Blue Lightning Party
Exceptional parents = exceptional kids. 12 families attended, plus one over long distance from Toronto. Whispers was noisy!
Blue Lightning's Home
August 18 Post Match notes
What else to say... That was the best Blue Lightning performance to date against a strong team with great players. The team had awesome defending, precision efficient scoring, they just played like one solid block. And two disallowed goals!
However, the best, and what really counts is that all season long they played fair and behaved nicely.
Goals scored: 33, goals against: 7, 1 loss
Our main goalie suffered an amazing.... 1 goal the entire season, and he scored 2 himself! Outstanding.
They are also the nicest group of soccer kids I have ever seen.
August 18, Day 13
Warm-up, Denilson sance, head up, roll ball, always moving 5
Offer support: Stay Away 3
Defender runs fast on wings, centers 5
Defending free kicks 4
Board
Throw-ins 3
Corner kicks II 5
Free kicks: F and D 5
Headers, crosses, diving headers 10
Chest and shoot 10
Defensive methods; Tackles 6
Wall Pass 8
August 11, Post Match Notes
What a team! It was a superb effort against a very tough team. Blue Lightning hanged on and held them scoreless for about 35 minutes, then reacted and managed to tie the match.
Amazing team effort: forwards running back and helping the defense, defenders supporting forwards. Also, our goalie made a spectacular beautiful save in the first half.
Well done!
August 11, Day 12
| Warm-up, running passes on 3,step on, always moving | 5 | |
| Offer support: Stay Away | 10 | |
| Defender runs fast on wings, centers | 10 | |
| Turns (inside, outside, Cruyff) | 8 | |
| Board | 5 | |
| Throw-ins | 3 | |
| Corner kicks | 5 | |
| Free kicks | 5 | |
| Headers, high and low (diving headers) | 8 | 59 |
| Volleys | 10 | |
| Kick-offs | 4 |
July 28, Post Match Notes
A great match for Blue Lightning last night. Our players did quite well and are starting to get the concept of 'support using open spaces'. When one of our players has the ball, the others need to offer support. Offensive support is given by:
- one player staying behind the player with the ball (in case he loses the ball)
- the other players staying away from the ball and going into and using open free spaces
Defensive support is given by the system of first defender + 2nd defender plus all or most forwards coming back to help the defense.
Our players did great by playing hard for the other team. Team has been doing well lately. Confidence is good, but overconfidence is no, something to watch out for.
July 28, Day 10
| Warm-up, running passes on 3,step on, always moving | 5 | |
| Offer support: Stay Away | 10 | |
| Pass to defender running on wings, center | 10 | |
| Game | 12 | |
| Throw-ins | 3 | |
| Corner kicks | 5 | |
| Free kicks | 5 | |
| Headers | 8 | 58 |
| Volleys | 8 | |
| Emerson move, both sides | 5 |
Nikki
Gustavo's favorite singer was in Ottawa Saturday. He took this picture of her:
She was simply spectacular. Fans were treated to something truly quite special. Watch video:
Video Analysis, John and Noah
Here is the video analysis of both John ad Noah's instep drive shots. Interestingly, both have similar movements.
John shows great back swing. For a more powerful shot, at the point of contact his knee and chest should be over the ball, not behind it. Also, he is hitting with the front left corner of his foot as opposed to dead on center, which would give him more power. He has some follow-through, which should be oriented more forward as opposed to sideways (he is slightly off balance)..
Noah:
Similar to John, same comments above apply. Also, he is dropping his body at the time of contact as opposed to following through forward. Note how his foot sticks out to the right at the end, because he is hitting with the inside left of the foot as opposed to dead center.
July 21, Post Match Notes
Players did very well last night. It was a nice game, nice players and coaches on the other side. Our players are starting to spread out a little more, we still need to work on it. When one of our players has possession, the others need to offer support but "stay away" and move into open space.
Players are to be congratulated for volunteering to play on the other team as they were short of players. This is what it is all about.
Offside. We went through simplified offside rules yesterday, but kids get excited and get caught offside. The benefit wit offside is with the players on this as it is very easy for players to avoid being offside, while it is much harder for the ref. to apply all the rules. The rules are in the easy-to-read FIFA rules book with several scenarios shown in graphic form. Please if possible have your child read the book pages 31, and 100 to 108, available off our site (Resources section) or directly at http://www.fifa.com/mm/
Actually, the whole book is a great read.
Sportsmanship: We also went through some do's and dont's:
Do’s:
Do thank the referee and tell him he did a good job
Do congratulate and encourage your teammates
Do congratulate opponents on good plays
Do not’s:
Do not complain about a referee’s decision; do not dissent with a ref's decision
Do not try to influence the referee’s decision
Do not fake or exagerate injuries
Do not complain if your teammate loses the ball or makes a bad play
Do not lie
Do not spit
Do not swear or use foul/ugly language
July 21, Day 9
| Warm-up, running passes on 3,step on, always moving | 5 | |
| Off-side (board) | 5 | |
| Positioning (Board) | 5 | |
| Corner kicks, drills, moving | 10 | |
| Penalty kicks (team) | 5 | |
| Goal kicks | 5 | |
| Throw-ins | 4 | |
| Sportsmanship | 5 | 44 |
| Not bunching up | 10 | |
| Free kicks | 5 | |
| Ball clearance | 3 | 62 |
| Midfield Long passes | 8 | |
| Pass to defender running on wings | 10 |
Saturday July 17 Match
This Saturday kids had a blast at soccer -literally, several times actually.
The match kids vs parents was decided by a penalty shoot-out, where after 5 shots the shootout score was 2-2, going into sudden death shootout, kids finally winning.
Can The Goalie Take Shots on Goal?
One of our players asked yesterday if the goalkeeper could take corner shots. The answer is yes, but that would be difficult as the goalie needs to run back to his net after taking the corner.
However, goalies can take free kicks and penalty shots much more easily. In fact, the goalie of my home team, Sao Paulo FC, is the goalie that has scored the most goals ever (91 total, list), he is the holder of the Guinness World Record. At age 37 he is still the goalkeeper number one and he is a great sportsman. He is a triple World Club champion.
Here is a goal against Santos earlier in 2009:
July 14, Post Match Notes
Another hot day, another great effort and good result against a very tough team which was short of players. Some of our players did our corner kick move during the match, it was a pleasure to see.
A couple of forwards displayed great speed and were even caught off-side a few times (we will be practicing off-sides). Forwards must be fast. Ball clearance needs work. There were some too slow clearances, as well as using the center instead of the sides.
We have talked and will talk again about sportsmanship: Things like never complain about a teammate, opponent, ref, coach or parents during the match, never fake injuries, never lie, never swear, no spitting, don't make fun of players, etc. Our players are great in this regards.
July 14 Plans, Day 8
Warm-up, running passes,step on, always moving 5
Corner kicks 7
Olympics 18
Stay Away, Sportsmanship 5
G4 Bunching up drill 12
Pass to defender running on outside 10
Cone display, offensive, defensive support, stay away 6
63
Saturday Soccer
It was a fabulous day for soccer. Some old friends showed up, and cold yummy watermelon for all (thanks Tom!)
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