With Coach Chris away in Leeds with the U12s, Coach Paul took todays’ session. With so many players away and the York Marathon being run in York, we dropped down to 2 hours, but the standard was so still very high!

The girls worked on playing with a pivot today. They played a normal game but had to always leave a player high up the court in a pivot position. They were encouraged to use the pivot as early as possible and support quickly, trying to use this player to create goal scoring opportunities. They also worked on making sure this pivot player was marked when your team lost possession, and the out of possession team made it as hard as possible for the pivot player to recycle the ball. A good session with lots of learning, well played everyone.

Players of the Week:

First Hour – Raya S – the coaches commented on the great control and passing from Raya this morning, and she was confident to try a few tricks also! She has improved so much since the end of last year, and we can’t wait to see how she continues to improve this season, top job Raya!

Second Hour – Imogen T – Another player who is improving rapidly and today her passing and decision making were spot on. She has enjoyed her sessions with the ladies, and you can see she has taken this and applied it well to the academy session. Another of the future ladies we hope!

Final Thoughts of a Coach…

This week saw the England Ladies play their first ever games as a national team, and it couldn’t have been any harder, going straight into World Cup 2025 qualification. They travelled to Moldova and played Finland, Moldova and Slovenia over 4 days. They lost the first game against a very strong Finnish side but managed 2 goals. They then beat the hosts Moldova with a tremendous performance and just ran out of gas in their last game against Slovenia, losing in the 2nd half. Considering the team only really came together in January, the players and staff deserve a huge pat on the back for even being there!

The results at this stage are only part of the story, of course winning is always nice, but they have set in stone a pathway that now exists for any young girls playing the game – yes YOU can get an England shirt in futsal! The England players need to hold their heads very high and be extremely proud to be the first. I am fortunate enough to know some of the players and honestly, it couldn’t have happened to a better group. Let’s hope the FA finally realise that girls want to play this game, and there is some real talent coming through. Dear FA, support the game, fund the game and overall, please, please, please promote the game!

No training for the next 2 weeks during the half-term holiday but we do take a group of talented U13s to a tournament in Hull next week, check back to see how they got on!

Coach Chris