HowieBW

Not a disgruntled parent at all. I love when I come to kentucky how all people think that every comment is posted by a parent! I was at the game and the winning goal was NOT off of a strange bounce at all! NDA's 12 took the ball down the center, while 7 was making an outstanding run to the near post, 21 slotted the ball and 7 took a slicing shoot to the far post! not a bounce! and even though this coach was won back to back titles, and is a great over all coach, i believe that this game was not her best! you play to win because if you don't you go home and i believe that this game was not played to win! Thats fine to get fresh legs but use your experienced players, not ones who have never been in this urgent situtation. Also i believe the girls on the Highlands Soccer team, are a great talented bunch! these girls were taken before they got to highschool and had their skills perfected, because at a high school level you are expected to have them perfected if you want to be any good! So it overall doesn't take that much coaching to make these players skilled and talented enough to win a state championship, because afterall it really is the players that won the championships, not a coach!

nda won..... poor bluebirds.......no coaching what so ever!!!!!!! HHS had players on the field that played maybe 10 minutes all year....in the game of their life she played players that hardly played the season. See put a player in the last ten minutes that really never played all year.... Bluebirds were very slow....they had a center mid in there that hardly played all year and played more tonight than the whole year...so a fan was saying...........REALLY SLOW. Stupid on the coaches part.... HHs all tourney again makes no sense....the coaches for HHS must have been watching a different game...HHS could have used some coaches on the side lines tonight...they coached a played a much different team tonight..it is a shame they tried something new....great for the panda's though. I am sure they won't make it past their next game.

Ryle High School Boys will have a great season. They have some major colleges interested in their players. Keep up the hard work.

Your are right that everyone has different opinions and tactics to every game and situation. But just hear me out on this one. A flat back 4 when used right can be even more effective then a sweeper and stopper defense. With the right rotation and movement a flat back 4 offers more support to the middle do the the flexiblity of it as well as the outsides due to the fact that an opposite outside midfielder should be tracking backwards and pinching in if one defender goes forward to attack and slow down the offense. That way if you do the math right instead of having just 4 back, you can get 6 defenders back with the help of outside midfielders, and even more when centermids track back. I appreciate your advice on the website, but after I have written and contributed to many soccer websites, I won't get into that with you. We are, after all, talking about a more college level play, which most of these girls go on to and play a flat back 4 in their colleges. And as you said eariler since Sacred Heart was playing very direct, a fast defense could have stopped the direct balls, as well as their fast front line, and since it seems HHS goalie was very active in coming off her line she also could have easily got to the through balls.

About the everyone playing for HHS during the final game, I guess you were not at the medal ceremony, where their parents and players talked about non playing time. And anyone who watched HHS during the three games prior could see that the team's subbing was not even close to what it was during the championship game. Rumor was they could field two state chmapionship teams with their roster. As for the not agreeing with me on my flat back 4 comment, after being involved in many OPD trainings and college camps, I beg to differ. You should protect your goalie, field conditions should not change your defensive strategy that much. Sacred Heart played a flat back 4 in the final, didn't seem to bother them. One should not take this personally, because I am a by-stander, but Sacred Heart's players may have been small in stature, but most appeared to be quick and mighty. Not bitter at all, just observing what I see and hear. It is amazing what you can learn by just standing by the concession stand, a parked car, or even just watching a game.

Being a spectator this year at bluegrass interesting comments cicrled the fields. NCC got the bronze medal.. which is a great accomplishment...rumor is that they only got the bronze because they didn't have a bench and minus a last year starter. Everyone knows one player doesn't define a team..especially an "ALL A STATE Champ team" and everyone knows ncc never uses its bench. On the other State Champ team they recieved silver.. Which is a great accomplishment...but chatter says they were there to practice... But in the championship game it didn't look like practice.... It looked as if she didn't use her bench... like she did in previous games that day... I am told. And like ncc ...highlands never uses their bench which is sad for both teams..with the kind of heat this weekend and rather larger girls playing for the previous state champ teams, they could have used some subs. Highlands so called starters look very slow in the gold meadle round with the exception of number 17. During the weekend her second team looked much faster and physical to attack. Not sure with the substition choices in the gold game..I was told they were freshman...you cold so tell there was no insinc with that team. And not using a flat back 4 defense with a new goalie is kind of dated and dangerous for a team... Hats off to cchs for their efforts...!!!