Saturday, October 31, 2009:

Well another very ugly performance. This time we found a new way to give up a goal. After having the better of play in the first 8 minutes and 3 really good scoring opportunities, we had a foul about 40 yards out in our defensive middle. It was certainly not a bad foul, but a foul. No problem, right? Wrong! They took a direct shot from 40 yards and the ball was deflected in our own goal by one of our players who turned away from the ball. Score 1:0 for Centre. A very bad goal and a first in my career to have a goal scored on us from 40 yards out! We tried to get control again was was a little successful. However, at the 27 minute mark, they had a throw in in our defensive third and after having talked about their very long throw all week, we fell asleep on it. They threw the ball to the back post where 2 of their players were unmarked and left alone to score the 2nd goal. Score now 2:0 for Centre. Again, we have given up 2 bad goals, that were very defendable and preventable. The half ends and we are down 2 goals.

Early ion the 2nd half, Garner Shivers hits a good cross to Tyler Evans, who just misses the target, but Garner re-injures his hip flexor muscle. This time it is torn we believe and his season is most likely over.

The real problem right now for us, is not in our physical fitness, but in our mental fitness and ability to make passes. This is most disturbing, since 45 to 50 minutes of every training session is geared to passing and moving off the ball. In our system of play, it is predicated on short accurate passes played to feet and played early and then movement off that pass. We are not executing this at all. It appears that we have become quite satisfied with our won-loss record and not willing to work harder to get better. Our intensity is lacking and mostly from the way we train everyday and that carries over to the games.No one wants to go to battle each and every training session to get better, but rather, they just want to maintain the satisfaction level they are feeling from the 10 wins. This is a new wrinkle for me and I am not sure how to correct it. All we can do is continue to try and get them to battle everyday during training and make it tough on the opponents, so we can at least have a sense of pride in working hard to get better.

We have 4 games left in our season and we must get better and strive for perfection and battle to the final whistle blows. This is a must! We shall see!

Until tomorrows game against DePauw University at 11 AM our time, I will say good bye.

Coach G from Greencastle, Indiana