This past weekend we took two groups of players from our 01 academy to a local youth soccer tournament. The tournament is fairly competitive in the area and provides a great environment for players of all abilities to play soccer. We played one group up and had a parity team playing in their own age group. The players playing up could probably have played up one bracket further (there were gold, silver and bronze brackets – they were entered in the Bronze bracket).
Both teams had a very successful Saturday conceding very few and scoring lots. In training recently we’ve been working on possession, shooting and finishing, and encouraging creativity in the final third. At the start of the season we weren’t being ruthless enough – we would let teams back into the game after spurning chance after chance – it was great to see the hard work pay off.
As a coach, I’ve had experiences in soccer tournaments where a very successful Saturday led to an overconfident group of players, and a disappointing second day of the tournament. Fortunately, this wasn’t one of those weekends.
Our first semi-final game was at 8am on Sunday morning. Our requirement from the players is that they are on the field and ready to warm up thirty-minutes prior to kick-off. My concerns were that the players would still be half asleep, some would be late, and others full after eating donuts for breakfast. When kick-off is this early I like to run a short, high-tempo warm-up which encourages the players to continually look around. The dew on the grass was very thick so I also wanted the players to get plenty of touches on the ball during warm-up.
The game started very well for us, we were 2-0 up at half-time against one of our strongest local rivals. Coaching on the sideline is good natured, but very competitive. At that point the game wasn’t really what I would call close, we had the majority of the possession and the best chances. At half-time we spoke about responsibility on the soccer field. If we make a mistake how do we respond to it? If a defender goes forward, who’s covering? If the keeper parries the ball who’s there to clear?
The next goal would be crucial. Fortunately, we got it about seven or eight minutes in and appeared to be cruising at that point.
Then, out of nowhere, encouraged by their coaches they started playing a lot more physical, they were first to every ball, and our players were a little sheepish – it was clear this was a game we were going to have to work hard if we wanted to progress. Sure enough, they scored from a corner and were very eager to keep the game going – in doing so keeping all their stronger players on the field. We went back up the other end and hit the crossbar, and they came back down the other end and scored again. What a game!
As their coaches were yelling at their players to score more, our players seemed a little overawed by it all. They went close again and with a few minutes left our keeper made a great save (one of many). At that point the game appeared to change. Our players appeared to be spurred on by the threat which the other team posed – the more they pressed, the more we we matched it. They were motivated to play and defend as a team. We’ve worked on the principles of defending so they all know about the roles of the first and second defender, but this was the first time they’ve really defended in unison and for each other. They were up for it.
As a coach this is great to see because it tells me a lot about the mentality of our players and how they respond to challenges. They’ve certainly played better this season but rarely have they fought for each other with such determination. I was a proud coach.
Both of our teams went on to win the tournament. The team described here came back from behind in the final and won with a golden goal. Our other team playing up also won. For some of the players this was their last tournament soccer of the year – to end like this was a very good way to end the season.
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