Battle of Dixie U14 Girls - Laura Bests Falk

On Sunday morning 9/15 at Terra Linda High School my girls lost a tough match against our Dixie rivals 3-1. Fortunately there were plenty of lessons to take from this contest for these 12 & 13 year old girls and their middle aged coaches. We lost our focus, played without discipline or effective defensive strategy and as a result allowed two unanswered goals in the second half. Then again this is recreational soccer, so there’s really only so much we can ask of or expect from these kids.

Regardless I believe in my players and their abilities. It’s our job as coaches to bring out the best in our players, teach them how to work as a team and put them in position to win matches. I’m happy this loss comes so early in the season, leaving our squad with a respectable 1-1 record. We’ve got 8 regular season games left on our schedule. That being said we will be going against one of the four Ross Valley teams this coming Saturday at the College of Marin at 1pm, and if we play the same way we did on Sunday we will lose again. The good thing about this is that nobody wants to lose on the team and we’ve already begun addressing what we need to in order to bounce back.

The worst part about losing to Laura’s team is that we scrimmaged them twice in the weeks before the game and beat them both times convincingly. Because we share a field and practice time we scrimmaged them again on the Monday after the game and won again when it didn’t count.  This was truly an example of the football axiom ‘on any given Sunday’, where any team can beat another (in any sport) on any day. That should give our players caution and hope.

This game reminded me of my junior high wrestling career. As a seventh grader I won the Marin County championship in my weight class. As an eighth grader I went to the finals against an exceptionally gifted kid from Marin City. Technically he was way better than me and I had little business being on the same mat as him. But I got ahead early and stayed ahead through most of the match by relying my best moves. We went to overtime, then double overtime where he finally bested me. Not only was he technically better and knew a lot more moves than me, he was also in superior shape and I just couldn’t pull out the victory.

The lessons I want to impart on my kids from my own experience are several. The first is that they are at an age where kids are taking their sports more seriously. If they want to compete they need use strategy, be disciplined and focused in their approach to the field. The second is that they need to be in better condition. We as coaches have not emphasized conditioning enough with our kids in part because the Marin Interleague Soccer Alliance (MISA) is a recreational league. I believe when it comes down to it not only were our shortcomings linked to a lack of strategy, but conditioning as well. It was not a coincidence that they scored two goals in the second half when we became more tired.

Personally I’ve got no problem with losing games. As long as my kids learn about themselves in the process I think a loss can be a positive experience. Hopefully my kids will learn a lot about themselves and grow as individuals and a team from this loss and then go out this weekend and play the game to their fullest potential.