Matchday 1 @ SLSG Navy Pregame

Up at 4AM. Can never sleep much on the Friday nights before competition weekends like this.

Hotel coffee maker brewing, and proofing writing blog posts in bed.

It’s going to be hot today. Forecast is mid-90s and sunny.

The field is large. Stepped it off yesterday at 116yd x 74yd.

We’re down 2 starting defenders, one of whom might be able to contribute as a GK this weekend. That’s honestly yet to be determined.

ECNL rules for the U13 age group state 35-minute halves and, like it is for all the older ECNL age groups, no re-entry per half. Meaning, if a player is subbed out, they may not come back onto the field in that same half.

To top it all off, we’re likely going to be seeing one of the best players we’ve every come up against today. I believe this SLSG 09 phenom played up with the 08 ECNL team last year and absolutely torched our 08 ECNL team scoring 4 goals on them.

I just found out about this last night. Some of the 09s have friends on the 08s, and the 08s were telling the younger girls to watch out for this player. No one really knows for sure I guess if Ms. Phenom is actually playing with the 09s or if she’s still playing with the 08s, but it does throw a wrench in the game plan.

I hope she’s with her age group. I’d be so excited to see her play today! What a great experience for our girls to witness firsthand that level of play. Right in their faces.

The question in my mind is whether or not to try and man-mark her. Seems ridiculous to even think about that at this age group…

Doesn’t it?

I don’t know. It’s for sure part of the game. The goal would be to have a shadow on her, not let her have time and space to receive the ball, and make sure she’s under pressure immediately every time she touches the ball.

And, without actually having seen this Ms. Phenom in action, if I think about who would likely be best able to pull this shadowing off best from our group, it probably comes down to AC and Livi sharing the responsibility. They are both super athletic, quick, fast, and tough.

They are the two players whom I wouldn’t want on my a** in a game.

But we really haven’t worked on this at all.

Going to have to give this some more thought.

The other thoughts occupying my mind space this morning surround our subbing plan. This is the first time that I’ll be coaching a game with limited substitutions.

I don’t name a “starting 11” at this age, but even if I did, it likely wouldn’t be wise to send them all out there for kickoff. No matter how deep I think we are this year, we’d see a noticeable drop in play.

My gut is that the key here will be balance.

My gut also says strategy and surprise. I would normally have Kenny on the field to start in games like this. But today, I think I’ll start her on the bench. The idea will be to try and catch the SLSG Navy right back a little winded from the first 15 minutes of play and a little off guard. If the game is tight, Kenny might break it for us on her first touch of the ball.

Some kids will be playing in positions that they normally don’t. This can be a cause of stress and/or tension, but can also be an opportunity for growth and confidence building. But the season is just starting, and I still need to experiment with players in different positions to see what works best for that individual, as well as what works best for the team.

Subs would come on around 17 min in, then we’d see how the game was going when it came to our second half line up.