Spring has Sprung!!

It seems like a long, long time has passed since the Fall season for the Crushers concluded. It has only been a few months but it seemed much longer. On top of that, Mother Nature didn’t want to cooperate and buried us in rain over the course of March and early April. Despite all of that Spring has sprung and a new season of outdoor soccer is upon us.

One quick aside before I get into the Spring season. The Crushers just wrapped up their 3rd session of indoor soccer. Indoor soccer requires a certain element of control and skill which is different than the outdoor game. The play is typically faster paced, high scoring and the playing surface is a much smaller, turf field. Over the course of 6 indoor games, the team scored 19 goals and allowed just 3. That level of defensive dominance is a testament to how well the girls have taken to the “team” defensive philosophy we’ve tried to instill in them. Dreyfuss and I could not be prouder of how hard they worked to protect that defensive third of the field.

Now onto outdoor (finally!!) soccer: This weekend the Crushers had their first “friendly” game vs. Manchester’s U13/U14 travel team. First games are always a bit of an adventure… shaking off the cobwebs and rust of a long winter can be tough for a team. Playing on a full grass field is also distinctly different from playing on a much smaller, turf surface for indoor soccer. The good news for the Crushers was that it all seemed to have little effect. They won 4-1 in a game that was never that close. They held a significant possession advantage and outshot Manchester 27-2. One defensive lapse cost them a shutout.

That brings me to the lesson of the week. Each week as the team practices and plays we try to assess their performance and see where there are opportunities for improvement. Taking 27 shots and converting just 4 of them points us to a weakness in “finishing” (read: scoring). We will no doubt spend some time on finishing this week as we head into our first league game.

The team goals this year are to win their league title and win the State Cup. These are difficult goals – we have set the bar quite high – but the team is up to the task. The Journey to the Cup begins now.

“Do something today that your future self will thank you for.”