Soccer Sensation by Jake Maddox

Author:Jake Maddox [Maddox, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jake Maddox; Jake Maddox Sports stories; sports fiction; middle grade fiction; sports stories for boys; illustrated fiction; soccer
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2020-06-06T00:00:00+00:00

He moved his finger over the drawing. “All the Os are you guys. All the Xs are the opposing team. You can see I’ve already drawn each player in position, about thirty seconds before the Chargers scored.”

Coach Jones looked at Kyle again, then pointed at an O. “This is where you were, Kyle. You can see that you’re just short of midfield. You had possession of the ball at the time.”

Kyle raised his hand.

“Yes?” Coach Jones said.

“I’m just curious as to how you know this,” Kyle asked.

“I like to record the games and analyze them later,” Coach Jones explained.

“That’s a lot of work,” Kyle remarked.

“Thanks,” Coach Jones said.

Unlike his dad, Cameron wasn’t sure Kyle had meant that as a compliment.

“Now Kyle,” Coach Jones said, “don’t take this wrong. But you tried to get past the X in front of you and lost the ball.”

Moving his hands quickly, Coach Jones pointed at one X, then another X, and then a third. “See how they are spread apart on the field like this? Turning the ball over to them put these players at a disadvantage. They couldn’t get back into play soon enough, because they were charging up the field.”

Coach Jones pointed at one O, then another, then a third.

“On the other hand, Kyle, just before you lost the ball, you could have kicked a short pass straight sideways here,” Coach Jones pointed at another O. “If you did that— made the smart choice—we would have kept possession. You know why?”

Kyle didn’t respond, so Coach Jones continued talking.

“The other players would not have been caught in a bad place,” he said. “Then you could have gone toward the sideline upfield. This would have drawn a defender to open up the middle and make it easy to advance the ball. Understood?”

Nobody replied.

“No problem,” Coach Jones said. “I’ve got some pylons. We’re going to set them up where the Xs were. Then each of you will take your positions. We’ll run the play over again. This time, Kyle, let’s see what happens when you make the smart choice and the short pass. I promise all of you will understand it much better when we practice it a few times.”

Coach Jones blew the whistle and pointed to the field. “Let’s move!”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.