Turf Practice

Games on turf fields have been a weakness for TopGun for a while : the fast running ball caused the girls to rush their plays and miss shots. We only ever saw them at tournaments and spent >90% of game time and practice time on bumpy grass. So with the summer tournaments just around the corner in Redwood City and Morgan Hill, where turf use is common, we decided to get some practice on turf. The Foothill League ( MVLA and SASC ) has a great system where fields can be reserved for $40 for 2 hours so we scheduled Graham Middle school for 3 sessions. Last week we got outplayed by the best passing team in California (Rays98) and lost 5-0. This week TG played MTH Pirates. Last time it was 2-0 (Spring2009); on saturday TG won 9-1. But the score was irrelevant, this was turf practice, and in the final 20 minutes TG finally started playing soccer on turf. What this meant was : passing and moving; controlling the ball, more patient attacks (charging to goal is difficult on turf); switching the play; passing backwards (which we do not recommend on bumpy grass fields in our own half of the field).
So all good stuff. Next week we play MXG and the focus will be passing and moving again, then its the Tournament of Champions in Redwood City, and for the 1st time TopGun is a seeded team (#2).