The regular season match up ended in a tie but I'm sure we will here how they were missing two of their better player's. Should be a good final.

It did not appear to me that Cooper changed things up the entire night. To receive the ball, Snow would often have to drop deep into the midfield and then there was nobody up top to play the ball to relieve the pressure. As I said, it appeared to me that Cooper was playing defensive all night, even down 2-0. The best player on your team needs to have the ball and last night, that meant dropping him into midfield to get him touches. Cooper never did that.

 

Regionals or not, CCH is struggling offensively IMO. It's a combination of things at this point really. A lot of nice build-ups last night that ended in very poor quality balls played into the center or poor quality shots, etc. Cooper's keeper made a few nice stops as well. Again, passion, energy and work rate.........I wasn't seeing it last night.

 

I think these 2 points from GP cover what I saw last night.

 

Cooper was playing defensive all night, not dropping 6-9 players intentionally but in effect, this is what happened. As pointed out, this left no one in the midfield for an outlet or a means to play the ball forward. I can think of several times that Snow had to come well into the defensive side of the field to receive the ball and by doing so, usually brought one of the center backs with him. Now you have the ball 60+ yards from the goal, a defender on you, Wessels and/or Day in close proximity and still another 3 defenders in the midfield area.... not the best of odds. In their defense, Cooper was missing the only other attacking player they have. Not saying this would have changed the result but it could have created some space to work in and at least another person for the CCH defense to contend with.

 

I agree that Linder made some nice saves last night and kept Cooper within 2 goals until late in the match.

 

If I am CCH and looking forward to playing a couple more weeks, I would also be concerned with the amount of chances that were not converted and why Cooper was only down 2-0 late into the match. They were able to stretch the defense time after time but did not seem to be able to connect with someone making a run into the box. Other than the last goal, which was off a ball played back to the middle, I think they struggled with finishing. On several instances there was also a nice build up, or someone that dribbled and weaved their way through the defense only to hit the ball right to the goalie, IMO... if you are within 12-15 yards of goal, it has to be a more quality shot.

Interesting to read the game summaries since I couldn't make the semi finals last night. Figured Cooper would have problems getting the ball to ASnow in areas he could create scoring opportunities. Sounds like Cooper pretty much left him on an island up top all alone Vs 3-4 defenders. Did Cooper ever try to mix it up, put another player up top, drop AS back behind a target forward or back into the midfield?

 

GPD...

 

He was pretty much alone and did not have much support in the attack because the majority of the match Cooper was fighting for the ball deep in their own side of the field.

 

I can only remember Snow getting the ball into the offensive third of the field on a handful of occasions. His only shot in the first half was off the dribble, and from distance, early in the match. In the second half they found him out wide from distance and this went high and wide. His best chance was straight away from about 25 yards but I do not think it went more than a few feet before being blocked away by a defender.

Snow is a tremendous athlete that makes so many individual plays to score it is crazy.

 

Dad was a pretty nice basketball player at Williamstown back in the day but definitely not a soccer player of Adam's caliber!!!!!

The first half was tough to watch on this. CCH controlled the tempo and was on attack the first 40 mins. Cooper seemed to change to 2 striker's the second half and it did seem to help a bit. It freed up Snow alot. But it was not enough obviously. Blake Cornforth played a very good game at central defense and also Linder in goal for Cooper.

CCH seemed to dominate the midfield which they always have. Hopefully they will capitalize on more finishing opportunities and they could make a deep run.

CCH has some tremendous talent on their team. For a school like Cooper that does not have a tremendous pool of boys to choose from for a soccer program it was a good game. CCH by no means dominated and abused them, Cooper played defense all night, and their goalie should hold his head high given the fact that soccer is something he just recently took up in the past few years and goalie this year.

At the end of the game everyone needs to remember this is not professional soccer, it is high school soccer.

I do hope the boy from CCH that looked as if his shoulder was out of socket is okay. The coaches from CCH didn't looked concerned at all, they looked more irritated that the game had to be stopped.

Well done Colonels.

Probably more concerned that the foul wasn't called.........concerned most of the game, actually.........

 

Not sure if CR was watching the same game.....sometimes 2 yards in front of him.....

There is nothing wrong with expecting excellence from a team fully capable of producing it. If they were a mediocre team I'd be happy with the victories and rightfully so but being happy just to win games for this team is not enough if they have higher goals.

It should be in the postseason. Some people can never be pleased.

Probably more concerned that the foul wasn't called.........concerned most of the game, actually.........

 

Not sure if CR was watching the same game.....sometimes 2 yards in front of him.....

 

Talking with others after the match, this seemed to be a concern from both sides. I thought this crew missed some for each team.... unwarranted cards, missed fouls, handling, etc...

 

It looked to me that there were 4 times in which handling could have easily been called. One of these was in the box and another was on a shot just outside the box.

 

Praised this CR for the match he called Tuesday, not so much last night.

 

On a side note, they let a lot go in the second match, there were a few times that I thought they let it get way too chippy.

Agreed......Was specifically addressing the one incident, but agree on both sides.....

CCH has some tremendous talent on their team. For a school like Cooper that does not have a tremendous pool of boys to choose from for a soccer program it was a good game. CCH by no means dominated and abused them, Cooper played defense all night, and their goalie should hold his head high given the fact that soccer is something he just recently took up in the past few years and goalie this year.

At the end of the game everyone needs to remember this is not professional soccer, it is high school soccer.

I do hope the boy from CCH that looked as if his shoulder was out of socket is okay. The coaches from CCH didn't looked concerned at all, they looked more irritated that the game had to be stopped.

Well done Colonels.

 

 

I thought both teams played OK

I watched Cooper and cov cath this year, both have had better nights. It looked to me that cov cath played really good soccer at times, possessing the ball, finding slotted balls and moving off the ball but when they had a slight bit of pressure on them they would panic and kick the ball. Cooper on the other hand looked to me to be either banged up or just tired. The center back left the game after the first goal, and they seemed to sub more than the other times I've watched them. Also thought they might not have played the same guys as when I watched them against Ryle.

Both teams played hard mostly fair hard challenges except one kid from Cooper who seemed to be out for blood. I thought the ref called it evenly, I'm sure some people thought different, there were multiple missed calls both ways. I thought the student section for cch was funny until the started picking on kids, I heard vulgar language directed at Cooper players. I was sitting behind them, there was even what looked to be a teacher or staff member monitoring them, NO ACTION WAS TAKEN. This is an embarrassment to your school, the chants are fine the cheering is awesome (we all wish we had fans like yours) but when you start calling out individual kids and using inappropriate language it's gone to far.

I'm sure some colonels fans will come defend them and say it didn't happen but it did and from what I've been told it happens every year.

"I'm sure some colonels fans will come defend them and say it didn't happen but it did and from what I've been told it happens every year."

 

Wasn't sitting near there, but I do know that the Assistant Principle, The Athletic Director, The Dean of Discipline too on the track in front of the student section the entire game. Any comments had to come over them and they are very quick to squelch inappropriate behavior....even to the point that the did not allow the student section to change seats during the HHS shootout to be closer to the action, because they would be moving into the HHS cheering section.

 

So I can't comment on if anything was or wasn't said, only to say it was being monitored at the highest levels and the students were being held to school standards. This is standard school policy and I probably give more weight to that than "been told it happens every year."

 

One last note......Everyone has different definitions as to what "appropriate heckling " is.........Is calling a player out and reading his face book page too much? Is mentioning someone by name? Is calling out a number? In this day of tweeting and whatever else if going on....I still can't get the "My Space" page to load.....you don't know what sometimes puts the target on a kid.......

 

So Shutout, I wasn't sitting where you were so I can't comment on what you heard, but I can tell you how and who was monitoring.......

 

Wow...this got long.....sorry.

shutout... to some of your comments.

 

Center Back was banged up, he was injured in the St Henry match on Tuesday and has also been fighting a bad ankle for the past month.... was advised to sit out for at least a week.

 

Cooper was also missing a starting forward.

 

These two things forces a coach to go a little farther down the bench and sub more frequently, some other players also played more minutes than normal.

Again, I wasn't able to make the game so all of my comments are completely based on BGP post, I would like to comment on a few of them.

 

Post #6 by OTB84

"Snow is the real deal…..quality, talented kid that doesn't talk or take cheap shots.....he just plays very good soccer........asking anyone to go 4 against 1 all night is a big thing to ask....

 

I could not agree more, ASnow is a class act, and one of the best pure goal scorers to play in NKY. The kid is rare in that he can consistently create on his own and then finish what he created.

 

Post #12 by groinpull,

"Again, passion, energy and work rate………I wasn't seeing it last night."

 

This is disappointing, especially considering CCH has anywhere from 8-10 seniors on the field most of the time. If seniors can't play with passion, energy and a high work rate this time of the season, something is really wrong. Add CCH has not won a Regional title since 2009, what are they (seniors) waiting for, their time is about up.

 

 

Post #14 by Goal15

"I've never seen a team criticized so much for winning. It's the postseason. Survive and advance."

 

I agree, ADAVANCE is the KEY word. And only the CCH coaches really know what their game plan is for each game. Apparently going up against an excellent scorer in ASnow, the staff had a good tactical plan in place. St Henry coaches get a lot of credit, desirably so, but their game plan Vs Cooper was a disaster.

If there is one school/staff that feels the pressure to win a Regional title it is CCH. If the players and staff deliver a title nothing else should matter.

 

Post #21 oneperspective

"I do hope the boy from CCH that looked as if his shoulder was out of socket is okay. The coaches from CCH didn't looked concerned at all, they looked more irritated that the game had to be stopped.

 

Amazing to me a spectator clear across the field can detect this much information from the coaches on the opposite sideline. Accusing the CCH coaches of not caring about an injured player is a bit much. And all HS games have certified trainers to care for the injured, the coaches know this and leave it the these trainers to provide professional treatment.

 

Post #26 shutout

"I was sitting behind them, there was even what looked to be a teacher or staff member monitoring them, NO ACTION WAS TAKEN. This is an embarrassment to your school, the chants are fine the cheering is awesome (we all wish we had fans like yours) but when you start calling out individual kids and using inappropriate language it's gone to far."

 

Glad to be informed the post season has "officially" begun. The "official" start of all 9th region post seasons is when someone accuses the crazies of name calling, using inappropriate language, all while the CCH AD, Principal, and Dean of Discipline all just stand there and do nothing about it.

Yes, to the post about the coaches not caring about what turned out to be a separated shoulder on a CCH player, CCH had a certified trainer and an orthopedic doctor on the sideline last night with them. The player was promptly attended to and hopefully he will be back for tomorrow as he is one of the starters in the back.