Well as the title says, two solid team efforts. Better yet, our weekend could be summarized as " 2 solid team efforts, one disappointing loss, a strong win and proof that we are making progress "
Without getting into too much detail about the games themselves, I will say that I sit her on Monday with a huge satisfaction about the progress this year's current group of players has undertaken since we started back on August. While our overal records remains tilted towards the loss side, the results themselves are good indication of how far we have come. Friday evening we lost again, yes, but 1-0 to McGill (who we lost to 5-0 the first time around) and on a goal that can be respectfully be called fluky (and I am being polite). Due to injury our regular starting goalie Fanny was unavailable and Jessie stepped in. He made some great saves early one as we absorbed a lot of pressure but just before half time, we saw what should have been a fairly routine save, end up with the ball going in the net. Now some coaches might have gone nuts at that point, but looking at the bigger picture and balancing out the pros and cons, I prefer to see it as a learning point with this young team....and boy did this young tream respond. Yes we spent more time defending than we did attacking but the reality is that we did what had to be done to keep the score at 1-0 and we actually created some chances for ourselves, including a clear one on one break-away with about 15 minutes where really missing was harder than scoring. Another chance to blow up at a player....maybe but again, teaching point. Sunday, we took some of the positive vibe coming off our last few efforts and were expecting to win at Bishops. Must be said that Bishops has given some really solid efforts recently, including close games vs Sherbrooke (1-0 loss and 1-1 tie) and a 1-0 loss to Laval last weekend. The game started out with a 45 minute delay due to a serious injury that occured in the Lacrosse game taking place right before us. We got off a strong start pressing them early and dominating play even though we were heading into some serious gusting winds. We converted on a nice crossing play about 25 minutes in and the outcome was pretty much sealed from there. We continued to created decent possesions near their penalty area and even a few decent chances at net (versus on net) but the score remained unchanged. So we now find ourselves 3-9 with the chance to play for 5th place on Friday vs UQTR who sit 1 point ahead of us. To finish 5th we need to avoid a loss and then get either a tie vs UQTR and win vs Laval (not easy) or simply win against UQTR and hope the law of averages prevails. Results, scores, aside, I think that results are relative, anyone who has watched this team play at different points throughout the year, can see the progress, can see the excitement that each player brings to games and practices. Now it would be easy to say things like "we will be great next year" or "just imagine next year" but how relaly can tell. Lots can happen, injuries, players leaving the team, unsuccesful recruiting, not to mention other teams getting stronger. What I can say is that while we are still losing more than we win, we have definitely made a huge stride to changing the culture of women's soccer at Concordia. Our players step on the field with a greater sense of confidence and determination, and can see the results that come from applying yourself and working hard. My job (with the assistant coaches) is to make sure we add the right pieces to the puzzle moving forward and make sure that we continue to raise the expectations
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
January 2023
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