U10's at Nike Cup

Bad weather, bad organization and lackluster play. Those all combined for a forgettable weekend. But I choose not to forget matches like that because those are opportunities to see where some players are and how they react to adverse situations. It tells a lot about character and where a player is in that aspect of development.
Our first match against the Novi Jaguars, from Michigan, was played with little enthusiasm and creativity. It may have been a situation where I should have let Rich and Andy pilot the ship as I surely drove it into the ground! This match was most disappointing in the sense that we had an unbelievable training session on Thursday (one of the best ever with the 10's). I had a notion that maybe we put everything into that session and could be set up for a mini let down. That is a part of development, in that consistency is something that is hard to develop. As you know, it is difficult to be your best at all times, that is why professional teams don't go undefeated every year. Having said that, I was disappointed in our level of competition, creativity  and intensity. I felt we were slow to recognize things they were trying to do, so consequently slow to react. We stress to the boys to always think ahead, as that is the key to us playing with speed and we did not do that in this match.

The GNA Revolution match started out really well for the first 10 minutes, but quickly went sour after that. I do feel that we competed for the whole match, however, just had too many silly mistakes against a good team. In matches like that, the errors are usually punished, as they should be. We did more in the way of being creative and pushing forward with pace. I think the other team had a player who is a great testament to players who don't necessarily have the best speed in the world but are very effective. Their center mid, # 20 was very good with the ball and usually made good decisions when he distributed the ball. He was not even close to being one of the more athletic kids on the field, however. We failed to adjust to what they liked to do, let #20 bring the ball up and make a decision. In that instance we needed someone to slow him down and even deny him the ball.

Sunday was frustrating to say the least. No match.