Goal keepers and the value of playing for a lesser team. This past weekend was a perfect example.

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socalkdg

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Goal keepers and the value of playing for a lesser team. This past weekend was a perfect example.

We played the Toyota of Orange Classic this weekend here in So Cal. Lost two, tied one. It was a three tier tournament for 2005 Girls. We were in the highest Tier, but were the lowest ranked team of the 4 teams with the other 3 teams in the top 50 in So Cal, so trust me when I say three quality opponents.

Lost 1-0, 2-0, then tied the last one 0-0. Our team actually gave up the least amount of goals out of the four teams, just couldn't score. To see your kid face quality players and shots, making some amazing saves, made the weekend worth it. Good news is we have a couple players coming to help out offensively, but the team has some work to do.

My daughter faced more shots, more crosses, more corners, more breakaways, had more goal kicks to practice, drop kicks, roll outs, as well as more passes back to her to to play out of the back, by at least a 3 to 1 margin. Great experience. As a parent of a keeper I always compare her to the keepers we play. Its been a while but finally saw a high quality keeper play against us that I felt was almost as good as my daughter(it's my daughter, might have a bit of rose colored glasses), the Beach FC DPL keeper. Quality player.
 
I completely agree with your view. My daughter who is 11, plays for our clubs "C" team (they have A-D, with A-C being playing at the same high level). I remind her periodically that it's ok to stay on this team in the future for her development as a goalkeeper because of the amount of action she gets in each game. She gets a ton of blocks, goal kicks, punts, etc. in each game. When we watch the A & B team games, I notice at least a 50% drop in the amount of shots taken on their goalkeepers due to their mid-fielders and defenders being so much stronger. Both those teams have amazing goalkeepers with more years of experience then my daughter, so she will not have the chance to move up anyways. It's hard for her to understand that it's ok to stay on her current team since most of her team-mates and their parents want to move up to the higher teams. Hopefully she will look back one day and see that her development as a goalkeeper at a younger age is more important than advancement at this age. Fingers crossed.....
 
My son had a few choices with a few teams this year. I put him on the "worst" of the 4 choices...of the others the new team in his old club didn't ultimately have enough players, the silver team is obsessed with winning but is struggling, and there's a new team that won the local tournament but the keeper got very little action. His current team has a coach which has amazing levels of caring for his players (he dropped everything when my son got hurt in the tournament to coordinate the emts and when I asked how the team was doing near the end he didn't even know, having turned everything over to the assistant). His current team coach understands the goalkeeper position and is understanding of his ADHD challenges. His current team plays with the back whereas his last 2 teams didn't believe in it and felt it was too riskyand he is amazing with it (his role being a natural sweeper keeper). His current team is really supportive and believes in his talent, and whereas his prior coach said he had no business between the sticks, his current coach says he's one of the best youth keepers he's ever seen. His current coach is supportive of his amazing private trainer and has even sent kids to practice one v one sessions with him. My son for a change is enjoying soccer, unlike last year where he got really great with his coach who was an amazing field trainer but was constantly getting pressured and yelled at, and unlike the year before where he got blamed with the teams struggles. He is getting a ton of practice in a wide variety of circumstances, and is a leader on the team having been named a captain. He also has an understudy and as a result gets some field time.

I'm cautious because I start every year really optimistic but I'm hopefully this year might finally be great. The only dark cloud is the team is losing about twice as much as winning and you can hear some of the parents grumbling already...hopefully they understand this is a process, particularly for a new team that has a small base of players from which to choose (unlike a United which could have many regions to pull from).

My son is U12 and he's already saying he doesn't want to leave this team. The plan had been to do one and done and then move him to a silver level or higher team particularly since he's going to be going to another school farther away, but then I think maybe he's right and he should stay. Other coaches have seen him (including a team he had tried out for a year ago and is easily going to make the run for silver) and have said next year to please look them up. I hope I'm doing the right thing if I keep him there, but the voice in my head sometimes tells me he's ready for tougher challenges that come from a faster paced game, with harder shots and more complicated plays.
 
Grace T. said:
My son had a few choices with a few teams this year. I put him on the "worst" of the 4 choices...of the others the new team in his old club didn't ultimately have enough players, the silver team is obsessed with winning but is struggling, and there's a new team that won the local tournament but the keeper got very little action. His current team has a coach which has amazing levels of caring for his players (he dropped everything when my son got hurt in the tournament to coordinate the emts and when I asked how the team was doing near the end he didn't even know, having turned everything over to the assistant). His current team coach understands the goalkeeper position and is understanding of his ADHD challenges. His current team plays with the back whereas his last 2 teams didn't believe in it and felt it was too riskyand he is amazing with it (his role being a natural sweeper keeper). His current team is really supportive and believes in his talent, and whereas his prior coach said he had no business between the sticks, his current coach says he's one of the best youth keepers he's ever seen. His current coach is supportive of his amazing private trainer and has even sent kids to practice one v one sessions with him. My son for a change is enjoying soccer, unlike last year where he got really great with his coach who was an amazing field trainer but was constantly getting pressured and yelled at, and unlike the year before where he got blamed with the teams struggles. He is getting a ton of practice in a wide variety of circumstances, and is a leader on the team having been named a captain. He also has an understudy and as a result gets some field time.

I'm cautious because I start every year really optimistic but I'm hopefully this year might finally be great. The only dark cloud is the team is losing about twice as much as winning and you can hear some of the parents grumbling already...hopefully they understand this is a process, particularly for a new team that has a small base of players from which to choose (unlike a United which could have many regions to pull from).

My son is U12 and he's already saying he doesn't want to leave this team. The plan had been to do one and done and then move him to a silver level or higher team particularly since he's going to be going to another school farther away, but then I think maybe he's right and he should stay. Other coaches have seen him (including a team he had tried out for a year ago and is easily going to make the run for silver) and have said next year to please look them up. I hope I'm doing the right thing if I keep him there, but the voice in my head sometimes tells me he's ready for tougher challenges that come from a faster paced game, with harder shots and more complicated plays.
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Don't doubt yourself Mom, you're doing the right thing. Sounds like he's starting middle school? I'd keep him getting lots of reps till 8th grade, then start looking at higher level teams starting high school, when all the physical changes happen. Most important thing is that he's having fun and getting better.
 
coachrefparent said:
Don't doubt yourself Mom, you're doing the right thing. Sounds like he's starting middle school? I'd keep him getting lots of reps till 8th grade, then start looking at higher level teams starting high school, when all the physical changes happen. Most important thing is that he's having fun and getting better.
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5th but thanks for the words and vote of confidence.
 
socalkdg said:
Goal keepers and the value of playing for a lesser team. This past weekend was a perfect example.

Lost 1-0, 2-0, then tied the last one 0-0. Our team actually gave up the least amount of goals out of the four teams, just couldn't score. To see your kid face quality players and shots, making some amazing saves, made the weekend worth it.

My daughter faced more shots, more crosses, more corners, more breakaways, had more goal kicks to practice, drop kicks, roll outs, as well as more passes back to her to to play out of the back, by at least a 3 to 1 margin. Great experience.
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Don't look at it as playing for a lesser team..but rather a less-experienced team. She went out there and battled against more experienced teams and as a result your GK gained a ton of knowledge and experience. Good job!! Watching another quality GK is always a great learning tool. Same goes for playing with and or against higher level teams. Teaches you what to look for and what to expect the next time you play against teams like that.
Glass half-full my friend. ;)
 
pewpew said:
Don't look at it as playing for a lesser team..but rather a less-experienced team. She went out there and battled against more experienced teams and as a result your GK gained a ton of knowledge and experience. Good job!! Watching another quality GK is always a great learning tool. Same goes for playing with and or against higher level teams. Teaches you what to look for and what to expect the next time you play against teams like that.
Glass half-full my friend. ;)
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Well said. I do like the term less-experienced. :)
 
Your team is playing in the “Gold” bracket this year. Yes, there may be better teams, but aside from DA, that’s probably going to be the toughest 05 bracket in so cal. Good luck.
 
timbuck said:
Your team is playing in the “Gold” bracket this year. Yes, there may be better teams, but aside from DA, that’s probably going to be the toughest 05 bracket in so cal. Good luck.
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Thanks. We will have good competition this year. Already wish I hadn't used the word "lesser" :eek:. If we could learn to score we might be able to do some damage. At least the coaches are trying different players to improve.
 
timbuck said:
Your team is playing in the “Gold” bracket this year. Yes, there may be better teams, but aside from DA, that’s probably going to be the toughest 05 bracket in so cal. Good luck.
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That and the 06G/07G is crazy right now. such quality players. maybe due to the calendar year age changes when half my daughters' team was split.
 
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