Day two started bright and early with a set of Fitness tests at 6:30 AM and continued with many more sessions throughout the day. Coach Miller has brought in some fantastic talent and with returners there is a very large roster that creates for the first time here that I've played real competition for every spot on the traveling squad. 2008 looks to be an exciting year.

I will be back with another entry tomorrow.

Preseason Blog, August 15th, 2008

On Thursday the team's session had a real emphasis on team defensive shape and movement. Its a learning process for the newcomers to pick up on our team defense but we have some very smart , technical freshmen that are picking up on these team concepts quickly. After lunch we had team fitness that could only be described in one word, rough. We had some fun at night with some futsal in the gym.
 
In today's technical morning session the players got alot of touches on the ball and at the end we just played 9 v 9 games. In the morning session offensivly the team is really starting to come together and run off each other to confuse opposing defensive. There were some good goals in the morning and the overall atmosphere here is very upbeat and optimistic. In the afternoon session we played some more more games that focused on team attack and defending and finished with some more 9 v 9 games. I think fatuigue was really starting to set in, and the overall team performance was down from the morning. Coach has given us some much needed time off tomarrow morning so players should come back fresh and ready to go at it agian tomarrow. Tonight we have some team-bonding in Franklin at the bowling lanes. The stakes could not be higher, winning team of 4 can omit a 6:30 AM fitness session. Should be very interesting.
 
Be back with more tomorrow!

Preseason Blog, August 16th, 2008

Bowling last night was a good break from the fast-paced life of preseason. The winning team of Billy, Mike, Ariel, Jordan (all freshmen) had an average over 100 in 2 games and got to knock off some fitness at the end of training. Everyone had a real fun time and it was good for the team to come together off the field and have a good time. This morning we all had the duty of setting up the field for our upcoming scrimmage games. Twenty-seven of us were out there lining the field and putting up the nets on goals. In the afternoon we had a team training session focusing of possession and counter-attack. Sunday is the first opportunity for us to play outside competition in and amateur team from the Greenville area. The team has only been together for less than a week but it will be interesting to see how we come together tomorrow.

Preseason Blog, August 17th, 2008

Today we had our first scrimmage game against outside competition. In the first half Ali Abdi had a nice breakaway goal to put us up 1-0 at the half. Early in the 2nd half freshman Raymond Kwarteng received a nice cross and pounded the ball on his first touch into the back of the net. We ended up giving up two goals very late in the game, so the final was 2-2. Some people say preseason games are meaningless, and in some respect that is true, but today's game was a good start to our preseason campaign. The team has only been together for 1 week so there are some kinks to still work out, but this is a good start.

Preseason Blog, August 18th, 2008

In today's morning session the defenders and the goalkeepers worked on
distribution out of the back, and the strikers and midfielders focused
on combination play. The session was light but productive and was a
good way to get back into the grind after yesterday's scrimmage. In
the afternoon we watched game film of the scrimmage game and received
some good advice from Coach Miller. Game film never lies, until you
watch yourself make mistakes you can't see the bigger picture. I think
in the first scrimmage a lot of people wanted to make a big impression
and it showed in our play. As a team we weren't relaxed and tried to
force a lot of things instead of letting the game dictate how we play.
After watching the film we all have a better understanding of each
other and what we need to do to be successful. Today we also got a
look at our uniforms for this upcoming season, and they look real
sharp. Just seeing the new uniforms let us know that the season's
start is very soon, and we got to make the most of every chance we get
to train before then.

Preseason Blog, August 20th, 2008

Tuesday was a full day for the team starting at 6:30 am with fitness for those who failed the fitness test. We had a full team session at 9:30 to work focusing on possession and movement without the ball. In the afternoon we had a light session working on our set pieces. This season we have more ambidextrous players and this has given our team the opportunity to be more creative in our corner and free kicks. At night we had a full team session where we just scrimmaged and it was one of our most productive sessions yet. The guys were all working extremely hard and we had very good movement which created many scoring chances for both sides.
 
Wednesday was a light day because we have our Royal vs. White Game on Thursday. In the morning we worked on attacking from the flanks and combination play. The session was very intense and players had to think very hard about their movement off the ball. Tomorrow night is our intersquad scrimmage at 3:00 and I expect a hard fought game by both sides. Coach Miller has told us the team will be evenly matched, and players are fighting hard for starting and traveling positions so the intensity should be very high.

Preseason Blog, August 21st, 2008

This morning we had a very intense morning session working on possession and team shape. The session was very physical, but still very productive. The team is really starting to get the defensive shape down so this year we can eliminate some goal scoring chances for the opposition. Last year we gave up 79 goals and we are making it a goal this year to drop that number significantly to 50 goals or below.

In the evening in the annual Royal and White game there was good attacking soccer with goals from Ali Abdi, Chris Riveros, and Parris Peirce. The intensity of the game was high and we will be watching game tape tomorrow of the scrimmage. We had a penalty shootout at the end which went all the way to the 9th man from each team to decide a winner. It was Chinedu Iwuora with the winning spot kick at the end of the scrimmage game. There will be much to learn from the game tape of today's game as we have a short time to prepare for another scrimmage Saturday versus USC Sumter.