Wednesday, July 1st....had our first scrimmage game this morning against the U-19 team. This was our first time to play together as a complete team and the first time to try and understand our system of play. We eventually lost 0:3, but for the first 25-30 minutes of the game we played exceptionally well (the game was 35 minute each half), actually controlling the posession. We had a few good chances to score, but we dribbled to far inside the box and never could get the shot off. In the 27th minute, they scored off a corner kick that deflected off a player to another player in front of the goal for their first goal. We played everyone in each half and they all played reasonably well off the bench.



Our starting team is very good and the more they play together the better they will be as a team. We told them, they must believe in themselves and trust their ability and be totally dedicated to our philosophy of how we will play. They must also start to believe that they are good enough to win and stop just hoping to maybe win! Once they do that, they will be fine. The best comment by one of our players was delivered by our sweeper late in the game when we had a free kick just outside the box with the score 0:2 and we had worked on this play the day before and I had asked everyone if they understood it and of course everyone said they did. Well one of our substitute players forgot the play and our sweeper yelled at him that "you had the same (deleted word) book we all had and should have read it." I laughed very loud at that comment. He was correct of course, as I had given each and every player a copy of our system to study and all our free kicks and corner kick plays. I know he now understands the importance of the playbook.



We have another training session at 4:30 PM and it will be a warmdown session, plus working on free kicks, corner kicks and trying to understand our system better with a walk-through showing where they should be in relation to both the defensive and offensive positioning. It will last maybe 1 hour and 15 minutes.



Tomorrow, we will train at 7 AM and then play a local club team (very good Under 16 team) at 5 PM. We will depart by bus from our hotel at 4 PM for the game in Or Yahuda. Should be a better game for us.



On Saturday morning we will again scrimmage the Under 19 team. I know we will do better. We are trying to get in as many friendly games as possible before the tournament begins on July 12th. We hope to have at least 5 games before the tournament.



Sean has done a great job with these young kids in getting them to understand how to play our system. He also did great in managing our subs and their positions. He is a tremendous help to me and has such a great eye for the game. i am really glad he is here with me.



So, until tomorrow, we will say good bye and hope everyone is doing great and getting ready for a great 4th of July.



Best regards from Israel,

Preston and Sean