7-6 Ladybugs beat White Lightning
I have to be upfront. If you would have told me that my U-6 soccer team was going to allow five goals in the first two quarters, look like they had never seen a soccer ball before, and would forget which side our goal was on, I'd a told you, go jump in a lake. Although that my friends, is exactly what happened in the first half of game one of the new Fall season. To be completely clear, we actually scored two of their goals on ourselves or the notorious, "own goal". In Columbia you can be assassinated for this: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar
I did not want to assassinate any six and under girls but I certainly wanted to yell. Amazingly, patience and encouragement seemed to win the day over. We are pretty good. Anyone who has read some of my previous writings on coaching Ruby's soccer team will know that we are pretty talented. I have amazing parental involvement and support. The girls all seem to like each other and don't mind being there (well most of the time). We came out the first half and just looked like we weren't ready for anything. It was a bit hot outside, the middle of the afternoon sun, first game of the year, and you could see the lack of focus on the field. Ruby managed to hustle pretty well admittedly and scored two goals to keep it reasonable. We limped into halftime down 2-5.
I got out my trusty whiteboard and tried to diagram the field and the way we were going. I used something like this:
I have to be upfront. If you would have told me that my U-6 soccer team was going to allow five goals in the first two quarters, look like they had never seen a soccer ball before, and would forget which side our goal was on, I'd a told you, go jump in a lake. Although that my friends, is exactly what happened in the first half of game one of the new Fall season. To be completely clear, we actually scored two of their goals on ourselves or the notorious, "own goal". In Columbia you can be assassinated for this: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Escobar
I did not want to assassinate any six and under girls but I certainly wanted to yell. Amazingly, patience and encouragement seemed to win the day over. We are pretty good. Anyone who has read some of my previous writings on coaching Ruby's soccer team will know that we are pretty talented. I have amazing parental involvement and support. The girls all seem to like each other and don't mind being there (well most of the time). We came out the first half and just looked like we weren't ready for anything. It was a bit hot outside, the middle of the afternoon sun, first game of the year, and you could see the lack of focus on the field. Ruby managed to hustle pretty well admittedly and scored two goals to keep it reasonable. We limped into halftime down 2-5.
I got out my trusty whiteboard and tried to diagram the field and the way we were going. I used something like this:
Whiteboarding and water seemed to do something. I also did my best to encourage and cheer even when I felt like yelling. I have to repeat, it's for fun, it's for fun.
In the second half I changed it up. I put Taylor, one of my new players to one of the striker positions and moved Ruby to the other rotation. We play three girls and then sub three girls and repeat four times with a total of 7 girls on the team. For my math sake we only had six girls show out of seven. For twenty minutes it was like soccer players crept into my teams bodies and they started to play wonderfully. Actual passing, goal saving hustle and defense, balanced scoring, and lots and lots of cheering. Ruby netter two more goals and our first timer ever playing a soccer game, Taylor deposited two goals in the back of the net. Two more rather weak goals were leaked in by our defense but take away our own goals and we have them. Thankfully, we play two more times this season so revenge will be ours.
My competitiveness runs a bit high at times but I have done better at channeling wanting to win, to wanting to have fun. As long as they keep coming back I we will have more second halves than first.
Oh yeah and our uniforms are white so I was thinking of our name being "White Lightning", your thoughts...
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