Getting there!

The Chelsea Magic played a decent Berwick team today - and we played them with only one substitute! We wont see Rolly for 4 more weeks, Luke Strik was ill and Ethan was indisposed. If Berwick was going to be a tough team - today was the day to do it! We needed to make some positional changes and this would necessitate some folks playing in challenging conditions. But we took a chance and went to work.
We have often talked about, and practiced, moving the ball well, moving it quickly and moving through the outside spaces until we could R1 and L1. We practice passing all the time and there is a reason - no team can play well unless they can pass well. Hopefully we would be able to put all of this together.
The game started with Alec in the 10, Francesca in the 11, Daniel B in the 7 and Liam H in the 9. Daniel A and Luis were in the 6 and 8 and then we had Ollie Chadwick in the 2, Nathan in the 3, Luke Shelley in the 4 and Callum in the 5. Ollie C was in goal. A bit different but nevertheless we took to the field against a bigger, rangier Berwick!
From the outset we could see that the Red team was going to work through their key players. They had a stout defense, and they dropped 5 back and left one up front. Within the first few minutes we had Daniel running an R1 and our two holding mids were doing a terrific job for us.
They were clearly showing their skills in the middle and Berwick had no answer. Luis and Daniel continuously fed the ball out wide to Callum and Ollie Ch. and Daniel B and Francesca.
Callum was doing awesome running the ball down the wing but we were still struggling with a couple of areas. Our defense was not in synch, a lack of talk was evident, and we were holding the ball too long before getting it out wide. But we broke again and again and finally a great cross from Daniel B was met by a really good shot from Alec D who put in our first goal.
We had chance after chance but could not finish. The game was fast paced with Berwick breaking on the counter quite often but Nate, Cal, Ollie and Luke managed to mop up and get the ball to our mids who ran the ball down. However, at the half, we were only 1-0 up and were now kicking against a breeze.
We asked the full backs to move the ball quicker, the Centrebacks to stop taking on players in 1 V 1 situations, and to feed the ball wide asap. We talked about the 9 and 10 positioning themselves properly and making appropriate runs to a zone. We asked defenders to use the keeper when we could.
The second half was exceptional! Everyone tried to do what we asked. Some people just started playing wonderfully. Ollie Chadwick moved the ball very quickly and played Daniel on about 15 times! Nate never took anyone on - but instead passed quickly to the Ollies or Cal or even Luis and Daniel A. Liam and Alec worked better together and Francesca came into her own. Robbie passed quickly, Luke did as well - and we just moved the ball - as a team - beautifully! Berwick made some runs but Ollie Caminiti was positioned really well to take any chance away from them.
Goals flew from the boots of Liam H, Daniel B and Daniel A. We were excellent and yet, still have a long way to go. Today was good because it proved that it is better to play a system rather than simply rely upon single players. Anyone can play any of the positions and know what is going on. It was a very good effort.
Well done Magic!