D'Arcy Mick

The End, And A New Beginning

11/9/2011

This is the End
Beautiful friend
This is the end.
The Doors

In sports, nothing smacks you in the face as hard as the end of the season. After enduring the trials and tribulations of a Spring season in the

Northeast, you go into the summer full of optimism, eagerly awaiting preseason in August. Preseason starts and it’s a perfect world. You’ve got your whole team together, training twice a day, no classes, just soccer.

And for two weeks everyone is undefeated. Then the games start coming fast and furious. You’ve barely recovered from one game and you are playing the next. Every night you are looking at game tape trying to get an edge for the next game. Looking for adjustments that could make a difference. Working on new set plays that the opposition haven’t seen. Getting players back healthy who have been out injured. And then…THE END. It’s over.

Next day you don’t have practice, you have no teams to scout, there is no incentive to watch game tape. You went from being the busiest person in the world to sitting around wondering what to do with your time. You look around at things in your home that are different and your wife tells you that the house was painted back in August, you got a new dog in September and your son is now shaving. Where was I when all this was going on? It’s kind of like Austin Powers waking up after being frozen for 20 years. It’s very groovy baby!

This year our season ended with a 4-2 win over Quinnipiac on a Friday night in New Britain. (Note to Soccer Banter Guru. Where is my Blogger Bragging award? We were 2-0 against fellow Soccer Banter Bloggers!). On Saturday morning I woke up to the realization that we would not play again this year. Then my lights went out. In fact, everyone’s lights went out. For seven days and seven nights we learned how to live without electricity courtesy of the fallen power lines in the snow. Instead of replaying games in my mind and missed chances I was consumed with thoughts of where are the candles? Who has the matches? How much power is left in my iPhone? Is it worthwhile driving around wasting gas to charge my phone in the car?˛

Before I knew it a week had passed and the mourning period for the 2011 season was over. Then my phone beeps with a calendar reminder: Sunday, 12 noon, NEC Final

Damn you iPhone and your silly reminders.

Even more than the games, you miss just going to practice every day and the banter with the players and staff. Most players will tell you that this is the hardest thing to replace when their careers are over. My solution is to fill the candy jar in my office so the players will come and visit me for a chat (and eat candy). I’m going to miss our two seniors (Brit and Cip).

They are both wonderful people and I am proud to say that I was their coach. The planning has already begun for next year. The car is stocked with hand warmers, winter coats, Gore-Tex pants and wooly hats, as I get ready to hit the recruiting trail again. Next year is going to be better. I can feel it.

A New Beginning!

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Assists and Overtimes

10/5/2011

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Welcome back to Blue Devil Country, a place where 90 minutes of soccer is rarely enough. Five of our first nine games have gone into overtime. By now we have made up the 90 minutes of soccer that we missed due to Irene. Overtime is one of those strange customs that US college soccer has adopted. In the rest of the world a tie is a draw. End of story! A point earned or two points dropped, whatever way you want to look at it. But for some reason we feel the need to have a winner and loser in regular season games. I¹ve had a fair few overtime games over the years. I cannot speak with scientific certainty here but I think that most college games that go into overtime usually end in a tie. Teams tend to be a little more cautious because of the fear of conceding a golden goal. There is great excitement in an overtime win. The bench charges on the field and there¹s a lot of hype. I remember last year we were winning a came 1-0 but it was pretty comfortable. Then in the 89th minute we conceded a goal against the run of play. We regrouped and scored early into overtime and the place went mad. If we had won in regulation it would have been no big deal but overtime, different story.

Speaking of idiosyncrasies. I’m developing a pet peeve towards ‘The Assist’. Now don¹t get me wrong. I love the build up to a goal as much as the goal itself. It’s the statistic in the college game that I have a problem with. In case one a winger gets the ball on the half way line, beats three players, has only the keeper to beat and lays the ball off to the forward who taps in from six yards. Goal to the forward, assist to the winger (Fair enough). In case two a winger gets the ball on the half way line, beats three players, shoots, keeper gets his hand on it, the ball stops on the line, the forward runs in and taps it home. Goal to the forward. Unassisted! (Hang on,that doesn¹t seem fair) In case three the goalkeeper punts the ball up the field, it bounces three times, the defender whiffs while attempting to clear and the forward taps it in. Goal to the forward. Assist to the keeper. (Really, the keeper gets an assist?)

Now in all of these cases the rules have been applied to the letter of the law and I can live with that. Fairly black and white stuff. My pet peeve comes when we get into the grey area. The domain of the score keeper and the statistician. The advent of the double assist for goals scored by the home team and only unassisted goals for the away team. We recently played a game when the opposition player dispossessed my central midfielder 30 yards from goal. She took two touches and scored with a brilliant shot from 20 yards out. Amazingly the home score-keeper awarded an assist to a player that was not involved in the play. If anyone should have got the assist it should have been my midfielder.

Now you might be thinking to yourself, what difference does it make who gets the assist or how many assists are given for each goal. The truth is that it has no effect on the game but it does have a bearing on end of season all-conference, and all-American voting. I also feel a little bad for the players from yesteryear who held records for most assists. There should be two sets of records. One for players who were awarded assists in the era of single assists and a second category for the double assist era.

My old friend Carolyn Cacolice (Micheel) had a phenomenal 29 assists in her four years at UMASS. Coincidentally the same four-year stretch when the team went to the Final Four every year. She retired as the all time assist leader at UMASS but in recent years has dropped to #4 on the list behind players who have played in the era of the double assist.

Two big games coming up this weekend for the Blue Devils. Hope we get some double assists on the overtime winners in both games :-)

Until the next time.

Enjoy the Game!

Mick

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Auld Lang Syne

9/22/2011

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Big week coming up for most college programs as conference play is due to get underway this weekend. Most of us break down our Fall Season into four parts: Preseason, Non-Conference Games, Conference Play and if you are fortunate enough Post Season Play. We finished off our non-conference schedule this weekend with two wins over Albany and Siena. It’s always nice to build some confidence before Conference play. We scored 6 goals in the two games and that’s never a bad thing.

Sunday was one of those fun days when I got to coach against one of my former SoccerPlus CT players. Katie Zambrano (Avon) played three years for me and we have some great memories. She has always had a terrific upbeat personality and was a privilege to coach. I was delighted when she signed to play for Steve Karbowski at Siena College. They play good soccer there and I knew she would do well. At Sunday¹s game she had her own cheering section in Willow Brook Stadium and it was fun to chat with her afterwards. Of course, two of her old club teammates play at CCSU so we have bragging rights for a year until we go to Siena next year and do it all over again.

Sometimes it does seem like you are running into old friends all over the place. The week before we played at the Fairfield tournament and on Sunday we played Syracuse University coached by Phil Wheddon. Phil and I go way back to the days when we worked SoccerPlus Goalkeeper School camps together. I’ve followed his career with great interest when he coached with the NY Red Bulls (or was it the Metrostars then) and later with the US Men and Women’s National teams. I remember one night taking him to a bar in Boston. Phil didn’t say much all night and it wasn¹t until afterwards that I realized that he was the only Englishman in a bar full of Irish. Smart lad.

Speaking of Ireland what a great win for our Rugby team last week against Australia. Absolutely brilliant. Followed up the next day by Dublin’s victory over Kerry in the All Ireland Gaelic Football Championship. After a sixteen year wait Dublin are All-Ireland Champions again. Yes the Irish are a modest bunch. When we win a championship in a sport that only Irish people play we call ourselves All-Ireland Champions, not world champions (note to Red Sox and Patriots fans).

Anyway, back to Syracuse and Phil. It all ended 2-2. We equalized in the 89th minute and then missed a sitter in over time. Overall a draw was a fair result. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would be unbeaten against the three Big East teams on our schedule I would have been happy. A win against Providence, a draw with Syracuse and Irene came to UConn’s rescue :-)

Time to go watch the season opener of Modern Family. Love that show.

Until the next time.

Enjoy the game,

Mick

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Up and Running in New Britain

9/7/2011

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Well CCSU Soccer, version 2011, is finally up and running. Two weeks into our season and we have our first win, first tie, first loss, first cancelation, first MRI, first day of classes and so on. This is my 16th year coaching NCAA D1 soccer and I can assure you that each one is very different. Sure wouldn’t it be boring if they were all the same.

Our season opened up with a road trip to play Army at West Point, NY. We’ve been up there before but I’m always impressed by the place. The scenery as you descend onto campus overlooking the Hudson is fantastic. Pregame entertainment was provided in the form of a men’s soccer game between Army and Marist. Crazy game that ended 6-4 to Marist. Ten goals in the game! That would never happen in the English Premier League. Well at least not unless one of the teams sold their best players and had half of the rest of the team either injured or suspended. I’m beginning to think that there is some sense on Dave Clarke’s philosophy of supporting two teams. When Spurs get hammered at home by Manchester City he always has Celtic to fall back on. But then Celtic lose to FC Sion. What the heck. That’s bigamy. Arsenal till I die!

Back to the Army game. Typical first game in the sense that it was 100 miles an hour to start. The Cadets in the crowd were quite raucous. Attendance was posted as 2,000 so there was a good atmosphere. 0-0 after regulation and we held on in overtime to take a draw. Needless to say we were not the fitter of the two teams in OT. The good news is that we are in good hands when these young women have to protect our country. "Hoo-wah"

Trivia Time: "Hoo-wah" is a military acronym (usually yelled by Drill Sargents to Boots) from the acronym "HUA" which is often pronounced "hoo-ah" or in this case "hoo-wah." HUA stands for "Heard, Understood, Acknowledged." Movie Tip: Scent of a Woman. A must see film. Pacino at his best.

Next came Irene. We were scheduled to play UConn on Sunday but like so many other games it was cancelled. We were all a little gutted. We’ve had a great series against UConn over the years and it’s a game that we always look forward to playing. UConn had marketed the game as “State Rivalry Game” and Morrone Stadium is one of the great college soccer stadiums steeped in tradition. It¹s a shame that the UConn Football Program is commandeering the field. No doubt that UConn will build a great new field for soccer on campus but a lot of us will miss Morrone. With the game being cancelled I was able to stay at home and watch Manchester City beat Spurs 5-1.

Fortunately Irene passed by New Britain and we were back training again on Monday preparing for the Yale Tournament. We knew the Providence game would be tough. They already had played four games compared to our one game. It usually takes four or five games to get back to full match fitness and work out kinks in the system. We got off to a great start after 35 seconds when the Providence keeper passed the ball to our center forward who then chipped her from 30 yards. Three minutes later we added a second. 2-0 up after three minutes. A dream start. Then I remembered Jim’s blog from the week before when Providence were trailing 2-0 to Bryant. I quickly pulled out the iPad and started taking notes on what tactical adjustments Jim would make. Our attention to detail paid off when midway through the second half we caught Providence Assistant Coach Sam Lopes shaving his legs in the bathroom. Sam meekly claimed he was preparing for a triathlon next week but we knew he was trying to sneak on as a sub. Nice try!

Providence got a goal back (without Sam) but we held on for the first win of the season.

On Saturday I headed over to Conard High School to watch some games at the annual jamboree. It was good to see a bunch of my SoccerPlus ECNL U 15 girls make their HS varsity teams. It also gave me a chance to catch up with a bunch of local coaches. I know the quality of HS soccer isn’t always the best, but I love the camaraderie and parochial support that these teams enjoy. I’m looking forward to catching some games throughout the Fall.

At this stage we had a win and a tie so we rounded out our record with a 2-1 loss to Marist on Sunday. Needless to say Labor Day Monday was spent with Madame Gamebreaker. The video tape doesn’t lie and we had plenty to review after the weekend. Working with Gamebreaker is labor intensive but video is a great teaching tool. After pulling out all the edits I wanted, we met with the team to watch film on Tuesday. Hoo-Wah!

Until the next time.

Enjoy the game,

Mick

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A Quick Summer and Back to Preseason

8/24/2011

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I’ve been reading Soccer Banter since it first started. So I’m fairly familiar with the site, especially the Arsenal bashing ramblings of Dave Clarke. When Brendan asked me if I would be interested in writing a blog I thought I would have to go to journo school like Dave did. But no, Brendan assured me that I didn’t need a degree in Journalism to go online and tell some Harry Redknapp and Spurs jokes. So here goes:

Q. What do you call a Tottenham fan in a suit?
A. The Accused.

Q. What does a Spurs fan do after he’s just watched his team beat Arsenal?
A. He turns off his Playstation!

Ah that’s better. Brendan did say that I’d have to throw in a few stories about life as a College Coach and a few other bits and pieces just so the readers didn’t think I was always having a go at Spurs.

So then. How was your summer? Mine was great, thanks for asking. It kind of happened after the ECNL National Championships in Colorado and before my beloved Cesc went home to Barcelona. Yes, the D’Arcy family hit the road to visit the Nation’s Capital. Took the wife and kids (and the Mother in law) to Washington DC. There we saw all the great sights. The Washington Monument, The Capitol, Lincoln’s Memorial, FDR’s park, The Smithsonians, The Spy Museum and on and on. Took a tour of the White House and had a close call. Man Utd showed up in the afternoon and we just missed them. Thank God. That would have ruined my whole vacation. It’s one thing looking at George Washington wearing a wig but who wants to see Wayne Rooney’s new hair transplant. Not me. Message to Rooney: Bald is beautiful!

One more week spent on the beach at Cape Cod and before I knew it I was back on campus getting ready for preseason.

Preseason, it’s the most wonderful time of year. The closest most players ever get to living as a professional player. No classes, no jobs, lots of new Puma gear. Just hanging out with their mates, playing soccer, and this year the temperatures didn’t come close to the 90’s so it really was as good as it gets.

Our goals for preseason are always the same. The two weeks we spend together are the cornerstone, the foundation of what we want to build on throughout the year. We need the team to develop it’s own culture. They should share the same dreams and aspire to the same goals. As coaches, it’s our job to get the players thinking as a team. If they share the same values and set the same standards then their chances for success are much greater.

Day one is always 1 v 1 and 2 v 2 defending. I love it! It’s a chance for the players to get straight down to business. The match ups are competitive as the upperclassmen size up the freshmen to see who the real players are this year. Off the field the players all stay in the same residence hall during preseason so there are plenty of opportunities to get to know each other. We usually take a few trips off campus too.

I’m not a big fan of fitness in preseason. I prefer for our players to accept the responsibility of coming into camp in great shape. We do the Yo Yo Beep test to measure the player’s fitness but we can usually tell after the 1 v1’s who is fit. I love how a lot of our alumni come by during preseason too. They are always interested in seeing the new players and it’s good for our current players to meet the people who paved the way.

This year there has been a huge split in the starting times for all of the Division I programs. We open up at Army on Friday night, but some schools have already played two games. Notre Dame has picked up where they left off last year and is ranked #1 after the first week. Austin Peay (ranked #169) last year beat Alabama A& M 14-0. Maryland whacked Loyola 9-0 for in state bragging rights while Radford put eight goals past Southern Virginia. Two teams with legitimate College Cup aspirations met on Sunday night in a slightly more competitive game. Portland beat Florida State 2-1 in front of 2,800 home fans.

Another season is up and running. I hope you all get a chance to see some live college soccer this year. It really is great stuff and you can’t beat the value!

Until the next time….

Enjoy The Game,

Mick

OK, one more Spurs joke.

Q. How many Spurs fans does it take to change a light bulb?
A. None, they are happy living in Arsenal’s shadow.

4 Comments

The End, And A New Beginning

Assists and Overtimes

Auld Lang Syne

Up and Running in New Britain

A Quick Summer and Back to Preseason

Mick D'Arcy

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