Preseason Check-In
For those who have never attended a practice, preseason or otherwise, let me break down how one of Louisville's practices typically goes. The practices always start with warm-up exercises led by Julie Twaddle. Coach Twaddle almost always has a fun activity to integrate into the warm-ups, today’s activity being your basic relay race, but last year one practice had a quite memorable wheelbarrow race. Others have included shooting drills integrated into the activity. After that, the assistant coach (last year Mario Sanchez and this season Bev Yanez) will run the players through a more technical passing or dribbling drill. Once that is complete, Coach Kim typically conducts a tactical session either before a full scrimmage or in the case of today’s practice, a modified movement drill to work on the tactical lesson. After that the practice typically ends with a shooting drill or short-field scrimmage session which is focused on quick ball movement. Today’s practice ended with running, but as the season progresses this is typically phased out.
I give you all of that background to let you get a sense of the frankly mundane experience of observing a practice. It really does take a trained eye to be able to pull anything of value out of it. I don’t have that trained eye, but I will share some things that were either plainly obvious or communicated to me.
I won’t ever say a bad word against Mario Sanchez, but the players have really taken to Bev Yanez. Sav DeMelo commented after practice that she has learned lots from her in a short amount of time. People around the club who have been around the practices with Bev on staff say that there is an added “crispness” to Louisville’s practices this preseason. I won’t divulge the technique that the players were working on today, but Bev was able to demonstrate exactly what she wanted her players to do and achieve.
The team is in standard preseason form (more on that in the next bullet). I’ve been told that Gotham just started practice a few days ago, while Louisville has been going since January. With the Challenge Cup moved to the middle of the league season, I was also told to look for some teams to be more prepared than others to start the season in late March. Louisville looks well on their way.
However, there were plenty of loose passes and missteps to call this team “ready for the season”. One player who does look absolutely ready is Wang Shaung. When she catches a ball with her foot in just the right way, it sounds different (and more deadly) than just about any other player on the pitch. No particular player looked off the pace, but very few looked to be anywhere near mid-season form other than Wang.
I spotted Thembi Katlana off the pitch, but she still isn’t ready for full contact practice. I was also told that Emina Ekic is out of her walking boot, but still scheduled to miss all of preseason. Many of the International players were absent too due to international commitments. Two things will happen once everyone is healthy and back in the country. The team should be able to do a full scrimmage and we could start to see how flexible this roster really is. I asked Sav today about the number of players who are comfortable taking free kick and if that group had discussed how to handle it. Sav thinks that the players have their favorite spots on the pitch where they like to take a free kick and those spots will likely dictate who takes it.
Monaghan looks to be a player of tremendous flexibility. Today she was utilized on the left wing, but was also started at right back for the scrimmage vs. the Spirit. She also rocked a pair of slides from Target after practice.
Waterlogged boots are a hazard of a mid-winter rainy practice. The club enjoyed its time in Melbourne, FL so much that the plan is to return in the future. I like the idea of getting in as many practices as possible early in the season and the Louisville winter isn’t often conducive for that.
Louisville travels to Indy this weekend to face the Red Stars. Expect more scrimmages to be announced soon to occur in March.
