Sahara Practice July 2
The real reason why the City of Ottawa banned smoking on sports fields:
Can you say 1-2-3?
Can you say 1-2-3?
Arboretum Picture-Perfect 11K Run
An 11Km run this morning for
François
in a gorgeous new course on a picture perfect, temperature/wind perfect day.
The arboretum is great for the knees as you can run on gravel, the Canal then the Rideau river, then the canal back to Dows lake were beautiful.
Gustavo did a 32Km bike ride from the west end, to down town, then to the same place, and back west.
While there we met about 15 teenage runners from the Lion's club and their coach. This was at 9:20AM, and the teens were running hard, a joy to see. That coach must have something special to inspire teens to get out of bed and work so hard. Just great to see. My daughter is already signing up!
BBQ June 30
Somebody was invited to a formal party!
Hummmmm.
Dylan's blonde jokes:
Mr. Elegance himself:
Water bill: $1,200.00
Video:
Practice June 30
In today's practice we did a fitness workout and assessment. The players went for a short run of 3.46Km.
Here are the finishing times in order:
- Francois 16:50
- Dylan 17:30
- Peter U12 18:30
- Gustavo 18:52
- Alex 18:53
- Noorullah 20:25
- John 22:30
- Gabriel 22:45
- KPaw 22:50
- Noah 23:10
- Ryan U12 23:13
- Massimo U12 23:15
- Shar 23:37
- Philip 24:10
- Francois 4:51
- Dylan 5:30
- Peter U12 5:20
- Gustavo 5:27
- Alex 5:27
- Noor 5:54
- John 6:30
- Gabriel 6:34
- KPaw 6:35
- Noah 6:41
- Ryan U12 6:42
- Massimo U12 6:43
- Shar 6:49
- Philip 6:59
Congratulations to Francois, amazingly lapped everyone except Dylan. The top three finishers received a small prize (shirts or a vinegar-fueled rocket ship).
This is Gustavo's data, as per GPS (start/stop exact times differ slightly):
Match OISC June 28
Today the coach was hoping to keep quiet and let the kids figure out the game. It was not to be. Sometimes they enter a slow/sleepy mode from which they have to be taken out. The coaches are scratching their heads today, it wasn't a performance to write home about, but in the end they found a way to win.
In the beginning some players were saying that the opponents were in last place or that we had beaten before in the tournament, or whatever. These are dreaded comments. Well, this is what happens.
You always have to play hard and play your best. Regardless of opponents.
On the plus side, it was a solid performance by our back 4, Gustavo, Adamo, John, and Dylan, and very good performances by Shar and Francois. Venance missed a few but still scored 4 goals: he creates things and makes things happen. A shutout for Daniel too, his 1st.
Daniel also played as gk for the U15 on Tuesday and was commended by coach James:
"... it was a game well fought. Daniel played really well. One of the things he has done well is that he communicated precisely and timely with the back 4... Something that my keeper is not doing even at this point. The only thing he has to work a little bit more it is catching. Other than that, I am satisfied with his performance and thanked him for his energy throughout the game".
Today we tried different formations with different players, nothing really worked, with individual exceptions. . The other team was also clogging the field and playing defensively, had a great keeper; it was warm, refereeing was bad, but these are just excuses. A winning team should play hard always, then it does not matter if they win or lose.
This, however, is priceless:
Enjoy this for now, but as you can see there are formidable opponents yet to come late in the season.
Libertadores Cup
While the Euro cup is reaching the final stages, the top soccer event in the world (IMO), the most emotionally charged for sure, is going on in South America: the finals of the Libertadores Cup. Yesterday, leg 1 in Buenos Aires, Boca Juniors vs Corinthians (Argentina vs Brazil).
Romarinho, the "Iluminated One", is subbed in and scored on his 1st touch on the ball, at 40 mins of the 2nd half. Watch the play develop, and how players position themselves (how they play without the ball), and what a lovely touch:
Or if you prefer listen to the Argentinean version :-)
Look for Maradona in the stands!
Fast 5.5K Run
A really fast 5.5Km run with the boys today, and easily talking while running (meaning the runners are in great shape).
Wow!
The coach's heart, pretty good too, low bpms for the speed:
Fitness Report
Only a few players have been going for the weekly 5Km runs, with only Francois, Gustavo, and, to a lesser extent, Trevor having done any meaningful (and fast) runs.
The team's fitness, which was one of our advantages, has declined considerably. This was seen in our run last Saturday when several players were clearly in poor shape and struggling at the end. The coaching suffers as we are forced to take time away from coaching skills to working on their fitness.
Equally important, individually, the player's soccer abilities are also significantly reduced by this lack of fitness and commitment to improving.
Attendance
Only one player remains with a perfect attendance of 100%: Gustavo. Note that Gustavo has been given the option to rest as he is also very active fitness-wise, being involved in multiple sports activities, and doing long runs. He still chose to attend all soccer practices.
These players' commitment to attend practices is very appreciated by the coaches. Thank you.
On the opposite side, 5 players are unfortunately below the minimum 75% attendance. One player even has an attendance record of 55%. These players who do not come to practices do not know how to play on a team, they do not know how the team plays. Their poor attendance affects everyone.
Players signed a code of conduct stating they they must attend a minimum 75% of practices and matches with possible loss of playing privileges as a result.
Club House Practice June 26
It was wet, noisy,... and fun!
Regaining the calories:
The brothers are foosball pros!
Raul/Adamo defeat Stefano/Alex
Raul/Stefano defeat Adamo/Alex
Stefano/Adamo defeat Raul/Alex
Saturday and Sunday Runs
Saturday's 4.3Km run to Mud Lake and the beach:
10K run Sunday AM (59 minutes elapsed, with a 4 minute break)..
Soccer Player Does Piano
This is Victor playing yesterday at the Ottawa Jazz Festival 2012 (Victor plays soccer with us once in a while, summer and winter, and plays soccer in the Kanata Sunday mornings group).
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