Matchday 4 @ Michigan Hawks

Up and at ‘em early. Hotel room coffee maker hard at work on its second cup of the morning at 6AM.

Tough battle ahead in a few hours vs the Michigan Hawks.

As I created the link above, I noticed that their website is hawks.soccer. That’s kind of cool. Thunder.soccer on the horizon maybe?

Hawks have been around for over 4 decades, and have been a perennial powerhouse in the Midwest for a long, long time. I remember the last team I had before this one in the club lost a heartbreaker to the Hawks in the Regional semifinals way back when.

Here are some thoughts from yesterday:

My challenge today will be the subbing pattern.

Hang on.

I forgot that there is a Panera across the parking lot. Time for some hazelnut coffee.

Brb.

Dang. How can they not have Apple Fritters here?!?! Michigan is weird. Guess I’ll settle for this new Pecan Roll.

Whatever.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yeah - subbing pattern.

Again, there is a no re-entry per half rule in place. So with 4 subs + a huge field, we’re going to have some tired legs. We’ll likely have to not only change personnel on and off the field, but likely have to change positions in game on the field to give players a rest.

Holy crap. This Pecan Roll is really, really good.

Was…really good.

Brb.

OK.

We had a team jog and stretch last night, and talked about this potential need to have players rotate positions on the field. I’m letting them do it on their own as needed. Or, if they are uncomfortable with that idea, they can flag me and I can help them.

Our mids will likely have a need for breathers, Problem is if we are under severe pressure, they’re not going to find that rest as a defender.

We’ll see how things go.

Dang. That was really good again…

Brb.

Just kidding.

I’ll get one to go…

Good news is that there will be plenty of playing time for people. See Substitutions, and The Expense.

The other thing we talked about last night was the need for results this weekend. I explained the Champions League Qualification race that we’re in, and that we should have a goal of qualifying for that end-of-season tournament.

If we can manage 4 points this weekend, I’d be really happy.

A min of 3 points is a must…if there ever was a must at U13…

Now, for that Pecan Roll to go…

Thought I was kidding, huh?