A Team, B Team?

For games, we split into two teams and play two games simultaneously. That way, we can play with only 3 or 4 kids on the field at a time but still let the kids get plenty of playing time. The other team this weekend had 11 kids, so they asked that we play 4v4 rather than 3v3. We only started with 7 kids, so we played 3v3 on one field and 4v4 on the other. We try to split our teams evenly and have two quality teams. It turns out that the other team divided into A and B teams, with all their best players on one field. In the first quarter, we clobbered their B team, but got beaten pretty badly by their A team. We adjusted after the first quarter and beefed up our squad that was facing their A team, while still leaving our best player against their B team. In the second quarter, we were evenly matched against their A team, but continued to dominate their B team. At half time, we split into A and B teams (for the most part) and dominated both fields in the second half.

I think it makes a lot of sense to divide into A and B teams because it allows the B team players to get more touches without being overrun by stronger players. But we don't usually do it that way because we don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. My team parents are pretty realistic though, so I don't think anyone was offended this week. They just want to see their kids involved in the game and getting a chance to shine.

We were missing one of our top players this week, so it will be good to be back to full strength this weekend.

Things to work on:

1. We had a lot of trouble turning the ball around this week, so we're going to need to work on that at practice. Rather than controlling the ball and turning it, we were running in front of it and waiting for it to stop rolling. Several times, the other team was able to chase it down before we were able to turn. Drill- I think I'll have them dribble out to midfield, quickly turn the ball back around and come back to shoot on goal.

2. We also need to get back on defense after scoring goals to avoid the quick counter attack. We got burned that way a lot too. Drill- Should be able to fix this tendency just with reminders.