The U11-U14 Academy teams went to the Gallagher Friendlies over Labor Day weekend. It's was an important weekend for us as we want our players to know and understand what we identify as our competition. Certainly there are some very good teams in the local area, many that are better than some of our teams at the moment, but I've always looked at our competition on a Regional and National level. We now realize the work that needs to be done to reach our goals.
U.S. Men's National Staff Coach Roberto Lopez visited us recently. It was great for our kids and coaches to have the opportunity to work with and learn from him. Mike Dickey, who is Roberto's counterpart on the girl's side is visiting us today so to have both National Staff Coaches from U.S. Soccer in the Midwest already visit us is tremendous. A couple of things I wanted to pass along to the coaches in the area that read this blog regarding player development that Coach Lopez passed on to us.
- The kids need to play. Small-sided games and competition must be part of every session.
- Technical work in isolation creates a system of players that only see the ball and never play with their head's up. Good training habits are established when players enjoy training and hold their teammates accountable for behavior and execution.
