Hi Aztec Parents,
First soccer weekend is officiall in the books. Thank you for all the support this weekend in Dublin. The boys played their hearts out despite many 1st weekend challenges. The result were 4 extremely competitive games that I know we will build from going into this next weekend.
Hopefully everyone saw glimpses of what this team will be in the weeks and months ahead. I made it a point this weekend to try new formations and put the boys in new positions they’d never played before. In the process, I learned a lot about each player, personalities included, by putting them in situations which can't be simulated in practice.
I walked away from this weekend feeling good about how much I learned about the strengths and weaknesses of each player. It’s this info I’ll be working with to help all the players develop individually and as a team as we move forward. By the time the season is over, this will be a completely different team compared to where we started. It happens every season and no doubt about it, this team is EXTREMELY talented, resilient, and eager to learn.
I hope they like their new training shirts. Red on Tuesdays with Andres and Black on Wednesday’s with coach led practice. Machine wash cold with no fabric softener. Turn inside out before washing and drying.
Also, please remember to have your son bring ALL soccer gear (Mustang and Aztec shirts, socks, shorts) for every practice and every game. That didn’t happen on a couple of occasions this weekend but like with everything else, it’s a lesson to be learned. I hold each of them accountability, not the parents. I feel it’s their responsibility but definitely remind them.
(When you have an extra 5-10 minutes in your day this week… please read below with your son or have them read it to you.)
Here’s my weekend recap:
Game 1 vs. Castro Valley we dominated from start to finish except for 1 crucial minute when Castro Valley would score on back to back shots to take a surprising 2-0 lead. The strange thing about their scoring burst is that Castro Valley ONLY got 2 shots in the first half! Unfortunately for us, they made each shot count.
The boys wouldn’t hang their head though. Andrew Wiersdorf playing left outside mid would notch our first goal of the season by being in the right place at the right time on a ball played across the goal. Not sure who picked up the assist but I do love goals that happen in this manner. The word we use for this play is Omega. Basically, it’s a pass made across the face of the goal to an open teammate so that the goalie has to turn on their heels unable to react in time. (Here's a visual example of what it looks like:
Really difficult to defend and Andrew read the play beautifully which is no surprise. It’s easy to appreciate kids like Andrew who bring a very high soccer IQ to the team. I saw it in June when we played basketball and I could tell then he knew where to be and when to pass without any directions.
One of the keys to controlling this first game was that both Andrew and Mason Hauck did a terrific job staying disciplined with their positioning while playing both offense and defense (they showed right away they are strong 2-way players). They utilized the width of the field well to create counterattacks that would lead to numerous scoring opportunities.
The beneficiary for a lot of those opportunities would be Ryan Razeghi. Ryan had really impressed me in tryouts with his effort level. His nose for the ball was the primary reason why I drafted him. I love a kid who takes so much pride in giving every ounce of effort. It’s the Aztec way and Ryan showed everyone just how tenacious he is on the field. He was in the mix on practically every scoring opportunity. For whatever reason though, none of those shots would find the back of the net but he definitely made a phenomenal first impression.
After the game I nicknamed him “the Animal”. By my count we outshot Castro Valley 14-4. Just thoroughly outplayed them but didn’t have the score to reflect it. Soccer can be cruel like that so we lost a game in which we won in every other possible way but the scoreboard.
Additional notes from this game: Nate Cheney really impressed me with his technical skills and ability to read the game as a center mid, one of the toughest positions to play in my opinion. Nolan Hannan and Chris Obsitnik would lead the defense with Judd Phillips in goal to make sure Castro Valley wouldn’t do much of anything on offense. Judd would play the entire game in goal and though I heard he might have been a little nervous playing goalie, he never showed it. As the weekend would unfold Judd, Nolan, and Chris would create a really strong trio in the back that would stymy our opponents time and time again.
Moving on to game 2 against Ballistic under the lights, I knew we would be in for an extremely challenging game. I had sent out an email last week about my concerns with the level of competition. This Ballistic team was the #1 reason why and they showed just how effective a well-coached team with highly skilled players can be when playing year-round. For sure, this was not a bronze team. They were in sync moving the ball all over the field for a full 60 minutes. That said the boys stood tall and it made for perhaps the most exciting game of the tournament.
Ryan Razeghi would start in goal and though Ballistic would score early on a shot I’m sure Ryan wishes he could have back, he (and the goal posts) would pull some magic out of thin air to keep it to 1-0 at halftime. Judd Phillips also takes a lot of credit for limiting Ballistic to one goal in the half for his work at sweeper in that first half. His play was absolutely brilliant as he consistently read Ballistic’s attack to cut off through balls and dispossess Ballistic players time and time again. You would have never known he was playing sweeper for the first time. I described his play to my wife that evening as electric and for me it truly was. I honestly didn’t want to take him off the field to go in goal.
When setting the lineup for this game I also asked Andrew Wierdorf to play defense (which like so many players this weekend, it pushed him outside his comfort zone) and I’m truly glad I did because it put his athleticism was on full display having to match up against one of Ballistic’s best players. Ballistic had a lightning fast striker who created a mismatch to start the game so I quickly moved Andrew from the right to the left side to counter this player and it worked.
Mason Hill also stepped up huge despite being dog-tired from our 1st game with even better 2nd game. His play in the middle at the stopper position thwarted a lot of would be opportunities and his play the entire weekend reminded me why I enjoyed coaching him so many years ago at the Rec Plus level. He never quits on a play! Mason is definitely one of those players who has that inner fire that burns nonstop.
Nolan Hannan would take over at sweeper again when Judd went into goal for the 2nd half and Nolan took over where Judd left off. Using his combination of speed (no one and I mean no one is faster than Nolan!) and rapidly developing soccer skills, Nolan would combine with Mason, Chris, Carter, and Jordan in the back to turn away every Ballistic opportunity.
I can’t emphasize enough how incredible these 5 boys along with Judd in goal were in that 2nd half to stifle so many Ballistic opportunities. Like Ryan in the 1st half, Judd had number of huge saves. In fact, it would take a perfectly placed direct kick from over 30 feet out and over a 3-man wall from for Ballistic to score for the 2nd and last time. This shot was a 1 in a 1000 shot and it happened well into the 2nd half. When the game was over we all had a good laugh on the sidelines because right before the final whistle Ballistic had a rapid fire 4 shot sequence. Each shot in the goal box bounced off Aztecs and what made it so funny is that both Judd and Nolan saved a sure goal by each taking shot in the family jewels. Total sacrifice for the team and possibly future generations!!
This game was one of those games I’ve talked about in the past with players where I’ve said you can walk off the field with a smile on your face because no matter what the score you know you left everything on the field. Major points for character and guts in my book to never back down from the challenge Ballistic presented. Super proud of them.
For game 3, I’d say as much fun and exhilaration as the previous night proved to be, we were a bit flat the next morning and looked a bit spent from giving everything the night before. A contributing factor was also likely the level of the team we played. Although our 3rd opponent, CenCal Cosmos, had beat Castro Valley 4-2 (showing just how fluky our 1st game 2-1 loss was), CenCal were clearly the least skilled team we would face this weekend. I see this happen all the time in sports where the energy level matches the skill level of the opponents faced. I feel we just played down to the level competition but even then CenCal rarely challenged but as theme of the tournament continued to develop, we’d be our own worst enemy when it came time to score. Thankfully we would get at least one goal and do so early.
Judd Phillips would start at stopper but I didn’t really give him any instructions on how to play the position. As an experienced D3 player and with his impressive play the previous day, I felt pretty confident I could focus my attention on other players instead. Judd took my lack of directions and ran with it. At one point in the 1st half I couldn’t tell what position he was playing because he was as far up the field as our striker but I let it go because he covered all the ground without leaving the defense exploited. His aggressiveness would pay dividends when he would be first to a 50/50 ball from just beyond the penalty box and on his first touch hit a looping shot over the CenCal goalkeeper’s hands to give us the early 1-0 lead. I thought for sure we would add to it. But that 2nd goal never came.
The referee would even hand us the advantage of playing 11 vs 10 when a CenCal player picked up a red card in the 2nd half for apparently throwing an elbow/punch at one of our players. I didn’t see it though I know I had noticed that the carded player had been playing quite rough in the 1st half. Seemed like a good break for us and we definitely would have loved to get that 1st win out of the way but it wasn’t meant to be. Cencal would tie the game with just a couple minutes left in the game to pull out the draw.
For this 3rd game I’d like to acknowledge Carter White and Jordan Vu. Before the game I had made Carter and Jordan accountability partners. Playing inside mid the entire game I put them both on a 3-touch maximum and told them to count how many completed passes the other would make. Carter was accurate with Jordan’s numbers. Jordan, goofy as ever with a sheepish smile, totally guessed when I asked him about Carter’s pass count. His goofiness aside (which by the way I look forward to every practice and game!), both Jordan and Carter did a very good job of sticking to my request on the field. The result was better possession and ball distribution through the middle of the field which was the point of the exercise. Sharing and being unselfish becomes contagious so it’s something I’m going to drive home for all players week after week so I appreciate these two players taking the lead on it during one of our games.
So by our 4th and final game, we had squandered our opportunities to pick up 2 wins which would have allowed us to compete for 1st place in our final game vs. Manteca. However, it didn’t mean we didn’t have anything to play for. I told the boys that Manteca because of their 3 wins (by a 13-3 margin no less, including a 5-1 win against Ballistic…how did that happen?!) guaranteed themselves 1st place but we could spoil their celebration and show them who the best team in the tournament really was. The boys seemed to pick up on that motivation. With Gavin Andrade and Dhilan Patel adding to the numbers, the boys easily played the best all around game of the tournament.
Dhilan Patel in his first minutes of the season looked so happy to be on the field that he was running everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It was kind of funny to watch as I wondered what he was doing. He seemed to just want to run so bad that it didn’t matter where he went or if there was a reason why. I had to quickly sub him out and give him some very specific directions. “Stay at least 10 feet from every Aztec and always keep your eyes on the ball.” I think I then added he could then run as much as he liked. What’s great about Dhilan is that with each instruction he’d say, “Yes coach!” “Yes coach!” “Yes coach!” I loved it.
From our chess social I got a really quick sense of how articulate Dhilan is and he proved to be a quick study on the field applying each instruction without hesitation. As a result, his impact was immediate when he got back in the game. I guess all he needed were a few set instructions. He played so well that in the 2nd half, I also tried Dhilan out on defense and he was awesome! And he told me at halftime he’d never played defense before!
Like I told all the boys throughout the weekend, playing defense will make you a better all-around player and it’s no secret having interchangeable players leads to long-term success on the field for their own development but also for the team.
Carter also continued to build on his previous games with his passing and his increasing willingness to play defense regardless of position. He already has the technical skills in place to shine which he showed when he received a pass from Gavin and then proceeded to beat the goal on a 1v1. Unfortunately, he ran out of real estate and couldn’t squeeze his shot in past the near post but this combination play between 3 Aztecs working from the right side of the field to the left created the best orchestrated scoring opportunity all game. We’ll definitely see more of this in the weeks ahead.
We’d go into halftime at 0-0 but we were outplaying Manteca in every facet of the game. Their coach was so upset with his team after they had dominated all tournament long he actually had them all running at halftime to wake them up. I made sure all the boys noticed this and talked about the psychology of being in the opponent’s head. Our boys were playing very well and they obviously messed with the ego of the other team.
I’d love to say we pulled off the victory but the lack of goals would once again be our only downfall as Manteca scored the game’s only goal with 5 minutes left when we couldn’t get the ball cleared in the penalty box.
While coming away empty-handed this tournament, I do want to note the distance we have to go to be successful is only an arm’s length away. All things considered, for a first tournament the boys really left me with a strong, positive impression about the season ahead.
To put in perspective, we allowed 6 goals in 4 games. Only Manteca, playing as a team since March, fared better on defense this weekend and they barely beat us without our full team and with little practice time. Obviously, we need to score if we’re going to win games but I’m confident the offense will improve and the final results with it. Looks like we’ll have a full team on Saturday with 5 returning Aztecs making their first appearance of the season. Should be a lot of fun to get the whole crew together!
Final note, Judd Phillips would earn our Tournament Game Ball for his outstanding overall play and leadership this weekend. A lot of praise had been directed my way about Judd prior to tryouts from Aztec families of prior seasons about his work ethic, personality, and skills as a player. He lived up to all of it and more with his unselfish play and for excelling both defensively and offensively for us. He truly did it all this weekend. Congrats Judd on earning this award.
Hope you all have a great week.
Thank you,
John