Son's team played in the adidas Showcase this weekend. 0-2-1. Lost the 1st game, 2-1. One own goal, and one that my son said deflected 3 times before going in. The team we played is a local team who has scored 4 goals against us in the last 2 games we've played them in, 3 have been own goals. My son's team tends to dominate the middle 3rd as the MFs have really put together a strong cohesion with one another and the passing and connection is really really good. They struggle in the final 3rd though. Lone goal came off of a corner on a planned play. 1st time all season. Funny thing is they worked for an hour on corners on Thursday and it worked perfectly.
Game 2- 2-2 draw against one of the OKC Energy teams. They were good and had 1 kid up top who was phenomenally talented. Super fast, super skilled. They took a 1-0 lead about 10 minutes in on a cracker of a strike from outside the box. Well placed just inside the post. My son had zero chance at it. Our team then responded with 2 goals. 1 was a floater from outside the box that just went over the GK who got caught off his line. 2nd one was a great play by one of our forwards to wriggle free along the goal line and sent a great cross to the back post where the other forward just tapped it in . 2nd half, Energy had the wind and just played the ball over the top to the fast kid. My son probably thwarted about 12 of these by being quick off his line. He also made 3-4 stops on some really nice shots, one he had to tip over the bar as it was headed top corner. Another one from about 15 yds but it was right at him. He fielded the shot cleanly. My son went into time wasting mode about 10 minutes in. Every errant through ball that he scooped up, he went down and then smothered it for a few seconds before getting to his feet. On several others, he would pat the ball down and then control it with his feet playing with it until the attackers would come in forcing him to pick it up. At one point with about 6-7 minutes left the referee apparently told my son he was going to yellow card him if he kept it up and my son asked him if he was going to get a yellow for taking advantage of the rules. The other team scored with about 1 minute left on what turned out to be a 3 on 1 plus my son. Big kid out ran the defender (we were gassed by this point after playing pretty well in the back most of the night, maybe the best defensive effort of the season), got near the end line and played a ball back across the box, 2nd attacker in the middle actually whiffed but there was a 3rd attacker on the back post who put it in despite a desperate dive from my son. Our coach learned that 3 of the kids on the other team were being moved up to the top Energy team after the tournament.
Game 3: Let's just preface this with the field were muddy, boggy messes at Mohawk after the dampness and Saturday night rains and 2 games before we got on it. The west half of the field we were on was unplayable TBH. If it was a normal league weekend, the game would have been canceled. TSC team really dominated. The other team maybe crossed midfield 2x with control of the ball in the 1st half and yet they had the only decent chance on goal (saved). 3 defenders slipped and fell down in the swamp as this play unfolded. My son's team refused to shoot unless they were within 5 yards of goal for some reason despite having the ball at the top of the box numerous times. 2nd half, the other team has the wind, we're down a defender due to injury and put a forward back there. Crazy things happen in the box, ball gets cleared to nearly MF, my son starts to step up, and the one player on the opposing team with a leg big enough just plays kickball. Son slips trying to get back, ball drops into the goal just under the bar. Next 25 minutes are played in the opposing teams end, 2 hit posts, 1 open header wide, 1 open header into the keepers hands. Brutal loss 1-0. Really fluky when you consider TSC team probably had 75% of the possession and attack in the game. Not sure what you can say to the kids other than shoot more.
Game 2- 2-2 draw against one of the OKC Energy teams. They were good and had 1 kid up top who was phenomenally talented. Super fast, super skilled. They took a 1-0 lead about 10 minutes in on a cracker of a strike from outside the box. Well placed just inside the post. My son had zero chance at it. Our team then responded with 2 goals. 1 was a floater from outside the box that just went over the GK who got caught off his line. 2nd one was a great play by one of our forwards to wriggle free along the goal line and sent a great cross to the back post where the other forward just tapped it in . 2nd half, Energy had the wind and just played the ball over the top to the fast kid. My son probably thwarted about 12 of these by being quick off his line. He also made 3-4 stops on some really nice shots, one he had to tip over the bar as it was headed top corner. Another one from about 15 yds but it was right at him. He fielded the shot cleanly. My son went into time wasting mode about 10 minutes in. Every errant through ball that he scooped up, he went down and then smothered it for a few seconds before getting to his feet. On several others, he would pat the ball down and then control it with his feet playing with it until the attackers would come in forcing him to pick it up. At one point with about 6-7 minutes left the referee apparently told my son he was going to yellow card him if he kept it up and my son asked him if he was going to get a yellow for taking advantage of the rules. The other team scored with about 1 minute left on what turned out to be a 3 on 1 plus my son. Big kid out ran the defender (we were gassed by this point after playing pretty well in the back most of the night, maybe the best defensive effort of the season), got near the end line and played a ball back across the box, 2nd attacker in the middle actually whiffed but there was a 3rd attacker on the back post who put it in despite a desperate dive from my son. Our coach learned that 3 of the kids on the other team were being moved up to the top Energy team after the tournament.
Game 3: Let's just preface this with the field were muddy, boggy messes at Mohawk after the dampness and Saturday night rains and 2 games before we got on it. The west half of the field we were on was unplayable TBH. If it was a normal league weekend, the game would have been canceled. TSC team really dominated. The other team maybe crossed midfield 2x with control of the ball in the 1st half and yet they had the only decent chance on goal (saved). 3 defenders slipped and fell down in the swamp as this play unfolded. My son's team refused to shoot unless they were within 5 yards of goal for some reason despite having the ball at the top of the box numerous times. 2nd half, the other team has the wind, we're down a defender due to injury and put a forward back there. Crazy things happen in the box, ball gets cleared to nearly MF, my son starts to step up, and the one player on the opposing team with a leg big enough just plays kickball. Son slips trying to get back, ball drops into the goal just under the bar. Next 25 minutes are played in the opposing teams end, 2 hit posts, 1 open header wide, 1 open header into the keepers hands. Brutal loss 1-0. Really fluky when you consider TSC team probably had 75% of the possession and attack in the game. Not sure what you can say to the kids other than shoot more.
