KAOS U15 Girls Soccer, Heritage Soccer Club

Camarillo Wrapup

Hope everyone had fun over the weekend. I'm sure the girls were glad to finally start playing some real, full-sided games after two and a half months of practicing--especially considering vacation plans will keep us sidelined for the next few weeks.

Although we did not win any games, I hope everyone appreciates the experience of having played some very good teams. While this was a tough tournament to start the season, I think it was worthwhile to demonstrate early the benchmark Paul and I want to set for the team this year--and how much work we still need to do. If the girls come away with a clearer understanding of where they are, with respect to their own skill and conditioning levels, the trip will have been worth it.

It was easy to see the effect of better first touch, faster speed of play, better use of space and better passing to space. All of these are objectives we have been pushing, and are within our capacity to achieve this year. For instance, the Real and Freedom teams demonstrated how effective it can be to use long, through passes to the corners--something we have been trying to work on. All three teams demonstrated the effectiveness of coming up one side and crossing the ball, rather than driving up the middle.

We also saw how important it is to stay focused for more than a few minutes at a time. At times we played well and were competitive, but Barcelona and Freedom both took advantage of lapses and letdowns to put the games out of reach. This is a particular problem for us, and something the team needs to work on, starting in practice. You will play like you practice, and you won't be able to stay focused in a game if you don't do it in practice.

Another area of concern is the lack of communication. Paul and I have recognized this from the first day of practice, and we'll need to figure out some way of tackling the problem. I know some of our girls were conscious of how much the other teams were talking--especially the Real team. I hope that will inspire them to work harder on this in practice.

Note that Cal-South does not divide their teams into Class-1 and Class-3 divisions. Paul dug up this reference that gives you an idea of some of their divisions. The Real team is rated Silver Elite, and would clearly be a Class-1 team in Cal-North. Freedom is in the Silver East group and might be rated Class-1 or a very strong Class-3 in Cal-North. Barcelona is rated Bronze Alpha, and would probably be a strong Class-3 team here.

If we have the girls watch a good U16 Class-3 team or U15 Class-1 team play in Cal-North, it's tempting for them to dismiss that as not a fair comparison--"Oh, they're a year older," or "Oh, they're Class-1 and we're only Class-3." Actually playing teams of the caliber we played this weekend, however, gave us the opportunity for direct comparison. I hope the girls realized that we are not really that far behind, and at times could even be competitive.

It's worth remembering that because we are Class-3, we will be grouped with U16 teams this year in both League play and Association Cup, as well as some tournaments. There are some Class-3 teams as good as Freedom and Barcelona in Cal-North, and at times we may have to face one or another of them. While the Real team was clearly a cut above, we want to consider Freedom and Barcelona as the caliber of teams we might find ourselves facing this year.

I think this weekend was a worthwhile trip for the team. Now that the girls have seen the standard we want to emulate, let's recognize that it's attainable and get to work in practice so we can get there.

Posted by Dan 07/27/2009, revised 07/27/2009

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Camarillo Wrapup