Under 11 Tournament – 21/11/2009

We had our first Under 11 tournament on Saturday 21st at Soham, Ely.

This was the first time that some of our players had ever played a competitive game outside of training. More than anything, our first tournament was for experience and practice, as some of the teams in this league have been playing together for a few seasons. Also it was an opportunity for me to assess the players and to see where they naturally fell into position while playing.

The team

1. 1. Kai Hayward (GK)
2. 2. Leon Clawson (1 goal)
3. 3. Marco Giancola (2 goals)
4. 4. Rieff Hayward (1 goal)
5. 5. Youcef Soloman (2 goals)
6. 6. Chay Westrop
7. 7. Jacob Howard (1 goal)
8. 8. -
9. 9. -
10. 10. Mia Allen (GK)

Game 1 – Letchworth v Kingslynn B

Our first ever game as a team was at 12:40. We started the first half with Kai in goal and he was called on to make some saves from some good shots. The game was end to end hockey and unfortunately Kingslynn B slipped through our defence and scored the first goal. After some good defending again by Chay and Leon, they passed the ball out from the back to Jacob who managed to break away getting a pass to Youcef who scored the equaliser. There were a few more frantic moments and all of our rink players subbed on and off after 5 minutes (ish) giving them all plenty of game. The half finished 1-1.

In the second half Mia came on in goal for Kia who had had a good first half. It was quite a tight game and we scored next, our second goal again scored by Youcef, after a really good bit of link-up play by Marco & Rieff, 2-1. The game again became an end to end affair and with just minutes to go before the end we had a momentary slip in concentration and Kingslynn scraped a late goal to draw the game 2-2.

Game 2 – Letchworth v Ely

Our second game was against probably the most experienced team in the league, Ely. We found out very early on in the game that they had two main players who were quick and played good hockey, we went behind in the first half by 5 goals, but not before some good saves by Mia, one of them off of her head. This was a difficult half for all of our players as they had not played against a team like this before and weren’t allowed to get into any sort of comfortable possession, constantly being pressured into mistakes. A clever tactic by Ely.

The second half was better, all of them played really well and gave 110%; I asked Chay to hold our defence tight and protect our keeper and he played his socks off! What more can a coach ask for? The eventual score was 8-0. The score wasn’t really a good representation of the game as we did have some good attacking play, just couldn’t score.

Game 3 – Letchworth v Cambridge

Our third game of the day and we met Cambridge who are the second best team in the league, nothing like baptism by fire! Cambridge are a well coached team who again have some good players coming through. We all started well again, with our players beginning to find their own strengths and using them. Rieff battled and tackling especially well during this period of play and we put the ball in the net first after a good fast moving attack, with Marco finishing the move and scoring the goal with a sublime backhand slap shot. Cambridge then came out fighting and after a few minutes drew level. 1-1. For the rest of the half we defended well utilising the growing defensive skills of Chay and Leon, but the star of the half was Kai who pulled off some really excellent saves off his chest, kickers and most impressive, a big left hand into the top corner which saved a certain goal.

As the second half progressed it became more evident that we were playing our third game and Cambridge only their second. All of our players began to show signs of tiredness but they all persevered. Because of this, we couldn’t hold Cambridge at bay and we conceded 3 more goals. With the experience gained from this game under our belts, we will get much closer to playing at his level. Final score 4-1.

Game 4 – Letchworth v Chesterton

Our fourth and final game of the day game was against Chesterton who were the only other new team in this tournament. Although all our team were getting tired after playing every other game, they all came out showing passion and determination. This was by far our best start to a game as we put all the things we had learnt through the tournament into practice. One of the things that was complimented on by other coaches about our team was that we passed the ball around and played good Hockey. We did this again in this half and went deservedly 2 goals up after some great passing by Jacob and Youcef and a composed finishing by Rieff first and then another goal for Marco. But Chesterton fought back and drew level just before the end of the half.

We began the second half as we had started the first, good passing, good movement and a well ground out goal for Jacob. He started the move by tackling well then passing the ball off, then continued his run and received a really intelligent, weighted pass from Leon, rounded the keeper and put the ball in the net. 3-2 to us. After some prolonged possession from us, Chesterton intercepted a forward pass and went through and scored. 3-3. After this there were only a few minutes left in the game and both teams had chances on goal, with both teams defence and keepers working hard to maintain their teams score. We were the ones who conceded with only seconds left on the clock. The final Score was 4-3.

As I may have mentioned before, this was our first tournament and we played very well as a team. It is very difficult for seasoned players to play 4 games in one tournament as the normal amount is only 3, so our players did very well to cope with it all. The England National coach, Carlos Amaral, told me that he would have expected a new team like us, to take three tournaments together before they started to play together as a unit, but he said that our squad was showing signs of doing that already after just a few games. I can only agree and let you know that I am very excited about this team and that after just one tournament I can see great things for the team and great things individually as players.

Overall through the day I was very pleased at how everyone played, the team defended well, played the ball around and moved into space to help each other. They also learnt valuable lessons, very important things that can only be gained through competitive experience. The most obvious being not to pass the ball across their own goal!

I am really proud of our team and we will start winning at the next tournament.

Thank you very much to all the parents who came along on the day and who helped with the timekeeping.

Well done all!! J

Andrew

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