U11 Turquoise 24/25 - Bury Rangers

On Saturday we played Bury Rangers at home, it was a very early start. So for the warmup I wanted the girls to do some simple pass and move to show them what would help us in the game, and how Ollie and I wanted them to set up from goal kicks so that whoever has the ball will always have 2 or more options so we are able to pass our way out of our own half and into the opponents. I saw elements of this in the game but not enough to punish the opponent due to a few reasons. 

Unfortunately, our referee was a no-show so the two coaches helping me offered to referee a half each which delayed kick off  a bit, and before kick off the opposing manager mentioned that the no retreat rule starts next season so for this game we had to retreat.. Which I think was a disadvantage for us as we have some players who press really well up the pitch. 

Ignoring that fact, I think we started the game a bit confused with our positioning and just drifted away from our original positions which allowed Bury to swarm us while trying to go forward and we often found ourselves on the back foot once we lost the ball with only one or two players back.

Other than that, I though the girls didn't let the scoreline get to them and kept on going for the whole game, and thats the most important thing because once we improve our positioning and allow the ball to do the work we will be able to punish opponents.

My player of the match, and also the two other coaches agreed with me was Bella, who is our star keeper. I think she played excellent and was very good off her line, made some impressive saves and did what I asked of her to be an option for her teammates even if she wasn't used every time, she was a constant option.

With every loss there is something to learn and thats why I was happy with their performance still and it was just the fact that Bury were able get those shots off and pass around well, with some very solid defenders.

POTM Bella🏆

Harmoni ⚽️