Friendly #1 with Australia

Good morning to everyone in the states following our journey here in Israel. I hope everyone is well! This morning, we left the Hotel at 6:00 am for our first friendly game with our old friends from Australia. We started the game looking to establish some sort of rhythm to our 4:5:1 formation while working on pressing the game. We were very succesful in that scheme and had nearly 80% of the possession in the early going. About 10 minutes in, we scored our first goal after a big change from the left back to our right wing midfielder, who then crossed it to our onrushing attacking midfielder for a diving header goal! It was picture perfect in execution. About 15 minutes later we scored again with a one-two between our center midfielder and our attacking midfielder, reulting in our second goal of the first half. We tried to maintain our rhythm after making our substitutions and it remained productive with our possession game and vertical play. The half came to an end with the score, USA 2, Austalia 0. We talked at halftime about our possession game of playing on the ground in the central midfield and utilizing our skill to play quickly. We also talked about condensing the space between our back line and our front line in order to take away their ability to find passing lanes to play in and winning the ball in the middle third of the field and counter attacking. The 2nd half started and we continued our pressing and possession game. We had plenty of opportunities to score more goals, but could not find the back of the net. With about 10 minutes remaining in the game, we had a set piece from the left side about 30 yards out and we had a runner receive the ball in space and finish far post for our 3rd and final goal. A few minutes later, the whistle blew and we won 3:0. I think overall we had a good start to our preparation, but we still have a long way to go in "dreaming the impossible, in order to achieve the possible". This afternoon we will have a warmdown session to try and reduce the amount of Lactic Acid in our muscles. We had a good stretching session after the game in the pool, that was a good start in regeneration. We will play Australia one more time tomorrow morning at 7:00 am. I am hopeful we will be ale to continue to develop our rhythm and create the kind of flow in our game that we must have in order to be successful in the Maccabiah Tournament. It will take a great effort from our players to understand our philosophy and effectively execute it day in and day out. Taking 20 players from 18 different universities and having them accustomed to their style of play and then getting all of them to play our style is a big commitment on their part. But, I must tell you, they all believe in what we are trying to teach and play. They all know it is a great way to play and are doing their very best to do what we ask of them. That is what makes this team so incredibly special to be with. I could not be any happier with our effort, especially after only two days of training. I will write once again tomorrow morning after our 2nd game with Austalia. I will once again try to add a few photos from the start of the game. I am trying hard to understand this digital camera world. So until then, take care and be well and to my family, including our Goldens, I miss and love you all very much! From Israel, Coach G