Mullen vs LuHi

 Mullen vs. Parker Lutheran

JV@10, Varsity @12 (Varsity team meeting in 303 at 10:30 - don't be late)

Location: MSC (3601 S Lowell Blvd. Denver, CO 80236)

Lutheran Strengths:

Lutheran is a big, physical team, who has some key players and can move the ball around well.

Their cast includes some very talented attackers:

The first to watch out for is the big left footed player (who wears the pink phantoms) and plays in the middle of the park. Primarily the 10. His left foot is wicked, but it is all he uses. He transitions the ball well on attack, finds the open pass, and has great execution. He also has a rocket. Additionally, he will make the occasional run to the wing and play a nice ball across the middle with his left.

In order to keep him contained, we need to focus on two things. The first is that one of our 6s needs to be aware of his movement throughout the game, but especially in transition. We can't get pulled out of the middle, or spread, or he'll expose us for sure. The other important thing is this. He is held back by his own lack of technique. All of his first attacking touches are with the inside of his foot, which slows down his pass and strike. It isn't by a lot; however, we can use the extra time to close him down and block shots or passes in the middle of the park. Don't hesitate, we need to press him. Capitalize on the small things to prevent him from being effective.

In addition to him, LuHi also has a couple of other hungry attackers who are willing to do the dirty work. We need to stay organized in our back line, we need to keep our press to prevent LuHi from activating their attackers, and we need to make sure we are recovering to the middle.

Defensively, they have a bigger six who is very talented on the ball. He can move the game along nicely, he has nice footwork, and he is a good defender as well. We do not need to go 1v1 with him in the middle of the park. He'll pick your pocket and ignite a transition through the lefty. We need to use the width of the field and leave him out of the game. 

Furthermore, LuHi has a very talented goal keeper. He is young, but quick and confident. He will make some good saves. 

Beyond the cast, LuHi seems to be playing some nice futbol. It is interesting, but if you look at the way they played against A West last week vs. the way they played against us this summer, they seem to have taken more of the front foot. They are moving the ball around, outside backs are involved in the attack, and A west suffered a lot. 

We will need to execute our press effectively, and outside backs will need to get elevated to pin them back. We want LuHi feeling like they have to defend.

Lutheran Weaknesses: 

This is a very talented team, but there are a couple of elements we should seek to expose.

1. Lutheran does weird things. I know that sounds strange, but when you watch them, sometimes they make bad decisions or they just turn off. They allow themselves to get disorganized in the back, or they send errant passes. It is just funky. I think if we press hard and transition quickly, we can capitalize on these mistakes. They just seem disconnected, like they aren't on the same page. As a result, they don't always set each other up for success but instead they put one another in dangerous situatons. This is where we use the press to capitalize on those moments. But we need to anticipate them, not react to them. If are press is pushed sharp when passes are coming in, we are going to catch them for sure. 

This theme carries on to a lot of their key players, creating this double edged sword.

Their six is cocky. He thinks he's hot stuff, if we bait him, he'll foul or make a bad pass. We just can't dive in and feed his confidence. Contain him and he'll make mistakes.

Additionally, as noted earlier, the keeper is very talented, but he is squirrely and definitely has a strange relationship with his team. He'll make long throws to the wing and put his OBs under a lot of pressure. He'll come far off his line, or try to play and audacious pass. If we keep our positioning, he will play into our hands. On top of that, he can get really heady. If he feels like he is making mistakes, or that his team is, he will struggle. We have to make his life difficult. 

Again, this is a good team. But sometimes they get disconnected or work against one another, and the best thing we can do tomorrow is stay organized and well positioned as we wait for them to give us opportunities to strike in transition. 

Be sharp and be ready and the opportunities will present themselves. But we have to keep the ball out of our goal or they will just dig in and wait to counter and they will become very difficult to break down. 

Remember the key elements from Thursday: 

Mullen Keys to Success:

First and foremost, we need to execute a well organized press. We need to push the game to the sidelines and dig in on our marks. Then, once we force the turn over, we need to counter before they can recover beneath the ball. Additionally, we need to use our ten to eliminate the impact that their 6 can have on the game. The 10 needs to be at the base of the triangle to cut off the pass to the checking 6. This will prevent them from playing out of the back and building through their talisman.

You can see in this image that our 10 is perpendicular to the nine, creating a right angle with our 11 on the wing. The problem here is that the GV six and drop into the gap, receive the ball, turn and attack.

As noted above, the six then penetrates the press, and then initiates an attack though the lines. To prevent this scenario, our 10 needs to scan, identify the incoming 6, slide to his left to the point of the triangle and thus cut off the pass, turn, and progression. The 10 should not be vertically even with the 9 but rather tucked in to form a triangle and intercept the incoming midfielder.

Secondly, we need to do everything (except corners and some long throws) quickly. Any restart of play should happen immediately. We can't give them time to recover. Furthermore, when we create a turnover, if the high percentage counter is on, we need to take it. The quicker we are in transition, the more they will struggle. On this same note, we need to also move the ball out wide more quickly. As we saw in the GV game, when we just did the right thing from the start, we created opportunities in front of goal. It was when we hesitated and then chose to do the thing we should have done initially that GV had the chance to recover and initiate a counter. 

Set pieces:

(Corners)

Rio - Fake corner. One player goes and gets the ball and acts like they are throwing it to the other player. He plays them as soon as he steps on the field and we attack. The runners have to be sharp on Rio and ready for the fake play!

2- Short corner overlap. Attackers cover near, middle, far - slight delay on the run in.

3- short corner choice. The players taking the corner will choose to overlap or take on the player. Attackers cover all positions, and delay runs in.

Jolly - Bend it in the goal. Attackers cover all locations, especially back post. Anything that goes long should be headed back toward goal.

Bumblebee - cluster around the goalie inside the six. Ball should be played into the cluster. 

11 - Three runners at the near post, two at the back. The three runners circle around to the near post, middle, and far post, while the two at the back make direct runs across the goal.

Snake: 

For this corner, we will have two groups of two players at each corner of the six. They will make phantom runs where they appear to check away and then just bounce back. Two more players will start at the front top of the box and make diagonal runs to the back post. At that point an initial runner will sprint to toward the corner taker while the second runner trails. The corner taker will make a pass to the top of the box, the first runner will dummy and the second will strike the ball. 

JV Tactical Notes:

Last year Mullen JV tied Lutheran 1-1.  

Lutheran Strengths

• Experienced players who are quick in their movements and capable soccer players
• A challenging opponent for us to close out our undefeated week
  

Lutheran Weaknesses

• Lutheran plays on turf and they are used to a faced-paced pitch
• They can be pulled out of shape with decisive ball movement and spreading out when we have the ball

Mullen Keys to Success

• Shape is King
• Trust the shape
• Midfielders (6s & 10s) - be connected in the middle of the pitch.  We did this really well against Coronado and they had no answers.  Lutheran has better players than Coronado so it's even more important that we stay disciplined in the midfield.
• Outside backs (2/3s) and wide forwards (7/11s) stay wide to the touch line and press their forwards and outside backs.
  
  
• Suffer to wear them down
• Lutheran will press us to win balls and score we need to weather the opening 15 minutes of pressure
• With the ball, we need to be calm and make good passes to keep it
• Trust and encourage your teammates to do their jobs
  
  
• Play Mullen Football
• Press the player with the ball - no easy turns or passes from their midfielders into our final third
  
• With the ball, we want to keep it using quick passes.
• Offensive goal: score first
• Defensive goal: clean sheet

Reminders:

1. Strong opening 20 minutes
• Defensively sound - prevent scoring changes, block shots, win balls
• Offensively connected - check to the ball, play simple passes
  
  
2. Control the midfield - communicate with each other to keep our shape
   
   
3. Use Home Field Advantage
• Turf teams often struggle playing on grass because their timing is off
• Pressure the Lutheran player with the ball and cover the players closest to him
• When Lutheran's back line is pressed high (at midfield) look to play through balls to Ignacio and Isaiah