Referee Schedule for this week. Blacked out games are already complete.

Here is the ref schedule for Saturday:

Coach K asked each of you to watch "Who Moved My Cheese?" Each player needs to watch the youtube video of this and text me the answers to the following questions concerning the clip.

1. What are the names of the four characters from the book?
2. What was one of the writings on the wall?

▶ 12:52

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDNhEYpBPbY

Text me the answers before Friday's practice and we will play a couple rounds of world cup instead of piggy backs. Eveyone on the team must text me before practice.

I've been trying to process this game in my mind, were we tired? Was Park City in better shape than us? Was it the turf? The ref? Did we understimate them?

I'm not sure what to think of the main problem, but it seems like there were a couple factors here at play that all affected us. I think there was a great deal of individual effort in spurts, but we really never came together as a team to connect consistently enough to tire out the other team. We played well in the final third, but had a tough time finishing very straightforward chances.

I want to highlight something more important from this game and from the CC game. Here are the 2 emails that I received from opposing players:

From Park City:

"My name is Charlie Urban. I am the goalie for Park City High School. To begin with, I would like to formally apologize for my ill-tempered behavior. What I did out there was irresponsible and impudent. I have no idea what factors led to my undesirable actions, but I want you and number 8 to know I am sincerely sorry. Also, no my coach did not make me write this, I just feel resentful towards my mannerism and I hope if we meet again I behave appropriately."

"I play on Corner Canyon's Soccer team. During tonight's game I said some things I regret and usually don't say. I was frustrated and lost my head. 
As a result I changed my behavior. I would appreciate it if you read this to your players so they can know that I'm sorry as well. I talked to a few after the game and apologized. I don't want to represent Corner Canyon in the way that I did. Who I was tonight wasn't me and it didn't truthfully reflect me or my school. The one thing that sucks about sports is that you make enemies with people that you don't know, and it's because you have the same goal. I don't want to make enemies with any of your players so I apologize for my behavior this afternoon. You guys have a great soccer program and I look forward to playing you guys again."

Here's my email back:

"I just received your email and am very impressed with your willingness to apologize. It shows a lot about you, not only as a player, but as an individual.

Though sports does have the ability to bring out the worst in people, it also has the ability to bring out the best. I’m not sure that you realize this yet, but you sending this email is sports bringing out the best in you. Sometimes it takes a mistake to do that and we all make mistakes. Just don’t let the mistakes define you and in this case it hasn’t, your apology has!

I’m going to post your email on my blog www.mrtsoccer.blogspot.com tonight and will make sure they all read it. I’m really proud of you and glad we get to play against players like you."

I hope that our conduct on the field and off the field reflects to others the person we want them to see. I will never forget when I lost my temper and threw another player out of the indoor arena after he punched me in the back of the head. My parents, girlfriend and other people were in the stands and I felt so stupid. I went to apologize to the other player later and he wouldn't accept my apology. I had a hard time forgiving myself, but knew that I never wanted that to happen again. 

We all make mistakes and what we do after the mistake is much more important than the mistake itself. If you're never making mistakes then that is the biggest mistake of all. For you perfect people, you landed on the wrong planet and I've built a homemade rocket to send you back where you came from.

Text "apology" when you have read this with your name please.

Post from Coach Brough:

Roger

Today was a frustrating game for us as a team.  As I think back on the things I saw today, our first touch and lack of patience in maintaining possession really hurt us.  I believe we were a better team in a number of ways, but the most prominent thing that we can learn from Park City's team was the speed of play with regards to ball movement.  They were excellent at taking controlling first touch and then looking to distribute quickly to their moving teammate. 

Please recognize the operative words in the previous sentences (italicized). I don't want to dwell on the things that we didn't do well or execute, but it's important to recognize where we fell short, learn from them, and re-double our efforts to improve those parts of our game that are lacking.  The previous paragraph's last sentence is something I would LOVE for our team to be better at.

I've listed some things for us to work on below, but most importantly, I want to see and feel that we have collectively "bought-in" as a team to a vision that we all agree on.  Please come ready tomorrow to work hard and discuss what this will be for our team this year: 

THINGS TO IMPROVE:

1. Individual work/effort...aka "hustle", particularly on defense; and everyone defends.

2. Communicating with teammates.

3. Playing simple and patiently, maintaining possession until an opportunity arises.

4. First touch.  This was killer today, and something we all need to work on individually.  **Just like a music group, we have to work on our own craft/skills and then bring that to practice to put together as a whole team.**

As a last side note, I was a bit perturbed on the bus ride home as many players were joking and laughing with each other after a poor team performance.  I would have hoped that players would have taken to heart what I said on the bus a bit more seriously: "Taking the time to analyze your individual efforts and contributions on the field today and see what you can do to improve yourself for your own satisfaction and the betterment of the team."  Just like Coach Taylor's previous blog post about Varsity's game vs. Corner Canyon (2nd-to-last paragraph), we need to be all about the success of the team...I believe that is fundamental to the success and vision that we need to have for this season.

Thank you for working hard, and let's get back to it tomorrow!

Player of the game: Marc Bichon (again)

"If you fail to prepare, then you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin

We have been working a lot on combinations in the final third. Watch the first 2 goals from Arsenal to see why we work on these combinations - combinations

Dribbling is just too much effort for too little reward.

Friday's game was an attestation to the potential that this team has. There was no individual out there that did not play with heart and no individual that wasn't smiling on the sidelines (except Aaron) don't worry your behind will heal. With great potential come moments where we make mistakes and where we have moments of brilliance. We won 5-1 against a team that had a great front line and a solid midfield. Their defense was suspect, but mostly because of the way we moved the ball out of the back and exhausted them. We started to do a couple thing very right in this game:

1. Defense playing out of the back and pressing up the wings.
2. Forwards crashing the goal and making them make mistakes
3. Midfielders and defense moving the ball quicker
4. Holding the shape on defense to not get too stretched
5. Hustled back on defense and supported offense on counter attacks

This is a great win to build off of and work harder. If any of you have watched Saturday's Warrior there is a missionary who writes his girlfriend all of these love letters and she always ends her letters with "work harder!" Now is that time for us to use this win as a catalyst to a fantastic regular and post season. If we work harder, smarter and better we have already seen what we are able to do on the pitch. You guys are talented, and will able to reach the goals you believe in and move heaven and hell to accomplish. Happiness is victory, joy is knowing you did everything you could to achieve it. You will love the change that happens through this process. I hope some of you are putting at least an hour in today of individual practice or team practice to meet the next challenge.

It would be uncoachtaylorlike to not mention a couple things that need to change for us to have this kind of success against top teams. I'm all about giving each of you opportunities to have some fun in the game, but not if it comes at the expense of teamwork.

When I was in High School one of my friends was obsessed with WWF (world wrestling federation). I watched it a couple times and I still remember "The Rock" who later acted in movies which all were hilarious because of how horrible of an actor he was. Anyway, he had saying that some of you might now "Know your role and SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!" He would always yell the second part of it.

You might think you're a winger, a forward, a defender, etc. What you need to realize is you are whatever your team needs you to be. You shouldn't care if it's boring, too hard, unbecoming of your abilities etc. Great teams are satisfied when the TEAM succeeds, not when yourpersonal wants are entertained. When you get your chance to be whatever the team needs you to be you take it on full force. Be it playing in a JV game to inspire other players and be an example, go in goal, shag or tell coach Taylor to drink more water, whatever your role is, know your role and find joy in the privelage to be a part of this team.

Text "know your role" to me after you have read this. You will all run Monday until everyone on the team has read this blog so spread the word. I would also suggest that you guys get together on your own and work on those combination drills and free kicks.