Li Huan, suggestions accepted for our defense play, in which I was the prime 'suspect' in last game. I will do it better next time. By the way, it is quite soothing to see that we are #4 now, one more win this Sunday, we will........ Yes, we did really well in changing the playing style. It is working so far. We had problems competing with taller/stronger opponents. However, with this new formation, it seems that we have compensated our weakness pretty well. Eric's role and involvement are becoming more and more important. This is good. That was quite amazing, actually. We are playing 3-5-2. Thus, the requirement for our forwarders are a little different now. If you take a look at how English Premier League plays, one thing I see we shall improve is to have 2 forwarders squeezing towards center a little bit more so that we could run to open R/L positions. Whenever we are open near the big shooting area, shoot the damn thing! That is how I feel so far. We may not be the same age as we used to, but let's keep on challenging ourselves (torturing, some may prefer that wording). From now on, all direct FKs are to be played by forwarders only, Dick/HeYi, and in-direct FKs by ChenGang/ZhouGe. Team, please follow! Again, I could be wrong, suggestions to me are welcome. Last thing I want to stress on, like most of us (if not all) are expecting me to say, is team unity. Winning is our goal, but, it is not everything. We still have friendship, teammate relations so on so forth. A little friendly blaming is not such a bad thing, actually it may be pretty good from time to time as long as it serves as a stimulus. I really would like to have every player feel that our team is a big family with warm-filled friendships. We win, we loose, we fall, we challenge, we stand, as a team. Please communicate to me first if you have any ideas that may conflict with mine, we can work it out. Finally, let's look ahead to this coming Sunday's game. Let's work together! We will go into the playoffs! Go Dragons, -Chen, Si (972)461-4188 (W) -----Original Message----- From: Li Huan [mailto:huan_l_99@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, October 22, 2001 5:00 PM To: Chen, Mark; Dragon (E-mail) Subject: Re: 9th League Sunday game: 12:30pm at Highpoint E, Plano It becomes a little quiet recently. Are we getting tired of tieing our games one after one or do we lose our passion for winning the games in this competitive division? Come on, guys. We have played quite well so far in this season. Particularly, we did a good job on changing our playing style, as I observed in our last two games. We showed we are the better team controlling the game tempo, creating tremendous scoring opportunities, minimizing the opponent's ball possession, and forcing them playing in defense for most of time. We showed we are willing to and are able to improve our game. Now, it becomes kind of enjoyable to watch you guys playing well organized game on the bench. To me, the fun isn't only from playing with a bunch of buddies in the league, but mainly from playing with a bunch of buddies who are willing to play enjoyable games and never stop to challenge their limit. Otherwise, I would better start to prepare for my over-40 division games now. According to the last league standing, we are number 4 now. The other three spots are occupied by Net-workers, North Dallas 40, and Driller. Net-workers should feel lucky for that unexpected goal yesterday. To remain as #1, they will have to fight with Drillers and Smith-Thompson UTD. As we can see, we are in a good position for a playoff spot and have to win next game vs. Smith-Thompson UTD to ensure us the spot before the last game. We should prepare for any further unexpected rain-out in next two games. I hope every of us can show up next game (He Yi, can you make it?). I believe attendance is one of factors affecting our ranking in this season so far. Many of us including myself are absent 2 or more games (I missed the fall break weekend game, in which the league usually does not schedule any games, and a makeup game in that week. What a shame. I only missed 2 games in previous 9 seasons). If only 80% or less of us, in average, can show up for a game, we may have difficult time due to lack of subs given our current fitness condition and the competitive level in this division. As for the Thursday practice, I propose to move it to Tuesday or Wednesday night if we get into the playoff since I believe our old body may require more than two days to recover in full after an intensive practice. In this Thursday, please spend some time on shooting a setup ball, although it is tedious compared to playing a scrimmage. Just think about how many opportunities we wasted and only one of our goals is scored by non- strikers in this season. We, particular the midfield, need to get more sense on shooting the ball around the penalty box. A couple of suggestions to our defense: 1. Never dribble in front of our penalty box when challenged. It could become a disaster if one of your ten attempts fails. If you have to dribble to get better control of the ball, dribble toward the sideline. My suggestion is to clear out the ball as early as possible. 2. Never get the ball across toward the front of our penalty box unless you are 100% for sure that our stopper or sweeper is not challenged. As we know, our defense is most vulnerable during the transition time from defense to offense. 3. Always try to get the first-time touch to clear out the high balls (mostly by head). If you wait and turn around to chase the bounce ball, you give up the advantage to the opponent's striker, especially for those who are not shame to show their dirty tricks. BTW, my ankle get injured yesterday when fighting against an opponent player for a position in defense around 10 minutes after the game started. Fortunately, It now looks like a "single cheese burger" instead of a "double cheese burger". I hope it can be recovered before next game. Don Jian, this is all your fault since you are not there yesterday and our team does need a sideline coach. Go Dragons, Huan Li --- "Chen, Mark" <MChen@santera.com> wrote: > Dragons, > > We will have a game against Net-Workers at Highpoint > E -- Plano this > Sunday 10/21. The same field we played last last > Sunday. > > Please come to the field at 12:30am. There were > quite a few late-comers > in the last game. Dick, BinBing, please be on time. > > Also, tonight's practice time is at 8:00pm. But if > you want to come 15 > minutes earlier to practice shooting, please let me > know so that I can > bring the soccer balls with you. > > Again, if you are not able to show this Sunday, > please let me konw. > > Go Dragons, > -Chen, Si > (972)814-4631 (M)
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