Practice is cancelled today to allow the players to travel down early to the showcase and also to allow myself and U17s coach and my fellow Tiffin Assistant Adam Mitchell to travel down. We will be on the fields scouting for the Tiffin team whilst combing our coaching of Pacesetter. Big weekend ahead...
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Another week of practice this time getting ready for a huge weekend at the Blue Chip College Showcase in Cincinnati. The showcase is bigger than Crossroad and is the 2nd largest college showcase in the country. There is expected to be over 300 college coaches in attendance. It is also a unique weekend for the team as we have two GLC games at the showcase and then one showcase game. This will mean managing minutes for myself and also giving minutes to players who do not play as much on Saturday in the showcase game,. This is always difficult when parents spend a lot of money making the trip to these events and paying big money for hotels but I am instructed by the club it is play to win and playing time is not guaranteed. This weeks practice is centered around making sure we keep shape with and without the ball but also looking to deliver from wide areas. We did a good job on Wednesday of getting the ball out wide quickly and making sure we deliver early. This is to make the most of our forward Danny Salim who is already 6'1 at 16 and he is very good in the air. This will hopefully add another dimension to our game.
Wednesday brought about game day against a TSC Cobras team out of Detroit Michigan. The game time was not ideal kicking off at 6:30pm in Detroit and a number of the players were late due to rush hour traffic and it was all part of the plot that TSC had implemented and it had been discussed by my mentor Danny and their club director about the organization of the game on their end. The game started poorly for the team going 1-0 down to a poor goal from a set piece. We equalized moments later off a long throw and got back in the game. Then the game really opened up and we were poor in dealing with the long ball we had worked on during the week to stop. The score ended up going 2-1 to TSC and then 2-2 from a free kick goal from us. We made some changes at half time and went to a 4-3-3 formation to hopefully give us more width in the attacking third. We conceded another sloppy goal after half time on a mistake from the goalkeeper but then soon again equalized to make it 3-3. Our keeper then gave a penalty away and we were down 4-3. Again the team responded well and scored another great free kick goal to make it 4-4. The in the final 2 minutes our goalkeeper who was having a awful game played a pass straight to their forward and he tapped it home to make it 5-4 and that was the final score. It was reall disappointing from performance standpoint that was littered with mistakes and their was not much I could say. They knew they had played poorly and made a number of mistakes and its back to practice on Monday after the Easter Holiday.
After the long weekend we had to get back to work as we had another important GLC game on Wednesday against a team from Michigan who are notorious for being very direct and very dirty. I had to make sure we were prepared to deal with the style of play that they were going to bring and practice was centered around dealing with the longer ball and winning 2nd balls in midfield. We did some work with the U17s who helped replicate this and it will hopefully give us a edge when it comes to Wednesday game.
Sunday was supposed to be the final game of the showcase but it was cancelled due to waterlogged fields. There was extreme heavy rainfall throughout the area and it made the fields unplayable. This decision was made Saturday night so most of the team traveled back that night. I stayed and helped fellow Tiffin Coach Adam Micthell and his U17 team for their game on Sunday. They played on the turf so the game was still on. They were playing a GLC game against a team from Dayton. Th game started off poorly with 2 early goals conceded at also a red card in the 1st half. At half time myself and Adam discussed potential changes to try and give it ago and we came up with a 4-3-2 system change to hopefully put the opponents back 4 under ,ore pressure with 2 forwards and just hope the back four can relieve the pressure,. The style had to change and direct soccer was needed. A goal came from a long ball from the keeper making it 2-1 and then in the final 5 minutes a set piece goal made it 2-2. The team showed incredible courage to fight back and make it 2-2- and got a valuable point after being 2 goals down and also a man down for most of the game.
Saturday brought about a contest against a team out of Kentucky but the weather was vastly different than Friday. Sun and not a breathe of wind which made for great playing conditions. We again implemented the 4-4-2 Diamond system to great affect. There was a number of college coaches watching this game and the boys played fantastically. We won the game 1-0 from a brilliant worked set piece goal. It cam,e from the set piece we had implemented a couple of weeks ago called "Fulham" where we overload the goalkeeper and the delivery is to the back post where our center back Ryan Tussing peels out usually unmarked due to the chaos around the keeper for a header at goal. It worked to perfection and we scored the only goal of the game to win it 1-0.
The weekend brought about the Crossroads of America Showcase and a nice 4 hour hike down to Indianapolis. On friday we matched up against a team from Indianapolis in quite frankly awful conditions. Thursday night there was a heavy downpour in the area and the fields were under patches of water. There was also 30 mile an hour winds and it was extremely difficult to play in. It was a tale of two halves as the wind was driving right down one end of the field. We went into the half 1-0 as we struggled with the wind but 2nd half with the wind we managed to score 3 great goals and ended up winning the game 3-1. We again implemented a 4-4-2 Diamond system and that is proving to be difficult for other teams to figure out as tactically at this age most players struggle with that part of the game and it is taking teams long periods to figure out how to neutralize our overloads in midfield and also having two forwards upfront. A great start to the weekend.
After the fantastic result we obtained on Friday night this weeks practice was going to be centered around preparing for the weekends trip down to Indianapolis for the Crossroads of America College Showcase where the team would play 3 games in a showcase style format. The event is one of the biggest in the country and over 250 college coaches will be in attendance. Most of the team are 2021 and 2022 grad year players but it is still a chance for the boys to potentially showcase their skills in front of a number of college coaches and at least get themselves on the recruitment radars of some schools. The weeks practice is focusing on our attacking shape and building out of the back. We have a very technical group of players and the clubs philosophy is to play a little more direct. I have already met with my mentor Danny Fisher to discuss my style of play and we agreed I would not follow the club philosophy and look to build out of the back due to my group of players. This has worked well in recent games as many teams are expecting a Pacesetter team to play direct and into the forwards quickly but we have surprised teams with our ability to build through the phases and attack from the back.
The 2nd game of the GLC season brought about a massive rematch with the team that beat my boys in the state cup final last season. It was the first time we had matched up against this team since that game last April and it was a great chance for the players to exact some revenge from a close 1-0 loss last season. The game was held at Pacesetter Park so a home game for us. The game started off pretty evenly and we got off to a great start in the 5th minute when we were awarded a penalty which we dispatched to go ahead 1-0. Team Challenger pilled on the pressure but my back 4 stood strong. We employed a 4-4-2 diamond system to compliment there 4-4-2 system so we matched up well. We broke on the counter attack about 30 minutes in and scored again making it 2-0. Just before half time we switched off on a set piece and went in at half time leading 2-1.
The second half started and we were under immense pressure from a very talented Challenger team and I had to revert to man marking their attacking midfielder #11. He was causing us trouble in midfield and I asked our midfielder Malik Sarsour to man mark him to hopefully nullify his attacking threat. We broke again on the counter attack in the 85th minute and went ahead 3-1 which was the final score. That result was a huge confidence boost for the team and put us a top of the GLC Standings. Monday brought about a chance to get back on the practice field after a week off for spring break. We were preparing for the upcoming Challenger game on Friday where we would face off against a big rival in Team Challenger who beat the team 1-0 in the State Cup Final last season. The focus was mainly on implementing our defensive shape without the ball as we knew we may face extended periods without the ball due to the quality Challenger has on their team. We worked on a number of our set piece routines also and added in another trick corner which we are hoping will come up big later in the season in a tight game.
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