Women's Soccer Coaches Corner
by Aron Bassoff
Updated: 09/03/06

Going into this week, I knew that two things would tell the tale for our game on Saturday. One would be how many players would we get back from injuries and how would the tinkering that we would do in practice unfold. Whenever you are looking at new things other then you did in pre-season, you know that you never have enough time to cover everything. Pre-season really allows you the time to put a lot of things into place and for your players to grasp a system. When you make changes during the season, it can take longer for players to pick up on things because you just do not have enough time for them to practice it. We started piecing things together this week in training and heading into the game this weekend our players had a pretty good understanding of what I wanted them to do. We had gotten several players back from injuries although I was still not sure if all them would hold up in a game.

We traveled to Oakland City University(OCU) in Indiana on Saturday. A longer bus trip of 4 ½ hours so it would be interesting to see how we responded to getting off the vans and playing. OCU was much improved from last season. They struggled with injuries and numbers last year and you could tell this year that they had a strong commitment about them. They were extremely aggressive in going after the ball and played very quickly but not very accurate. Although that team can be dangerous because it forces our team to react quickly and maybe make a mistake, they can capitalize on. We did not look very comfortable in the beginning. We were not sure of our marking or player’s responsibilities, and I knew that was a consequence of changing some things. We needed to do better at holding possession and dealing with the speed that they were coming at us. I knew that if we held the ball moved it around that this team would eventually run out of steam. We also needed to deal with their aggressiveness and show some teeth to them in challenging for balls. We relaxed a little toward the end of the first half and were able to string together some great passes. This led to a ball in behind the defense by Davin Caudill to Rebecca Rube who took the ball nicely and put it back the other direction of the keeper for a 1-0 heading into half time.

I stressed patience at half time. We talked about keeping the ball, making them chase us and delivering the knock out punch toward them. We kept the ball in their half to start and were doing a pretty good job of what we talked about at half time. However, a poorly delivered ball in the center of the field by our player allowed them to gain possession, get some space going to goal and instead of dropping and delaying we stepped. This left a player wide open who they passed to and sent to goal. Their player finished the one on one and the score was tied 1-1. We still have to learn the lesson of what hurt us against Alabama Huntsville which is the other team is going numbers up at us then we drop. The response was very good from us. We went right back to work of possessing the ball and moving them around and were rewarded on a great pass in behind the defense by CJ Link. Leslie Allred poked a great touch by the uncoming keeper and calmly finished into the open net for a 2-1 lead. A few minutes later we had a corner and the ball got knocked out wide it was bouncing and out toward the sideline about 25 yards from goal. Tammi Kerr who was sideways on surprised the keeper by turning on the half volley and firing a shot on goal. The keeper had to back pedal and try to knock the ball out. The assistant referee initially raised his flag to signal a goal but put it down. The players closer to the goal said the keeper was actually already in the goal when she went to knock it over. Not to be deterred, we kept wearing them down and were rewarded again on a great ball across from Leslie Allred to Davin Caudill who was able to go one on one with the keeper and finish for a 3-1. However, we seemed to run out of steam and forgot the best way to wear this team down was by keeping the ball. They had a chance or two toward the end but we dealt with it and were able to get out of there with a 3-1 victory. The girls are definitely feeling some confidence and success. We will use that in training this week to continue to progress. Up this week for us, Lambuth University and Union College. Both teams, we lost to last year and are looking to turn the tables on. These are the kind of games last year that my assistant and myself stressed to the team that we need to win this year for us to be successful. I believe this year’s team is ready to make that step and hope it shows in the next two games.

August 27, 2006 Corner

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