abejas u-14 girls soccer club

Dec. 9 2007
Abejas vs Brazil
The Abejas won this game 5 to 4. Though score was close the Abejas
should have won this game 5 to 4 but due to the fact that the girls were nervous,
first game in the season and all, but once we got going we played fairly well. Our practice sessions showed me that we were ready for our season opener.
The Abejas U-14 girls club is as follows: Erika Ramos, Nelli Arreola, Jaden
Butcher, Andrea Estrada, Leslie Martinez, Evelyn Martinez, Crystal Lopez, Vannessa Franco, and Marlene Valverde.
Abejas came out and took control of this game Marlene aka Ruby, our team captain,
took control of her team and as a result we took control of the game. The Abejas never trailed in this game. Ruby scored 3 goals and Erika Ramos scored 2 goals. We had a strong defense. Holding our defense down was Leslie Martinez. We gave up four goals, but of these four goals 3 of them were the result of a team break down. So we have some work to do as whole team on the defensive end. A majority of the girls were scared of the team and I had to address this repeatedly for we had played this team on several occasions in the past and I felt that this game should have been a blow out on our side, but because we played scared the game turned out to be close. At one point we had this team down 3 to 1 at half time, but the second half they rallied to get it to 1. The Abejas played hard but played with little emotion, but we've always been a team that plays with our emotions on our sleeves, by this I mean that these girls know each other very well and they communicate in their own special way on the field. You can say that they do their talking on the field even though they don't talk, the way they play shows they communicate.
Andrea Estrada is our goal keeper, the team loves this girl's game at goalie position and they will go great lenghts to protect her. Andrea is one
tough cookie. Our substitutes are getting better at filling in, Nellie has this thing that she's not worthy but I strongly feel that Nellie holds this team together somehow. I know that Nellie will come around before season end. Nellie is the key at the defensive end and I lean on her, count on her on the defensive end because shes alot better than what she leads on to and its my job as a coach to bring the best out of her. Nellie has always been our defensive line and the Abejas will need her strong mentally/physically.

December 15, 2007

Abejas vs. Aztecas 0-13

I don't have a whole bunch to say about this game since the score says it all. We didn't show up to play and what we did play we showed no character. I should emphasize that the Abejas, being a girl's soccer club plays in a mostly boys league. Besides the Abejas the Brazil team is the only other girls's team. So the win/loss column doesn't always make it easy for us. We had no leadership in this game. At the end of this game I appointed Leslie Martinez, and Marlene Valverde as team captains. Hopefully this will change our game having appointed leaders to look to for guidance. I think Marlene is a good leader offensively and she has a lot of ability to motivate her players. This game got so ugly that at one point we were just watching the balls go by us. We had 8 shots on goal compared to their 26 and we must straighten this out if we have any hope of making a run for the playoffs. Shots on goal is a key issue for us. In order to score you must take shots and we didn't do this in this game. As a result they teed off on us but we'll be back and will face them again with different results. For the girls it's back to the gym to get ready for the next game.

December 29, 2007

Abejas vs. Cochorritos 2-11

I'm really disappointed in this game and that's to put it lightly, for I set a goal in this game to increase our shots on goal and it was not accomplished. This was our starting intention but we immediately fell away from this goal. Andrea at the goalie position played extremely well under duress. They put a lot of pressure on her and she held her own during the game. I can see why this team is so high on her. We took one shot on goal in the first half and that was it. The second half of the game we continued to do the opposite of what I had set out for them to do. We were constantly trying to outdribble and outspace them and we couldn't but I felt that we could outshoot them and we didn't because no shots were taken. The last five minutes of the game we took several shots at goal. I was pleased with this but it was to late in the game. We made 2 points off penalty kicks. Jaden Butcher scoring one and Marlene Valverde with the other. Jaden Butcher is coming on strong, and I feel that Jaden is going to be key to our attacks. She plays extremely hard and she plays with a chip on her shoulder. I have addressed this with the team and my thoughts are because of our situation in a mostly boys league we need to play with a chip on our shoulder to make a run in this division. Come playoff time the Abejas will be there.
Erica Ramos and Crystal Lopez need to step up for they also are key players. Having said that, the Abejas will be taking a close to 3 week layoff with no practices or games and I don't know how that will affect us come our next game. However, practice will be starting again and we will have a little bit of time to prepare for our next game.