys are missing this week due to some huge brownie& scout fest camping thing, so the acid test of the car parking facilities will come next Saturday, when through the morning we’ll hit 150 kids for the first time...
Sunday morning
My first clash of the season, as the u16 boys and u12 girls fixtures are both morning kick offs...and after three years of prioritising the boys, finally it’s the girls’ turn, and I’ll be missing the boys play for only the second time in 7 seasons...
Bit of a ropey start, as firstly I take a car full* of girls (*trying to repeat Friday night’s road trip trick...only they’re not awake enough) to the wrong pitch...then on obtaining directions to the right one, and despite having been told we’re playing on “the bottom pitch”, I park at “the top”...and find it’s a 15 minute walk down...or it is with 4 sleepy girls, a kit bag and ball net in tow...
So, time only for tactics & positions, and the most minimal of warm ups...being so new to 11-a-side, we reckon there’s little point in having them physically fine tuned if they’ve no idea where they should be on the pitch.
As it happens, they keep a very good shape...but choose too often to stand and watch opponents, inviting them to attack rather than closing them down. The oppo’s more skilful players relish this opportunity...three times...add on the kind of wonder strike an 11 year old in a full-sized goal will never have a prayer of saving, and we come in at half time 4-0 down. Friday night’s heroics seem a distant memory, and we realise that today’s opposition, always tough at 7-a-side, will still be so in this format.
We decide a rollicking is in order...bad cop bad cop...no shouting or ranting, I hasten to add...just a reminder not to undo all the good habits they’d been learning...not to go home feeling they hadn’t given it their best shot...and a challenge not to lose the second half...
...which we don’t. The oppo score two more, but are made to work much harder for them...whilst we manage two of our own, and very good goals they are too (my daughter, rarely on the score sheet, manages to volley one over the keeper’s head from the edge of the box). So...6-2, but hopefully some momentum to build on.
Post-match pleasantries over, I stare at my ‘phone, amazed I’ve not had a text about the boys’ game. My lad’s mobile doesn’t respond, so I call trusty sidekick. Despite our dismal start, today is a game I’m convinced we’ll have won. We saw this lot off 5-1 and 6-0 last season, and though their start has suggested improvement, I’m absolutely positive our lads will have turned the corner.
“Got beat 3-1”.
Stunned silence.
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope.”
Brief match report follows...all over them first half...hit post...one cleared off the line that looked over...then concede two soft goals...right back at them, only to let in a third when they counter and we’re caught short at the back...penalty as late consolation. Gutted. Rock bottom after three games, this could be a long, hard season. However, we don’t face any of the League’s real big guns for a few weeks, so still opportunities to start turning things round...
Sunday afternoon
Eldest son is now picking up pocket money refereeing. Having attended his ref’s course, today is the first of six 11-a-side games he must complete to get himself certified. A u13 girls’ Div Two match between teams from the two clubs he represents on Saturday & Sunday respectively proves a very easy start.
He goes for the “if you don’t notice me I must be doing a good job” approach rather than the “loud blows on the whistle followed by bellowed explanation to all spectators as to why the decision has been made” school of reffing. And he does just fine.