So How goes the Give and Go?

It was a miserably cold, misty, windy morning, but the girls came out on fire.  We had 4 out of 10 girls score in the game.  For one of those 4, it was her first goal ever.  She had so many close ones in her first season (last season), but this one reached the back of the net.  But this is a coach's blog, not a game report.

How did our give and go tactic work?  I still can't say I'm seeing a lot of it.  Now frankly we still struggle with it in practice, so I shouldn't be surprised.  Now we have dramatically improved in a couple of areas:

1. We're doing a much better job of actually passing it wide from our end rather than just kicking it.
   
2. We're doing a much better job of crossing the ball in to the top of the box and actually having players there to score it.
3. Our goal tending is very solid.

Now when I say better, that doesn't mean we're good at it yet.  It's just I think that's where we're gaining some advantage compared to last season.  

A couple of areas we still need to work on:

1. Marking up the opposition with our third defender.  
2. Finishing the give and go with a "go".

We'll work on point 2 (finish the give and go) by simplifying the drill in practice where I think they can learn this with some repetition.  Instead of 3 or 4 players, we'll cut down to 2 players, a forward and a back.  The forward will back pass and move wide.  The back will touch the ball in the same direction and complete the "give".  We'll do that a few times, then add the "go".  This is simple enough I should be able to get several groups working in parallel.  

After that, we'll bump up the fun level and start some 3 v 3 or 4 v 4 on a very short field.  We used the very short field last week and I liked what I saw.  It didn't run the girls to death, so they seemed to have more fun.  (With 10 girls playing 6 v 6 and unlimited substitutions, their fitness level is fine with the amount of running we do.)  The keepers were very involved in the game and I think it encourages the girls to use the width of the field.  Since it is by getting the ball wide we start our give and go, I think I like the emphasis on this aspect of the game for now.  I want good first touches away from pressure, not hard kicks up the field.  

I'll keep you updated on how this is going.  

-Bill