Quote:
Originally Posted by afchic
Disagree somstimes shit just happens. This was the best game thet played all tournament. They have absolutly mothing to be ashamed of.
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We will agree to disagree.
Yes, we played well. The technical and tactical dimensions of the game were fine. Personally, I don’t see our ‘lack of finishing’ as the problem that DeCicco and Foudy thought it to be. I don’t know what it is in Women’s professional soccer, but in the EPL it takes about ten shots on goal for one to go in. Thus the emphasis on shot generation in many offensive schemes.
And yeah, we do not have anything to be ashamed of. We dominated the shot count, much of the game, and played very well. But soccer is a game where you can dominate the shooting, possession, midfield, outplay the opponent, and still loose. In a low scoring, reasonably close game, the opponent can penetrate your defense just once and score. Sometimes shit just happens.
But…
We made two severe, unnecessary defensive errors around the six that accounted for one goal against.
We blew a one goal lead. Twice.
We made one penalty kick out of four.
IMO, these are all mental shortcomings. Had we won the match in PKs 1-0, these are items that would still need to be addressed. A good program does not permit success to obscure its areas for improvement.
IMO, a lot of soccer coaching is very parochial, and somewhat inbred. We do not do a good job of warm-up, for example. We tend to skimp on it. You will see very little or no pre-warming, and a lack of thoroughness in most warm-up routines. And while it is standard to find many training exercises that focus on producing a mental demand on the athlete (mostly running drills, mainly European in origin, many quite devilish), their use is limited, and I do not believe that you will ordinarily find this to be an area of program emphasis. IMO, if we are invested in developing athletes, it needs to be.
Dealing with pressure is a mental skill. I have seen this repeatedly and somewhat consistently over the last 30 years. In recent times, my daughter’s college team has blown a two-goal lead with 15 minutes remaining to loose a state championship, and overcame a two-goal half-time deficit to win a national championship. IMO, it’s all mental. This is an area in which we can do more. The Women’s National Team needs a Bear Pit.