photo by: John Young

Free State quarterback Bryce Torneden drops back for a pass during the annual fall sports jamboree, held Thursday at FSHS.

Along with the rest of the country, and especially downtown Lawrence and Kansas City, I was pretty wrapped up in the FIFA World Cup this summer.

Not that I didn’t watch soccer beforehand, but I feel like I have a better understanding of possession soccer and how the current game is being played (versus just the FIFA video game).

That brings me to my point that I heard both Lawrence high school boys soccer coaches, Mike Murphy at LHS and Kelly Barah at Free State, talk to their players over the summer about translating what they were seeing on TV to the field this season.

Free State’s boys soccer team was shut out 10 times last season, and every time I stop by the Firebirds’ practice this preseason, Barah has drills to make sure they create space to set up more scoring chances. He also talks about controlling possession to open up more space.

I shot some of their practice last week, while they were mostly going through a drill that involved three offensive players and one defender. They were in a small box, with a very small triangle of cones in the middle. The defender wasn’t allowed to step through the cones, forcing them to cut off passing lanes by taking the long route. For the offense, the goal was to create space without the ball. You can watch the video below:

http://www2.ljworld.com/videos/2014/aug/28/35963/
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Free State’s football team showed off their new home jerseys at the fall sports jamboree on Thursday. I believe they arrived this week so they essentially went straight from the box to the field. I don’t know exactly how to describe them, though they look pretty cool, so I attached a couple of photos from the varsity scrimmage (photos from LJWorld photog John Young).

photo by: John Young

Free State quarterback Bryce Torneden drops back for a pass during the annual fall sports jamboree, held Thursday at FSHS.

photo by: John Young

Free State defenders led by Bryce Torneden, front, and Tye Carter (9) bring down Khaury el-Amin as they play in an intersquad scrimmage during the annual fall sports jamboree, held Thursday at FSHS.

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