With the U11 match later in the day, and the fantastic Race for Life on the Knavesmire, we reduced the sessions to just 2 this morning. We were also back in St Peters, our spiritual home, with the bigger court and the competition goals…we have missed you!

Huge thank you to ladies players Ellie and Nat for coming down and bringing their National Trophy with them, the girls loved the seeing both!

This session was another on exploiting the overload. We played 3v3 on a reduced size court, with the rest of your teammates behind the goal you were attacking. If you put the ball out of play, anywhere on court, then this player ran and high fived a teammate behind the goal, making a short 3v2 for the opposition. We worked on how to use this overload, where best to play, why it was important to use the width and height of the court and especially why it was important that the goalkeeper played quick but accurate. We saw some fab transitional play with some great goals – goal of the day went to XXXX with an absolute screamer!

Notable Players of the Session

1st Session – Anna W – One of our longest serving members, today Anna showed all the experience from her years in the club and some great futsal control and passing were the highlights in a very good performance, top job Anna!

2nd Session – Maja M – Another player who really did step up today. She is not shy of a tackle, and we love her physicality, but this morning her touch, control and passing were as good as anyone on court. Great improvements from a player who is just getting better and better each week!

Final thoughts of a coach – with our futsal season ending, and the football season long finished, I am getting contacted by parents to ask my opinion on what their daughters should do regarding football next season. I guess I should not be surprised as it indicates to me that futsal is still a far worse second choice for their daughters, it’s not really an option for the future even though we have a national league, an England U19 Women’s squad and an England Women’s team…

We have played more matches against a much wider variety of opponents in a much wider area, but we are still not able to offer a full games program for our players. This is an absolute must for the future if we are ever going to convince them that futsal is a game in its own right. I know in the boys’ game this is very much easier to do as there are a lot more players and opportunities for the boys to play, but I do feel in the girls game it come down to the coaches.

When we have a player or team of girls who are seen as at the top of their age group, coaches immediately think the best way to progress them is to join a boy’s football team or league. I’m not a believer that this is going to be the best way forward, especially at 14/15 as the boys, and unfortunately some of the coaches just tell their players to use their physicality or ‘other’ ideas to put the girls off, simply put, they don’t want a ‘girl’ to be better than them.

Why not look at futsal to improve the individual or team? I have lost count how many players have said to me that futsal is totally different game to football – the space, the pressure, the techniques, the touches – the list goes on. What do we need to do to educate everyone, what needs to change, how do we get the message out….

I guess all we do is continue to champion what we see as a fantastic game, the same as pretty much everyone in Europe, Asia, South America and pretty much the Rest of the World…why are England so far behind….at times beyond frustration….

Until next time…

Coach Chris