Mullen vs. CT (Women's soccer)

 Mullen vs. CT (MSC: both teams @4:30)

We are home so wear navy all the way down. 

Snacks are in C5, make sure you are eating 100 calories and hour!

Preface:

CT has had a roller coaster of a season, but they are a good team with good players. And they have also had some excellent results. Their biggest issue is their consistency and over reliance on one of their star players. 

This has both negative and positive consequences that are best understood through their organizational issues. CT usually plays in a 4-3-3 with their star player out on the right side. They look to play her over the top and into space, and she just wants to counter and dribble at goal. However, as the game progresses she has a tendency to drift in and play like a ten. This displaces the rest of the midfield, pushing the 8's out onto the wing. With everybody weirdly positioned, it leaves CT with a number of defensive gaps that teams have a tendency to exploit. But at the same time, the displaced midfielders have the ability to cause marking issues as they over load the wings. 

In order to take advantage of their disorganization, we will need to move the ball quickly (to feet) and try to get in behind their back line (that is usually high and all over the place), but defensively, we will need to keep our shape. If a midfielder drifts wide and the forward drifts wide, we need to treat them like a winger and outside back and mark accordingly. The 7/11 will need to drop and mark the wide midfielder and temporarily leave the outside back in the backfield. If the forward then drifts back inside, then our OB can step to the midfielder and our 7/11 can press the outside back. 

We want to be defensively sound and capitalize on the counter.

CT strengths:

1. CT has a couple of girls that can really play! They are fast and individually talented. Today our 1v1 defending need to be sharp, and we need to close down and block shots.

2. They will shoot from anywhere. It is like a team thing... but CT will pull back and shoot from all over the field, and sometimes they find the goal. We need to close down (but not dive in) as players advance, and we need to push them to the outside. They have a handful of girls that will fire from anywhere in the middle and final third.

3. They have some creative set pieces. They send Kiki out and another player and run a corner that looks like our number 3. We need to be super focused. When they have two out at the corner, we need to have 2 out at the corner. 

4. They are wicked on the counter! We need to protect the ball in the middle of the park and make smart and clinical passes. No unnecessary give aways.

CT weaknesses:

1. Their goal keeping is questionable. They have two different goalies that play and they are hesitant off their line, they struggle to read the ball in the air, and their confidence is low. If we can be clinical in front of goal and put some in early, CT is really going to struggle.

2. Their organization is weak (see explanation above): But also understand that our attacking wingbacks will often be unmarked, and their back line will be all over the place. When a team gets pushed out of position, it is really difficult to understand who is supposed to be marking who... that is why shape is queen! We need to capitalize on this. Be elusive and creative, play fast balls to feet in transition and find our outside backs! Also play the through ball quickly into our 9s, 7s and 11s.

3.They have lost their last three games by progressively worse scores. They are going to be looking to break that slump. However, if we get up in this game, they are going to get frustrated and shut down. That is why we have to be defensively sharp and strong in front of goal.

Mullen Keys to success:

1. Protect the ball and play to feet. Just because CT pushes a big game, we can't devolve into that. We need to play on the front foot and be smart with the ball and our attack. 

2. Outside backs need to get involved in the attack and our 6 needs to stay in cover (like a 3rd CB).

***It is really important in tonight's game that we keep the field tight. Like we talked about after the creek game, we can't afford a big gap between our defense and midfield. CT's stars will exploit that gap! As we attack, we need to move up with the attack to quickly prevent any counter that might develop. 

3. We can't get flat in the back. In order to contain CT we need depth in our backfield. Constant pressure/cover/balance.

4. No mistakes, no shots on goal = shutout.

Let's keep it going!

Good luck :)