A bit of delay on posting this because emotions were still running high after the training session, and I wanted to have a quiet think but found it getting nowhere so i might as well just write about it.
Quite a big group for training and was a mixture of the old and new, the good and the bad, the young and the old (i think one guy is past 50! Much admiration!). After the usual warm ups, we did two teams on opposite sides of the penalty box, numbered off and when called, fought for the ball (3 passes) before scoring in either of the goals. It was quite easy because we started with 2-v-2 and we had a coach as a neutral, so we just had to fight for the ball, then play the open pass, and if we changed position after passing, invariably ends up in an easy shot. Didn't like how one guy was leaning into me to body check in a tackle and ended up fending him off with an arm. lol
Worse was yet to come, as we split up into 4 teams and somehow we ended up with young ball hoggers and clueless first timers, which made for an interesting 7, because it meant we were playing with 4 effective players. After all the training and lessons, the same stupid decisions were being made, i.e. to run with the ball when there is an open pass and a defender or two on you, or to pass when there is no pass because you've painted yourself into a corner with your running and are surrounded by 3 players. Even when i tried to help by playing a 1-2, the return pass did no eventuate, even after 3 attempts and i gave up. Football is a team game based on passing, and a champion team will always beat a team of champions. Aforementioned whippersnapper had the cheek to say we lost because we did not press hard enough, which i disagreed violently because our defence was working around the clock on overtime, and being passed around to the death, and are accused of not pressing! Frustrated to the core. J also had a lousy time thanks to some bad challenges his way.
Monday, 27 March 2017
Thursday, 16 March 2017
When the fam's away.....
A weekend free to myself, so i end up going for Sunday soccer with a couple of friends. =) Started off well enough, and i was mindful of not pushing myself too hard after the mid-week training session. I still found space to receive the ball after a pass and go, so squared the ball for a hattrick of tap-ins. =) Also managed to bag a couple of goals, including one of a left-footed shot which rebounded off the post back to me to slot in lol. More importantly, i had chances to demonstrate close control and managed to retain possession most of the time, including once chance where it was a semi-breakaway but i ran into two defenders with no option to pass and turned a couple of times before sending the ball back. That is what possession soccer is all about for me, retaining the ball, denying the opponent the chance, patient passing play to open up the space, runs onto passes to make a better chance or to score.
Training was tiring as the first drill was a fitness sprint drill with four teams chasing each other in one direction around the center circle. My goal was to tag just one person then i'd take a knee, but it took so long and so much effort to catch up with the next guy that i was pooped and winded for the next two exercises, which were a possession drill and a pass, cross, and shoot drill. I did manage a nice trap that left the defender wrong footed before slotting home with the left foot. The match was more even as we had the bulk of the possession and passing, but lost 1-0, thanks to poor finishing up front. J didn't have a good day in the office as striker and he really needed to hit the line at speed rather than receiving the ball while static. I managed to pick out J with a few passes, but he always ended up being crowded out in the box which made it difficult to do anything. Overall i still think we did well to retain and use the ball, as we were effectively playing 4-5-1 which meant we dominated the midfield. Defensively, i did not have to do much aside from the odd clearance, and we even managed to pass our way out of trouble and start an attack. I did pick up a knock on my left ankle and thus am hobbling abit today.
Training was tiring as the first drill was a fitness sprint drill with four teams chasing each other in one direction around the center circle. My goal was to tag just one person then i'd take a knee, but it took so long and so much effort to catch up with the next guy that i was pooped and winded for the next two exercises, which were a possession drill and a pass, cross, and shoot drill. I did manage a nice trap that left the defender wrong footed before slotting home with the left foot. The match was more even as we had the bulk of the possession and passing, but lost 1-0, thanks to poor finishing up front. J didn't have a good day in the office as striker and he really needed to hit the line at speed rather than receiving the ball while static. I managed to pick out J with a few passes, but he always ended up being crowded out in the box which made it difficult to do anything. Overall i still think we did well to retain and use the ball, as we were effectively playing 4-5-1 which meant we dominated the midfield. Defensively, i did not have to do much aside from the odd clearance, and we even managed to pass our way out of trouble and start an attack. I did pick up a knock on my left ankle and thus am hobbling abit today.
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Improving fitness
Having had a layoff of 3 weeks thanks to a dodgy knee after a bad challenge, it was back to training for me and found it really hard going. It really did not help that coach I decided to improve our fitness level with the circuit from hell (with no ball work at all).
We started as usual with Rondo, before moving to the warm ups of opposite lines passing and moving to each other. Then it was time for circuit which consisted of 9 stations in a large arc and started with the ladder, then slalom run, then hopping sideways over a long obstacle, going round 3 cones, bunny hops, then a series of slow jog-run-sprint, then directional change slaloms, push ups (5), and lastly crunches (5). That series of runs really killed me which made me walk by the time i hit the slaloms, but had to force myself to jog slowly, and we did a total of 5 circuits.
Some crossing and shooting drills followed, which was interesting for me, considering how wobbly my legs were by this point. The match was a 7-a-side due to the numbers, and we had a good team of ballplayers and were able to win the first match 3-0. Was playing at RB, but found myself in plenty of space thanks to the width of the pitch, and constantly made the runs up to cross the ball. Pounced on a loose pass across their defence after their failed throw in with good press by our guys, and my first touch pushed the ball away from the defender and into space, before i passed the ball into goal. =) J managed to score a rocket from a tight angle, which was amazing to behold. Our second match was tougher as our opponents were a well-drilled bunch who played often together and we lost 2-1 but did ourselves credit in the way we played and it might have been a different result if our shots had gone in as we had plenty of opportunities. I just tried not to lose the ball as they were good at pressing, so i had to go out wider to split their defence and always tried to draw out the defender before making a short pass, and thanks to good midfield, i usually got the return pass after i made my run. =) Made a cross for J over the last defender but it was just a touch too high which was a pity because he was unmarked and in space at the far post.
All in all, i'm just happy i survived without cramping much, although my abs did do so while i was lacing up my boots (wth right?).
We started as usual with Rondo, before moving to the warm ups of opposite lines passing and moving to each other. Then it was time for circuit which consisted of 9 stations in a large arc and started with the ladder, then slalom run, then hopping sideways over a long obstacle, going round 3 cones, bunny hops, then a series of slow jog-run-sprint, then directional change slaloms, push ups (5), and lastly crunches (5). That series of runs really killed me which made me walk by the time i hit the slaloms, but had to force myself to jog slowly, and we did a total of 5 circuits.
Some crossing and shooting drills followed, which was interesting for me, considering how wobbly my legs were by this point. The match was a 7-a-side due to the numbers, and we had a good team of ballplayers and were able to win the first match 3-0. Was playing at RB, but found myself in plenty of space thanks to the width of the pitch, and constantly made the runs up to cross the ball. Pounced on a loose pass across their defence after their failed throw in with good press by our guys, and my first touch pushed the ball away from the defender and into space, before i passed the ball into goal. =) J managed to score a rocket from a tight angle, which was amazing to behold. Our second match was tougher as our opponents were a well-drilled bunch who played often together and we lost 2-1 but did ourselves credit in the way we played and it might have been a different result if our shots had gone in as we had plenty of opportunities. I just tried not to lose the ball as they were good at pressing, so i had to go out wider to split their defence and always tried to draw out the defender before making a short pass, and thanks to good midfield, i usually got the return pass after i made my run. =) Made a cross for J over the last defender but it was just a touch too high which was a pity because he was unmarked and in space at the far post.
All in all, i'm just happy i survived without cramping much, although my abs did do so while i was lacing up my boots (wth right?).
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)