Soccer Game Courtesy Irish Village Soccer Club, May 31
This evening indoors on the basketball court at the Waltham Y from 808-932 PM (84 minutes), I played in soccer games organized by the 'Irish Village Soccer Club'. I scored one goal, hit the post once on a shot, and had four assists. I was part of the action on 36% of the goals my team scored, though on average, I myself constituted only 21.5% of my team's total manpower. This despite me playing mostly defense.
Game 1 lasted 26 minutes; score-- Us 5, Them 4 (I played defense, scored 1 goal, had 2 assists). Game 2 lasted 21 minutes, score us 2, Them 10 (I played offense, hit the post on a shot). Some changes were made in the composition of the teams after this drubbing. Game 3: 10 minutes, Us 3, Them 2 (I played defense). Game 4: 17 minutes, Us 4, Them 7 (I played defense, had two assists). During the 84 minutes there were breaks between games that totalled 10 minutes-- I was playing in a game, on-court, 88% of the time.
My performance tailed off after the first game, which went on for 26 minutes nonstop, with just 4 players on each team.
Various factors come to mind as having produced an impairment in performance. Highlights and so-to-speak lowlights come to mind with regards to my play come to mind. Lessons learned come to mind.
Possible factors impairing performance: extremely soft ball-pressure (0.5 Psi); being unused to playing for 84 minutes nonstop with only a tenth of the time being rest-time between games. being unused to playing the forward position, which I had to do when two of my team-mated dropped back to play defense.
American Goofiness RE Indoor ball PSI
Usually these days I practice indoors using a standard outdoors size 5 ball inflatedto 8.0 PSI. During the Irish Village games May 24 a week ago, I could not put my pressure gage needle into their green fuzzy ball, because previously I had caused permanent collapse in the bladder of a twin ball by putting the pressure gage needle into it. I now estimate the ball PSI was only 1.0 PSI on May 24. I estimate the Irish Village soccer club's beloved old pet the green fuzzy ball was only 0.5 PSI today May 31.
By way of contrast, according to the official rules of the world soccer governing body FIFA: for standard full-size field outdoors soccer the size 5 soccer ball PSI should be 8.5 – 15.6 PSI (average 12.05 PSI); and, for indoors FUTSAL play the size 4 soccer ball PSI should be 8.8 – 13.2 PSI (average 11.0 PSI).
According to the official rules of the USA national Futsal governing body US Futsal: for indoors FUTSAL play the size 4 soccer ball PSI should be 5.9 – 8.8 PSI (average 7.35 PSI).
Thus we see that the average of the required PSI range for an outdoor full-size-field ball according to FIFA is 12.05 PSI; and the average of the required PSI-range averages for FIFA-FUTSAL and US Futsal is 9.2 PSI (11.0+7.35/2=9.2).
The midpoint between the FIFA outdoors PSI specification of 12.05 PSI and the FIFA-Futsal/US-Futsal average spec of 9.2 PSI is 10.6 PSI.
Yet: the Irish Village (IV) Soccer Club is playing with an ancient green fuzzy ball whose PSI is only 0.5-1.0 PSI; the IV soccer club is apparently satisfied with not being able to gauge or change the ball pressure due to fear of the ball-bladder collapsing.
After the game I suggested to 'Peter' (who was wearing an official England soccer jersey with the three lions) that the PSI of the ball they were using be increased. His answer was (best I can recall), to display a big toothy smile on his wet white face & proclaim through his red lips: 'no, we're doing fine with it (the extremely soft, very old, fuzzy green ball)'. Whenever I volunteer that my black and white Adidas Replique ball be used, they decline. Seems they are happy that the ball disadvantages me while advantaging them, despite the fact that its PSI is so below the lowest PSI tolerated by any official indoor-soccer/Futsal type governing body.
Seemingly in the spirit of this carefree-re-ball-PSI 'Peter', is the internet world; I found it to be surprisingly time-consuming & frustrating, to nail down information regarding what the PSI of a Futsal ball should be.
Time after time I ran across the following info supplied re official Futsal ball requirements: "Bounce: 55-65 cm on first bounce". Problem is that this data re cm bounce on first bounce is meaningless outside the context of from where the ball is dropped when the bounce is tested. Finally I found that the key omitted fact is that the ball should bounce 55-65 cm when dropped from a height of 2 meters.
So: 'Peter' likes the ultra-soft ball because they're doing fine using it; the internet world makes it difficult to find out what the PSI of a Futsal ball should be; the internet world obfuscates by talking about required bounce without mentioning height from which bounced, while neglecting PSI. Seems America in general, is goofy about things like PSI of ball used for indoor soccer.
Personally I find, that practicing with a ball deflated to a low PSI of 2-2.5, puts more stress on my knees not less. When the ball is soft, the impact point on the foot is wider, which increases stress on the knee.
Exhaustion Due to 84 minutes of almost non-stop play
Having to play for 84 minutes nonstop with only 10 minutes of break-time on the last day in May in a warm humid gym, impaired my performance; during the first 26 minute game I scored 1 goal and achieved 2 assists; by way of contrast during the final 48 minutes of game-time I achieved just 2 assists.
A young-adult prime-of-life type guy arrived after game 1, which was a 4 on 4 game, concluded. He joined the other team, whereas a relatively-speaking slow weak unfit middle-aged type joined ours. This young guy who joined the other team really took advantage of the fact that we were all tired due to having played in game 1, to help produce a tremendous 10-2 victory for his team over ours, in game 2.
While the drubbing was going on, my team was in a daze, we could not figure out why we were being beaten so badly. I felt as if my defensive and offensive skills were in decline while we were being smashed. During the game I was not smart enough to figure out that if the other team can last longer endurance-wise to begin with, and is then joined by a fit young man who did not play during the first 30 minutes while we did, the result can of course be a 10-2 loss disaster.
I believe that we would have all played better, if we had realized how endurance-level and rest can effect player and team performance resulting in lots of goals for this or that team. Since during the hustle-bustle and exhaustion of the game we failed to realize this, we became demoralized, lost confidence, and performed even worse than we otherwise would have.
After the humiliating loss, Jose, who was playing defense while they scored 10 goals, looked at me intently and said (exact words?): 'you are running...they are not running'. But I felt as if my team-mates were hustling at least as much as I was. I told Jose that my team-mates run and hustle when they are dribbling and shooting. Actually in retrospect, of Jose, Sean, Matty, me, and the guy who joined us after the first game, the only hustler doing much running aside from me best I can recall was Matty, and actually Matty did most of his running when dribbling or shooting.
I expect that the endurance problem can be fixed if: I do my wind-sprints fitness routine (my personal speed record doing it is about 25 minutes) three times in a row with minimal breaks between each repetition of the routine; and/or, I exploit my continued improvement in terms of ball control while doing corner dribble & pass drills with the ball kept on or close to the ground.
I've been doing these corner drills involving striking the ball at the walls and dribbling a little between kicks. As my skills have been improving, the amount of time that a repetition of the drill continues without a break due to the ball becoming unplayable, has been increasing. As this amount of time has been increasing, the endurance-improvement effect on my body has been increasing also.
Playing Forward is Now Strange for Me
Although when playing on the University High School soccer team, I played left-wing forward, during the games over the past few years I've mostly been playing defense. I've gotten used to playing defense. But recently I've found that I've been literally forced to go up to play offense, because my team-mates have been dropping back to play defense.
The change has been awkwards because it involves my body being in a new and different position relative to the incoming ball I am receiving and the defender, when I get the ball. I expect that I can solve the problem by putting mental and physical time into 'moves' involving me getting the ball with my body in new positions relative to the incoming pass. For example, I could change from body facing incoming ball to body facing away from incoming ball during practice.
(related) Problem is that this evening, my team-mates did not show themselves to be adept in the art of sending 'lead-passes' (ball is passed ahead of moving pass-recipient in direction of pass-recipient's movement) to their forwards. This evening, the defenders (including this white-haired clean-shaven lean/athletic older-guy wearing a red shirt that said 'coach' on it) were closely marking the forwards, even when they the forwards did not have the ball.
The effective counter-attack for this kind of close-marking defense, is to lob or roll a lead-pass to the forward as the forward runs in the general direction of the goal. However, if players lack the range and accuracy and chip/volley ability to make such passes, the lead-pass attempts result in failure.
When a team is unable to produce lead-passes of range and accuracy, the defenders are free to stick to the forwards like glue. If a team when on the attack shows the ability to generate lead-passes of range and accuracy, the defenders have to back off, not mark the forwards so closely, which would produce a defensive situation similar to what existed in the Irish Village soccer club games up to this week.
Playing back on defense, I had gotten used to successfully faking the pass and dribbling. Now I have to mentally translate that into, when playing forward, faking the shot and dribbling. This evening once the athletic hustling soccer-wise old man was guarding me; with my back to him on the first touch I cut the ball to my right at a 90 degree angle and got clean away from him; next I shot the ball into a second defender when I should have dribbled the second defender, perhaps after first faking the shot (the defender was in a sort of standing foetal-position when the ball I shot hit him).
During the incident I did not want to stick out from the crowd; I had seen how most players will just fire off a shot that is wide or blocked rather than succumb to the possible indignity of attempting a dribble and having the ball stolen; I decided to be like the others and play it safe and fire off a shot when I should have faked a shot and dribbled or just dribbled.
Generally regarding me dribbling, it became clear to me this evening that often the composition of my team is such that me attempting to dribble by the defenders is the superior alternative compared to my team-mates trying to score a goal, and that this is especially true when I initiate the dribble as a defender (for me now starting a dribble as a defender is differerent compared to, and probably easier than, starting a dribble as a forward). Nevertheless, there will be those who complain.
Many persons cannot distinguish between: A) a player dribbling when such can reasonably be expected to be more effective than his team-mates attempting to score, and, B) a player dribbling when such CANNOT reasonably be expected to be more effective than his team-mates attempting to score. In reality, A is a good team-player whereas B is a ball-hog. The common error is to label both A and B as ball-hogs.
Personal Highlights
The lean athletic tall old white-haired man wearing the red 'Coach' shirt tormented me all evening by 'marking' me closely, textbook style. I decided I had to implement the dribble on the first touch in some direction approach, which I'd been practicing earlier in the week. Once I beat him by dribbling right at a 90 degree angle (relative to incoming pass) on the first touch and then shooting when I could have beaten the second defender completely by faking the shot and dribbling.
Another time I dribbled right at a 90 degree angle on the first touch, through a gap in the defense; I hit the ball a little too hard, the old man rushed up and got his foot on it at the same time I got my foot on it, the old man went down, I found myself victoriously in possession of the ball, and I passed it off. I felt as the games progressed this evening, a need to transition from shooting on the first touch, to dribbling once and then shooting.
I made at least two long (approx 25 yds) chip passes that were accurately placed and that led the defender perfectly. One resulted in an assist, the other a pass to Jose, would have been a goal if Jose had played the ball better. I used the wall and backboard well on at least a couple of passes that were at least 15 yards in length, one of these produced an assist for me. Once I led Matty with a short lead-pass, the ball led him perfectly though he was running at top speed; he headed it and lost control of it.
Personal Lowlights
My defensive 'errors' mostly involved me restraining myself from pushing myself to 100% exertion all the time.
Generally I felt I was not taking a good enough look at the goal/defenders prior to shooting/dribbling the ball. A quick glance around slows down the subsequent move by a fraction of a second. When I played in high school I habitually did not take a good enough look around before passing/shooting because I was slow, a weak physical lightweight, and not a good dribbler; a glance around before passing/dribbling posed a danger of the ball being taken by the other team. But times have changed and I have to notify myself mentally of the fact that I am quicker, stronger, and a better dribbler compared to what I used to be and so can now benefit from taking a look around before passing/dribbling/shooting.
General Notes
I was surprised, almost shocked, at how physically the opponents, both young and old played. There was plenty of bulling the other team out of the way with the body and the arms. The ball being at a pillow-like PSI of about 0.5, increased the level of physicality. It was hard for me to change gear, and get physical in retaliation, because for a long time I had been in the habit of restraining myself so as not to offend--not to offend the referee, the small foreign primadonna striker/forward, the woman, the old person.
Possible solutions: dribble a medicine ball at and past a hanging punching-bag.
@2012 David Virgil Hobbs
Game 1 lasted 26 minutes; score-- Us 5, Them 4 (I played defense, scored 1 goal, had 2 assists). Game 2 lasted 21 minutes, score us 2, Them 10 (I played offense, hit the post on a shot). Some changes were made in the composition of the teams after this drubbing. Game 3: 10 minutes, Us 3, Them 2 (I played defense). Game 4: 17 minutes, Us 4, Them 7 (I played defense, had two assists). During the 84 minutes there were breaks between games that totalled 10 minutes-- I was playing in a game, on-court, 88% of the time.
My performance tailed off after the first game, which went on for 26 minutes nonstop, with just 4 players on each team.
Various factors come to mind as having produced an impairment in performance. Highlights and so-to-speak lowlights come to mind with regards to my play come to mind. Lessons learned come to mind.
Possible factors impairing performance: extremely soft ball-pressure (0.5 Psi); being unused to playing for 84 minutes nonstop with only a tenth of the time being rest-time between games. being unused to playing the forward position, which I had to do when two of my team-mated dropped back to play defense.
American Goofiness RE Indoor ball PSI
Usually these days I practice indoors using a standard outdoors size 5 ball inflatedto 8.0 PSI. During the Irish Village games May 24 a week ago, I could not put my pressure gage needle into their green fuzzy ball, because previously I had caused permanent collapse in the bladder of a twin ball by putting the pressure gage needle into it. I now estimate the ball PSI was only 1.0 PSI on May 24. I estimate the Irish Village soccer club's beloved old pet the green fuzzy ball was only 0.5 PSI today May 31.
By way of contrast, according to the official rules of the world soccer governing body FIFA: for standard full-size field outdoors soccer the size 5 soccer ball PSI should be 8.5 – 15.6 PSI (average 12.05 PSI); and, for indoors FUTSAL play the size 4 soccer ball PSI should be 8.8 – 13.2 PSI (average 11.0 PSI).
According to the official rules of the USA national Futsal governing body US Futsal: for indoors FUTSAL play the size 4 soccer ball PSI should be 5.9 – 8.8 PSI (average 7.35 PSI).
Thus we see that the average of the required PSI range for an outdoor full-size-field ball according to FIFA is 12.05 PSI; and the average of the required PSI-range averages for FIFA-FUTSAL and US Futsal is 9.2 PSI (11.0+7.35/2=9.2).
The midpoint between the FIFA outdoors PSI specification of 12.05 PSI and the FIFA-Futsal/US-Futsal average spec of 9.2 PSI is 10.6 PSI.
Yet: the Irish Village (IV) Soccer Club is playing with an ancient green fuzzy ball whose PSI is only 0.5-1.0 PSI; the IV soccer club is apparently satisfied with not being able to gauge or change the ball pressure due to fear of the ball-bladder collapsing.
After the game I suggested to 'Peter' (who was wearing an official England soccer jersey with the three lions) that the PSI of the ball they were using be increased. His answer was (best I can recall), to display a big toothy smile on his wet white face & proclaim through his red lips: 'no, we're doing fine with it (the extremely soft, very old, fuzzy green ball)'. Whenever I volunteer that my black and white Adidas Replique ball be used, they decline. Seems they are happy that the ball disadvantages me while advantaging them, despite the fact that its PSI is so below the lowest PSI tolerated by any official indoor-soccer/Futsal type governing body.
Seemingly in the spirit of this carefree-re-ball-PSI 'Peter', is the internet world; I found it to be surprisingly time-consuming & frustrating, to nail down information regarding what the PSI of a Futsal ball should be.
Time after time I ran across the following info supplied re official Futsal ball requirements: "Bounce: 55-65 cm on first bounce". Problem is that this data re cm bounce on first bounce is meaningless outside the context of from where the ball is dropped when the bounce is tested. Finally I found that the key omitted fact is that the ball should bounce 55-65 cm when dropped from a height of 2 meters.
So: 'Peter' likes the ultra-soft ball because they're doing fine using it; the internet world makes it difficult to find out what the PSI of a Futsal ball should be; the internet world obfuscates by talking about required bounce without mentioning height from which bounced, while neglecting PSI. Seems America in general, is goofy about things like PSI of ball used for indoor soccer.
Personally I find, that practicing with a ball deflated to a low PSI of 2-2.5, puts more stress on my knees not less. When the ball is soft, the impact point on the foot is wider, which increases stress on the knee.
Exhaustion Due to 84 minutes of almost non-stop play
Having to play for 84 minutes nonstop with only 10 minutes of break-time on the last day in May in a warm humid gym, impaired my performance; during the first 26 minute game I scored 1 goal and achieved 2 assists; by way of contrast during the final 48 minutes of game-time I achieved just 2 assists.
A young-adult prime-of-life type guy arrived after game 1, which was a 4 on 4 game, concluded. He joined the other team, whereas a relatively-speaking slow weak unfit middle-aged type joined ours. This young guy who joined the other team really took advantage of the fact that we were all tired due to having played in game 1, to help produce a tremendous 10-2 victory for his team over ours, in game 2.
While the drubbing was going on, my team was in a daze, we could not figure out why we were being beaten so badly. I felt as if my defensive and offensive skills were in decline while we were being smashed. During the game I was not smart enough to figure out that if the other team can last longer endurance-wise to begin with, and is then joined by a fit young man who did not play during the first 30 minutes while we did, the result can of course be a 10-2 loss disaster.
I believe that we would have all played better, if we had realized how endurance-level and rest can effect player and team performance resulting in lots of goals for this or that team. Since during the hustle-bustle and exhaustion of the game we failed to realize this, we became demoralized, lost confidence, and performed even worse than we otherwise would have.
After the humiliating loss, Jose, who was playing defense while they scored 10 goals, looked at me intently and said (exact words?): 'you are running...they are not running'. But I felt as if my team-mates were hustling at least as much as I was. I told Jose that my team-mates run and hustle when they are dribbling and shooting. Actually in retrospect, of Jose, Sean, Matty, me, and the guy who joined us after the first game, the only hustler doing much running aside from me best I can recall was Matty, and actually Matty did most of his running when dribbling or shooting.
I expect that the endurance problem can be fixed if: I do my wind-sprints fitness routine (my personal speed record doing it is about 25 minutes) three times in a row with minimal breaks between each repetition of the routine; and/or, I exploit my continued improvement in terms of ball control while doing corner dribble & pass drills with the ball kept on or close to the ground.
I've been doing these corner drills involving striking the ball at the walls and dribbling a little between kicks. As my skills have been improving, the amount of time that a repetition of the drill continues without a break due to the ball becoming unplayable, has been increasing. As this amount of time has been increasing, the endurance-improvement effect on my body has been increasing also.
Playing Forward is Now Strange for Me
Although when playing on the University High School soccer team, I played left-wing forward, during the games over the past few years I've mostly been playing defense. I've gotten used to playing defense. But recently I've found that I've been literally forced to go up to play offense, because my team-mates have been dropping back to play defense.
The change has been awkwards because it involves my body being in a new and different position relative to the incoming ball I am receiving and the defender, when I get the ball. I expect that I can solve the problem by putting mental and physical time into 'moves' involving me getting the ball with my body in new positions relative to the incoming pass. For example, I could change from body facing incoming ball to body facing away from incoming ball during practice.
(related) Problem is that this evening, my team-mates did not show themselves to be adept in the art of sending 'lead-passes' (ball is passed ahead of moving pass-recipient in direction of pass-recipient's movement) to their forwards. This evening, the defenders (including this white-haired clean-shaven lean/athletic older-guy wearing a red shirt that said 'coach' on it) were closely marking the forwards, even when they the forwards did not have the ball.
The effective counter-attack for this kind of close-marking defense, is to lob or roll a lead-pass to the forward as the forward runs in the general direction of the goal. However, if players lack the range and accuracy and chip/volley ability to make such passes, the lead-pass attempts result in failure.
When a team is unable to produce lead-passes of range and accuracy, the defenders are free to stick to the forwards like glue. If a team when on the attack shows the ability to generate lead-passes of range and accuracy, the defenders have to back off, not mark the forwards so closely, which would produce a defensive situation similar to what existed in the Irish Village soccer club games up to this week.
Playing back on defense, I had gotten used to successfully faking the pass and dribbling. Now I have to mentally translate that into, when playing forward, faking the shot and dribbling. This evening once the athletic hustling soccer-wise old man was guarding me; with my back to him on the first touch I cut the ball to my right at a 90 degree angle and got clean away from him; next I shot the ball into a second defender when I should have dribbled the second defender, perhaps after first faking the shot (the defender was in a sort of standing foetal-position when the ball I shot hit him).
During the incident I did not want to stick out from the crowd; I had seen how most players will just fire off a shot that is wide or blocked rather than succumb to the possible indignity of attempting a dribble and having the ball stolen; I decided to be like the others and play it safe and fire off a shot when I should have faked a shot and dribbled or just dribbled.
Generally regarding me dribbling, it became clear to me this evening that often the composition of my team is such that me attempting to dribble by the defenders is the superior alternative compared to my team-mates trying to score a goal, and that this is especially true when I initiate the dribble as a defender (for me now starting a dribble as a defender is differerent compared to, and probably easier than, starting a dribble as a forward). Nevertheless, there will be those who complain.
Many persons cannot distinguish between: A) a player dribbling when such can reasonably be expected to be more effective than his team-mates attempting to score, and, B) a player dribbling when such CANNOT reasonably be expected to be more effective than his team-mates attempting to score. In reality, A is a good team-player whereas B is a ball-hog. The common error is to label both A and B as ball-hogs.
Personal Highlights
The lean athletic tall old white-haired man wearing the red 'Coach' shirt tormented me all evening by 'marking' me closely, textbook style. I decided I had to implement the dribble on the first touch in some direction approach, which I'd been practicing earlier in the week. Once I beat him by dribbling right at a 90 degree angle (relative to incoming pass) on the first touch and then shooting when I could have beaten the second defender completely by faking the shot and dribbling.
Another time I dribbled right at a 90 degree angle on the first touch, through a gap in the defense; I hit the ball a little too hard, the old man rushed up and got his foot on it at the same time I got my foot on it, the old man went down, I found myself victoriously in possession of the ball, and I passed it off. I felt as the games progressed this evening, a need to transition from shooting on the first touch, to dribbling once and then shooting.
I made at least two long (approx 25 yds) chip passes that were accurately placed and that led the defender perfectly. One resulted in an assist, the other a pass to Jose, would have been a goal if Jose had played the ball better. I used the wall and backboard well on at least a couple of passes that were at least 15 yards in length, one of these produced an assist for me. Once I led Matty with a short lead-pass, the ball led him perfectly though he was running at top speed; he headed it and lost control of it.
Personal Lowlights
My defensive 'errors' mostly involved me restraining myself from pushing myself to 100% exertion all the time.
Generally I felt I was not taking a good enough look at the goal/defenders prior to shooting/dribbling the ball. A quick glance around slows down the subsequent move by a fraction of a second. When I played in high school I habitually did not take a good enough look around before passing/shooting because I was slow, a weak physical lightweight, and not a good dribbler; a glance around before passing/dribbling posed a danger of the ball being taken by the other team. But times have changed and I have to notify myself mentally of the fact that I am quicker, stronger, and a better dribbler compared to what I used to be and so can now benefit from taking a look around before passing/dribbling/shooting.
General Notes
I was surprised, almost shocked, at how physically the opponents, both young and old played. There was plenty of bulling the other team out of the way with the body and the arms. The ball being at a pillow-like PSI of about 0.5, increased the level of physicality. It was hard for me to change gear, and get physical in retaliation, because for a long time I had been in the habit of restraining myself so as not to offend--not to offend the referee, the small foreign primadonna striker/forward, the woman, the old person.
Possible solutions: dribble a medicine ball at and past a hanging punching-bag.
@2012 David Virgil Hobbs
Labels: Irish Village Soccer Club, soccer, Waltham Y
posted by David Virgil at 2:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home