thoughts on Blue team games

I and others have been perplexed by some of the results of our games. We are showing more skill and often dominating possession. We have nice buildup of play and are often taking more shots on goal. Many of the opposing goals have been on breakaways, which bigger and faster teams can do more effectively than we. That is, we are playing more skillful and attractive football but the scoreline does not reflect it.

One thing to emphasize is that we don't feel the league play is the best barometer of success in achieving our goal. Our goal is a longer term one: development of skilled football players. For one, the 8v8 format is developmentally not the best for kid of this age. Many places throughout the world recognize this and have kids play in smaller fields/sides. Second, we think the priority at this point is developing individual skills and ability to work in small group triangles. Others may take shortcuts by relying on kick and run tactics but in the long run they will not have the skills to compete effectively.

We have a group of very smart kids that are developing strong skills. They are getting better at working together as a unit. In fact, for this season we moved up a flight to be in a stronger division. One reason was that we felt the boys would benefit from the greater challenge. Last season we had a number of games where we had to instruct the boys to stop scoring because they were overwhelming the competition. That is not an easy thing to do.

I have good confidence that they will adapt to the pace of this new division and evolve to be a strongly competitive team. I am even more enthusiastic about seeing how these boys grow into knowledgeable and skillful players, fans, and people who know how to contend with challenge and work in teams. They are a good bunch.

Next year we will be moving up to 11v11. It will be a challenge to adapt to the new format. The team size will grow to 15 or 16. Fortunately, we have a strong tryout pool to draw from.

Please let us know if you have questions or comments.

Best,

Charlie

--
MUSC U10 Boys Academy

We build total footballers