Aug. 27, 2010
Pre-Season Update:
If the thought of two-a-days doesn't make you want to cringe, then maybe the thought of 7:00am weight lifting, followed by 9:00am training, a team run at 2:00pm, and an 8:00pm training session will. Except, I have to be honest - it doesn't make me want to cringe. It actually makes me smile, and, well, maybe a little sore.
What better way to spend August than in rigorous competitive training.
Just a few things to mention that have happened in the last couple days:
First, I would like to thank Mark "Munch" Bishop from WKNR who stopped by Krenzler field the other day. He took a few minutes to remind the team of the role that we play by inspiring kids in the community and representing Cleveland State as a great place to get an education.
The point that I think hit home most to me was when he said to commit 100% to whatever you are doing, whether it's soccer, cleaning, studying, or just straight up relaxing, in order to be most productive.
Secondly, I would highly recommend the documentary Pelada. Our team spent one afternoon watching this film featuring two university graduates who explore pick-up games of soccer around the world. The movie had us all laughing and even some of us crying at points.
Our team had exhibition games against Pittsburgh and Niagara. The loss in Pittsburgh was frustrating because we went down early in the game and couldn't create enough dangerous chances to come back.
The game against Niagara resulted in a tie, which was also disappointing, because our defense did their job but we were unable to capitalize on our offensive chances. It was great to see us improve on some of the things that we identified as focus points from our game against Pittsburgh.
Lastly, the team is thrilled with our win against Marshall which officially started our season for us. We had a solid performance from all the positional groups.
Kelly did an awesome job in net and made a great first save on their penalty kick, it was unlucky that the shooter was right there to finish a rebound. The initial save by Kelly didn't surprise me at all; she is outstanding at saving penalty kicks and I hate having to take them on her in practice.
Our mighty defenders did a great job finishing our set pieces. The defenders have also done an awesome job at shifting and providing cover support for each other, which is great to see because they have been working on that all pre-season.
The midfield can sometimes go unnoticed because they don't always score the goals and are rarely the ones sliding to keep the ball from going in our net. But, if you watch carefully you will notice they are the ones dictating a large portion of the game. Today the midfield did a ton of pressure to win balls in the middle third (especially in the first half). Most impressively in my opinion was their ability to settle the ball and keep possession.
In fact, that is one of the most exciting things that I see helping us achieve our goals for this season. Everybody on the field is now trying to find their feet and keep possession. Our team used to struggle with possession because we would just kick the ball away under pressure. Now, we are doing a better job at looking for our options and trying to pass the ball around.
The forwards may not have scored the goals, but we did help create the plays that led to the set pieces. The forwards did a much better job at combining and creating opportunities, now we just need to finish our chances!
After our last exhibition game against Niagara, Jess McCloy said to me "When it Rains, It pours", referring to our offense. With three goals in the net against Marshall I think it's a perfect weather predictor for our coming season...watch out for the storming Vikings!
