Skills to Improve

Good morning everyone. As Mia sleeps in this beautiful Sunday morning, I figured I'd get a blog in before getting stuck at work the rest of the day. This was Mia's first full week of school. She's not getting up at 6:30am anymore. Back to the 7:00am roll out of bed. Still loves school and her teacher, just doesn't get up as early as that first week. Minus a few problems with a certain kid in her class, everything seems to be going well.

We had a very not-productive practice Thursday. I only say that because the girls weren't very motivated to learn from their mistakes of last weeks game, and try to fix a few things. We started with a 1v1 challenge which in theory could have worked. We did a scrimmage like usual. Everyone wanted to play keeper for some reason. We started to see some improvement with Ainslee in goal as well as Addy's dribbling. This modest player can get around just about anyone and she proved that Saturday morning.

I watched Chelsea beat Cardiff 4-1 before our match. We had our 2nd game of the season at 11:15. When we arrived, a lot of the players were already there warming up. Without my assistant coach, I was riding solo, just like I did all season. I started Sofia in goal and she was phenomenal. Despite letting a few goals in, this kid never backs down and jumps on anything that comes her way. The Jaguar Gummy Girls got a few on us, but we got one back. It had to by Adalyn getting her 4th goal. I don't know why, but it appeared we had way more fans than the other team because after she scored, there was an eruption of cheers from the sidelines. We finally got one back and hopefully could build on the momentum. At that moment, their coach was LIVID that his team let one slip by. He was screaming at his kids and post-game, I had some family members telling me how rough he was. Dude, you're WINNING settle down. They're just kids. We weren't done yet however. Ainslee got her 1st goal of the season, and immediately after when I thought she was going to do her celebratory cartwheel, she just turned and smiled at me. The heat was too much for this kid to do her cartwheel. 2-4 was the final score. It was a tough game, but we had some variables that weren't in our favor. Charley returned after a 2 week absence and we tried Olivia in goal for the very first time. She did mostly okay, but at one point I heard a parent yell "you can USE your hands!" Charley was lost in her first game, mainly because she's never played before and doesn't know the formality of a soccer game. She'll catch up and improve this week. We tried a new formation and I think for the most part it really worked. Cecilia was the solo defender in the back and she had a really solid 2nd half. Totally proud of the pint-size attacking defender. She had a great run with the ball towards the end of the game before it went out. Mia was stoked her friend Hayden had come and watched Cecilia and her play Saturday. Always nice when your friend cheers you on.

After the game, we grabbed some lunch in downtown Waukesha with Jill's family and just sorta chilled out for the remainder of the day. Today. Jill's at church so in a bit I'm going to wake up Mia.

This week, nothing special going on. We'll have our practice Thursday and another match Saturday. Much to improve but we'll get better.

That's all for now, thanks for reading!