A Word From Lenny

TS and SS -- Rocks at the Back

As we enter Week 4 of the Fall season, I cannot say that I am upset with the girls performance so far this MAPLE season. The team I've known and worked to develop these last two years disappeared almost entirely at our friendlies in August but they reemerged just one week later in the Bandits Cup. At the Bandits Cup and in MAPLE play since, the team has played well in several phases of the game. This is the girls' first foray into the top division of MAPLE and I know the results alone are not great but on a performance scale the girls are certainly holding their own and doing a lot of good things that we can build upon.

Defensively we have been extremely solid with the center back partnership of TS and SS showing great competence. Both girls are showing real presence and are performing with great composure well beyond that of most 12 and 11 year old girls. We have also seen a welcome emergence of KR, AF and HL as strong full backs.

Attacking is a different story at the moment with only one goal in the 3 games played so far. At the moment we lack creativity and some confidence to try new things. Practices for the past two weeks have been used to work on the girls' play in the attacking third of the field and to put the girls into game situations where they have to use positive decision making to find a pass, a shot or to take a dribble. I will be looking for the girls to put these lessons into practice in game setting over the coming weekends.