Rochester Rhinos Combine - Day 2 - Session 1

We would have 2 sessions today. In the morning session we would do some possession, some 1 v1 as well as some crossing and heading.

Possession:
The day began with some possesional stuff and it was black against red initially. The objective was to get to 35 passes, and despite the free touches, only 1 touch passes would count. I was the counter for the black team and we got off to a flying start. As a team we knocked the ball around well however I was not very involved other than my numerical chanting. I got a few touches but they were certainly not sharp as I lost the ball on my initial touch. We ended up winning the initial game but losing to the yellow team in our second. This was pretty much how things would go for the kid as I would struggle in the possessional stuff all day.

1v1:
We then went into a 1v1 drill, where the ball was played out wide to a wide player and he would have to take on a defender 1v1 and cross. Bob Lilley set up some parameters in which we had to beat the defender in and cross. The parameters ensured that if we cut in we would be going directly to goal and not accross the box. Two strikers and two defenders were in the box and they would battle as you crossed. Ofcourse, I was jumping for joy inside as 1v1 is my bread and butter. My team was defending initially and my defending is actually very good so I easily stuffed my first opponent as I encouraged him to dribble down the line. I faced the same guy every time and unfortunately for him, he could not get past me. He did once by cutting inside but he went outside of the boundries set up. We then switched to attacking, and I opted to go first. The ball was played out to me, I cooly controlled the ball and then attacked my defender. I shaked and feinted with step overs before pushing the ball by him and rifling it into the near post for a goal. The second ball I received, my defender was a stumpy central midfielder. This was absolutely unfair and I didn't even bother to waste anytime and pushed the ball and ran past him easily before crossing. I saved my best for last as I recieved the ball, pushed it forward and attacked the defender at pace. This time I cut inside swiftly, a central defender opted to try to tackle and he too was dismissed. Approaching the lowly keeper I opted to touch it to my right before backheeling the ball into the path of my striker who finished aplomb. (1v1 stuff for me is like asking a fish to swim.) Easy stuff for me, even though my team lost as we only scored 3 goals, 2 of them from the kid.

Crossing and Heading:
The teams were then split into two groups were, I ended up joining the yellow group and began the crossing drill. It was simple in that, the ball would be played into a target striker who played the ball back to a midfielder who played it out wide, either left or right, where players would whip in crosses and we had to score against 2 defenders. Once again, I was sloppy, my initial pass asked a lot of the wide player and Lilley went in on the kid. I got my head to a few crosses but failed to score. We eventually built up into a game but it was very direct and I wasn't very involved. I left the drill a little frustrated as I felt I wasn't taking responsibility to get myself into the game.

More Possession:
We switched with the other half of players and went into some more possessional stuff. We were split up into 7v7 with 2 players, who would always play on the team in possession. We were restricted to 3 touches initially. Once again I began slowly. My touches were ok but as I played 1 and 2 touches the opposition always seemed to be reading my passes and intercepting them. My frustration grew and I began to put out more and more effort with little results. We broke for water and then went into 2 touchs. I was beginnig to lift my game now but still I was not satisfied with how I was playing. My touches weren't sharp enough and I just was't getting into the zone. We got another break and went into free touches but the emphasis still being placed on playing quickly.

Moment:
Despite the fact that I was struggling their was one moment of skill that I must share in detail. A tackled was made and the ball spilled out and was running out of bounds. I sprinted to prevent the ball from going out of bounds and was able to stop the ball on the line. My momentum took me off the pitch and I slammed on the brakes to get back to the ball as soon as possible. In that moment of transition, I observed a defender coming at full speed to tackle me. With him speeding in, I proceeded to step to the ball and gently tap it between his legs, before tip-toeing around him like a bull fighter avoiding a raging bull. More defenders swarmed and despite rounding another the ball was poked away. In any case it was definitely the cleanest meg (salad) that I saw over the combine. Best of all, the assistant coach, Bill Sedgwick and General Manager Pat Ercoli, were in full observation and seemed to have really enjoyed the moment. (lol)

Directional Play:
We then broke again and went into some directional play. There were 2 small goals at each end. My team once again began slowly as the other team were able to possess and move the ball through us like we weren't even there. We were 2 nil down, lucky that it wasn't 3 and being outplayed. My frustration grew and I began to run more and more in an attempt to put more pressure on our opposition. We were still struggling when I realized that the striker (player furthest forward) on our team was not stretching the other team and they did well to compress the space. So I began to run into the space behind the opposition and demand long balls. Before we knew it we were able to stretch them out and play some short passes as well as mix it up. We were level in no time, 2-2. We broke one more time for more instruction and when we returned it was a massacre. We possessed the ball well, I ensured that we stretched the opposition, defended as a team and we easily won 2-0. I felt good about showing leadership and I was even able to score but I wasn't very satisfied with my play. That was the end of the morning session and we had 2.5 hours before the next session. So everyone rushed to get some lunch and maybe even a little rest.