Rochester Pride - RSC Lightning '96

With the exceptions of shaky starts to both halves, the Screaming Egyptians hit stride early and dominated play throughout the match. A superb defensive display anchored by co-captains Tenealle Tenwolde, Lisa Zelinak along with Jessica Munson and Rebecca Heck kept the ball contained to the attacking portion of the field for most of the match and allowed the rest of the team to concentrate on how to break the opponents’ defense. In a scoreless first half, the Egyptians allowed zero shots while taking 11 of their own – in addition to 8 strong crosses and 8 corner kicks. Chelsea McGee and Lindita Ivezaj hooked up for several beautiful combinations at the right wing, the defensive wall kept tracking down and pounding the ball back into the penalty area (including a 35 yard shot by Lisa that went just a bit high over the goal), and the entire team concentrated on pushing the ball from center to wide positions and then back in again. With Pride forcing play in the attacking portion of the field 30 minutes out of the 35 minute half, it seemed like only a matter of time before the effort being put forth on the field would yield results. In the 2nd half the results came. After shaking off another poor start to the half (something we must address and correct before the next match) The Egyptians again found their groove and after the initial 5 minutes lull only allowed the opponent into our defensive end for a total of 2 minutes 30 seconds. Lisa opened up the seasons scoring ten minutes into the half with a one-time goal from a crossed ball engineered Ally Vogt and Lindita on a short-corner play from the left. The second goal came ten minutes later, also a one-timer scored by Kelly Noren on yet another cross, this one from Lindita on the right wing. The rest of the match remained a Pride-dominated affair. The opponent did get 2 shots in the 2nd half, one on-net handily managed by Jessica for the only save require for the day. Jessica and first-half goalkeeper, Melissa Anderson, combined for their 1st shutout on the season. Pride, as high as my expectations are when it comes to your performance, this match exceeded even my expectations. I am very proud of how hard you have worked all pre-season and very pleased to see how well you have taken everything we have been working so hard on and bringing it to the game-field. You won today because you earned it – not during the 70 minutes of the match, but in the 4 weeks leading up to it. Your challenge is now to keep challenging yourselves. We did not win today because we are better than the opponent. We won today because we applied all that we have been working on, on the game-field. We have 2 weeks and 4/6 practice sessions before our next match. Despite a good start, we have many many things to work on and improve upon. Today you saw the results of hard work and honest effort. Lets all work together to see that these traits become a habit and our trademark rather than a one-time demonstration. Goalkeepers: Melissa Anderson, Jessica Munson Goals: Lisa Zelenak, (Lindita Ivezaj, Ally Vogt) 45th min Kelly Noren, (Lindita Ivezaj) 55th min Shots: 20 Corner Kicks: 14 Crosses: 13

Free Play Fridays is back. RYSL/RSSC coaching director, Mark Hamilton, is once again commiting his friday evenings to this outstanding initiative and great opportunity for our league players. Free Play Fridays is based on the idea of street soccer, and the concept is that the game is the greatest teacher. Players will be able to play in a free form environment allowing them to be creative and solve soccer problems within the game on their own. No interruptions from adults. No coaching from the sidelines. No calling "freeze" to illustrate a point. Just the players playing for fun. A few adults, Mark Hamilton and myself included, will be present to supervise and aid as needed, but this is THE PLAYERS' EVENING. Again, there will be no coaching. If numbers necessitate, team sizes may vary from the 4v4 form depending on the number of players each evening. In any case, the numbers will be kept small to maximize time and touch on the ball thus maximizing the fun AND development value of the free play. Girls, I would really like to see you take advangatge of this opportunity. My goal would be to see at least half the team there each week. This is a great opportunity to just get out there and play and have fun and meet new friends from other teams in the club. Feel free to bring along a friend or two who may also enjoy playing with you. The more you play, the better your going to get. Get better you get, the more fun you'll be having with this beautiful game. Tell your friends. Encourage your teammates. Please come out and play. Coach K

PLAYERS AND PARENTS: The RYSL has adopted new uniforms this past year. They are very sharp Navy Blue & White. Uniforms items will be available for purchase at Soccer World at 2067 Rochester Road located South of Hamlin and East of Rochester in the plaza where Papa Joe's is. Also, as we did last autumn, Rochester Pride will wear red socks for matches.

For regular season matches I will alternate goalkeepers from one half to another. Those goalkeepers who are training weekly, either with me or through the keeper-specific sessions offered by the club, they will always have 1st priority as to whether they will play that day. If there are 3 or more players training weekly, I will try to work on a rotational basis. Beyond that, I will allow volunteers to play keeper if the “dedicated” keepers are unavailable or unable to play. If it happens that there are no dedicated keepers or volunteers available, I will choose a “mandatory volunteer” for that one half. Declining is not an option – but once a player has played at least one half on the season, she will not be required to play again if she does not wish to (except in the highly unlikely occurrence that everybody has taken a turn). This is the deal for “mandatory volunteer” duty: declining is not an option, BUT the volunteer is not held responsible for any mistakes that may occur during her turn and nobody on the team is allowed to hold her responsible for her half-game as keeper – not teammates, not the coach, not the parents, and not herself. All that is asked of her is that she do her own best for that 40 minutes. During single-game elimination or championship situations (tournament games), I may choose to have one player play the full match as goalkeeper. Finally, in the event a penalty kick, I may also opt for a substitution to one of the players who has been training weekly. It is important to understand that if this occurs, it is not a negative reflection on the volunteer keeper by any means. But penalty kicks are a highly unique happenstance – even among full-time keepers. And saving them is a highly specialized discipline. Even among professional ranks the percentages overwhelmingly favor the kicker. Yet there is, in fact, a specific technique and manner by which to increase the odds of saving the shot. And this technique is something we work very hard on during our weekly training sessions. Therefore, I feel that those players who do put in all that extra time and hard work over and beyond the full team training sessions deserve the opportunity to put their training to the test and attempt to capitalize on their specialized skills. I think that’s fair.

The Soccer Goalkeeper is certainly the most specialized position in the game and it takes a very special and unique balance of dedication, focus, courage and skill. Yet it is the single most neglected position on most youth teams – but not on this team. Anybody who has an interest in proper, qualified and dedicated goalkeeper training has that opportunity available to them on this team. I will hold a “Keepers only” practice once a week – probably on Fridays. My goalkeeper sessions are generally more difficult and challenging that full-team training sessions. I take them very seriously because I know that anybody asking for this training also takes this opportunity seriously. My goal is to give anybody who trains under me the leadership qualities and technical skills to play at a varsity level once they reach high school. All players are welcome to attend these training sessions. Any field player who attends may chose to participate on one of 2 levels: (1) full participation/workout or (2) observe/assist. (1) full participation/workout: In past years I have had field players who have asked my to allow them to fully participate simply for the benefit of the extensive physical workout, which can be rather demanding depending on my focus for that day – certainly it is far more demanding than anything I require during regular full-team training sessions. I have allowed this in the past and will make the opportunity available to this team as well. If you do choose to train and work out with the keepers, that does not mean you will be obligated to play during matches if you do not wish to (beyond the scope of my team policy covered above). History has taught me, however that players who do workout with the keeper tend to develop futher and faster even as field players due to the physical exercise and the tactical information they are learning in the process. (2) observe/assist: In the past I have also had players who ask to attend the session but do not wish to work out as the keepers do, but possibly could help with taking shots if required. I also will allow players to attend on this basis - but these are the conditions: These sessions are all about the keeper. Any player in attendance and not working out will assist in gathering balls, setting up the field as needed, providing pressure, shooting on net, serving balls, crossing balls, etc., etc. as required. Depending on the skills I need to work on that day, there may or may not be the opportunity for players to shoot on net. I will expect assistance and get you some shooting or attacking on net if I am able. But all in the context of working the keeper's skills - not the attacker's. By no means should anybody show up to a goalkeeper training session expecting that it is just a shoot-around. It is not. When: (subject to change) Fridays 5:30 How Long: usually 60-75 minutes