October 29/13
So Monday night after posting about my troubles trying to express myself and the feeling of emptiness I've had inside me I had to leave the house and go and coach my daughters women's indoor soccer teams 10pm game - literally my least favourite game time so I really have to focus during these games or my mind wanders all over the place.
So far this season the ladies haven't played to their potential and are only 1 win, 1 loss, and 2 ties through the start of last nights game. Granted we did move up a division in order to have a little more competition after winning 26 and losing 4 last year but in all honesty they should have won at least 3 of the first 4 games and have been a bit of a disappointment, something I've let them know at the end of games when they've had mental meltdowns that cost them games.
Now last nights game was against a new opponent but a few of the girls had seen them when subbing for other teams and advised me that they liked to play rough in order to take teams out of any schemes. My daughters team is built on speed and wicked ball skills but what a lot of other teams don't see is the inner toughness they possess, this often comes at their own peril.
Last nights game was different as we came out with a full squad and 4 spares to boot, I told the ladies we were going to run from the first whistle and I'd be subbing every 3 minutes, that anything less than 100% effort would result in being pulled, that rotating back to play defence was more critical than pushing forward into the attacking end. Well we have one outside midfielder who isn't too keen on playing defence so that message was mostly meant for her and I waited for her first test of my resolve, and sure enough it came fairly quickly as she didn't rotate back and let her unmarked player get a hard shot off that our goalie almost lost sight of in the scrum in front of our goal. As we started on a counter attack I called her off and subbed for her faster than you could blink an eye lash. She gave me her look of death for having the balls to pull her from the game and I stared right back and told her flat out "when you're ready to play some defence let me know and I'll try and work you back into the rotation. If you can't bother to come back and help defensively than go home"
That little exchange was caught by several of the other team and looks were passed back and forth about how stupid I must be to take my fasted player off the pitch. We scored 45 seconds after the sub and were up 2-0 at the half without the presence of our speedster.
One thing I noticed was that on every kick in the other team was crowding the line and not giving us the required 3 yards clearance and the referee wasn't doing anything about it so I decided to solve another problem right away. At the half as the ladies were getting water I briefly talked them through the good points from the first half, reminded them to avoid the mental letdown that being up by 2 goals has caused us in previous weeks, and then told them that every time the other team crowded them on kick-In's they were to kick the ball directly into the other player until she moved back. Now two of my primary kickers have a hard shot so they looked at me as if to ask if I was sure about this and I told them that until such time as the referee moved them off the line we had to deal with it and stop trying to kick around them as we were losing possession after possession.
Not 20 seconds into the 2nd half and we earned a kick in and sure enough one of the other team came to crowd the line, my player looked at me, and I smiled and told her to let it rip. She nailed the other player in the side and the ball went out of play so still our possession. As she went to take the kick the other player stepped back up to crowd the line, my player looked at me, and I smiled once more and said "if she wants the bruises than oblige her" whereupon she got nailed and once again lost possession to us. As we lined up to try for a third time the referee blew his whistle and came over to the side line, not to yell at us as I originally thought, but to warn them about crowding the line and forced them back. Now this happened throughout the entire second half and every single time my players took a hard shot that left bruises, it got so bad that at one point the referee started awarding us free kicks and cost them a goal. As the game ended I overhead one of my players say to another "Man I'm glad coach is back" with a smile.
We ended up winning 5-2 on some very hard play and I yelled more than usual about positioning and efforts than I have in many a game. It felt good and from the comments and reactions by my ladies it was long overdue and appreciated.
After the game was over I said my goodbyes and headed out to the parking lot. I loaded my soccer bag into the trunk and as I was leaving drove past my daughter who was walking to her car when she waved me to slow down, I did so as I rolled down my window, and she leaned over to high give me and declared that several of the other team had stopped to talk to her after I left the Sensplex to tell her that they wanted to punch me for being so mean to my team, what with making them kick the ball like they did and yelling at them. My daughter said she laughed at the comments and when one asked her if I was someones dad on her team said she just smiled and said I was without divulging I was her dad, that they like it when I get on them about poor play and being lazy on the pitch. They questioned her on why the team even needs a coach when they play so well and my daughter told them that this same team won 8 and lost 22 games 2 years ago without a coach and that last year the same exact squad went 26-4 and the only difference was adding me as coach and listening to instructions. She said they'd just as prefer dealing with me than losing games and walked away.
So now I've gotten several emails this week from the ladies and almost all have started off with "Dear Mean Coach".......seems like my smart ass daughter has shared her exchange with rest of the team lol
Oh, and the speedster who wouldn't play defence sent me a message asking if she could show up early next week before our game to work on her defensive responsibilities.
While I may still be struggling with that damn hole inside me least I have little things like this to show me not all is lost :)
A musical recommendation for you to consider: Au Revoir by OneRepublic
Marcus
observations.of.a.single.man@gmail.com
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