I know I’ve been fairly quiet of late. Lots of changes going on in my life both in soccer and out. But slowly things are returning to a ‘new normal’ so I hope to be able to write more. I’ll expand on this as part of my Wins Don’t Develop Players series, but wanted to get up a short post about it.

My U8 girls have been doing well this year from a possession standpoint. We own the ball. We don’t always win, but we almost always have the ball at our feet. This past weekend the girls finally figured out 1v1. On defense, we were constantly stripping the ball vs poking. When we possessed the ball, we were finally starting to ‘turn’ upfield under pressure. It was so exciting to watch the players figure out when they separated an attacker from the ball, how to quickly turn upfield with it. No, they weren’t doing reverse scissors or anything like that. They’re U8s. But seeing them strip or tackle the ball as well as turn with it into space vs always kicking into shins was so exciting.