USA Cup Semifinals vs NSSA (MN)

Our semifinal match up saw us come up against the NSSA group.  The north suburban team had run away with the U13 girls North district league, thus qualifying for a U14 Premier spot for the 2008 summer MYSA season.  NSSA beat the Unionville team from Canada in the other quarterfinal game in PKs.

I was looking forward to the game.  We had seen every other semi-decent to decent team at our age group except for these guys.  I felt confident that if we played well we would get the result, and I was more interested in seeing if they had anyone in their group that might be considered an impact player for either our Blue or White teams.  A couple of the NSSA girls had come to our tryouts two years ago, and there was one hard working forward for them that I had seen play in last year's summer State Tournament and this past year's State Cup.  I was interested to see how these players would match up against the competition I was sure our girls could present.

I knew the game would be a tough one.  The NSSA team surely knew about our group and it would be easy for them to get up for the game mentally.  I think our girls were excited about the match up as well, energized by the good second half performance of the earlier game that day.

The only little disappointment I had was that we were scheduled on one of the "F" fields.  These fields were in decent shape, but were not as large as some of the other ones on the complex.  I had scouted the NSSA team in State Cup in May and noted that they liked to pull an offisdes trap.  It was very effective against some of the lesser tuned-in teams, but I thought that we would break the trap for a number of goals if they pulled it against us.  They also liked to push up and trap opponents off free kicks from the midfield area.  I educated the Goo Girls about these things prior to the game, asking the girls to remember how we wanted to break the offsides trap against Javanon at Regionals. 

The game started out OK for us.  We missed two breakaways and two good chances inside the six yard box off crosses.  The NSSA GK played well, their defense caught us a couple times on the trap, and they managed to attack down the field a couple times.  Tori (GK) wasn't forced into anything too difficult, but we could not seem to finish any of the chances we created. 

The half ended 0-0 and it was neat to see how excited their parent group was at the tied score.  They knew what level of competition they were up against and I'm sure wanted to praise the efforts of their team to keep the game deadlocked.  "It was only a matter of time." I thought. 

I said as much to the girls at halftime.  I knew our overall team strength and believed that the NSSA group could not keep us off the scoreboard for much longer.  I told the girls we would likely score 3 goals in the second half, and just needed to concentrate on doing some of the little things correctly. 

We were getting a ton of crosses from the right side, but many of these were played directly into the GK's hands.  I wanted our wide players to either pull the ball back away from the GK, or drive the ball lower and harder into the box.

NSSA had a dangerous forward and we were caught diving in on her a few times.  Patience, delay with pressure, communicate with your teammate so they know when they have cover and can safely go in for a tackle without the risk of being the last defender. 

Keep up the intensity.  They can't match us technically, but they can out work us.  Match their work rate and effort and our skill and game intelligence will see us through.

It took us 17 minutes to finally break through and score a goal, then the flood gates opened.

17th minute we go up 1-0 as Sting (RF) drove in a low, hard crot (cross shot) that squeaked under the NSSA GK.  Lucky goal, but the all count.

19th minute, GK punted a ball from the top of the box and didn't get a hold of it all.  It fell to Brownie (LF) about 30 yards out.  Brownie controlled the ball nicely, took a touch, the hit an intelligent, early shot that sailed over the retreating GK into the net for our second goal. 

90 seconds later, Ripper (CF) found Brownie (LF) down the left flank.  Brownie crossed the ball too deep and Jilly (RF) ran it down at the far side of the box.  She spun her body around the ball and sent in a floating cross back to the far post area that Blondie (CF) headed home.

90 seconds after that, Jilly (RF) broke the offsides trap, ran down a through ball, and drove in a low, hard cross the Blondie (CF) tapped home.

All in all, I'd say that was a pretty effective shift for those girls.

4-0 in a good, but not great, performance. 

* * * * *

A U14 boys team from Mexico City had befriended some of the girls earlier in the day and had come out to watch.  It was neat for the girls to see the Mexican group go wild in celebration after we scored our goals.  The would all dance around, sing and chant, and waive their shirts over their heads in pure glee. 

After the game, the girls were more interested in posing for a picture with their new found loves instead of listen to my post-game spiel.  Oh well, I didn't mind.  The girls will likely remember the dancing Mexicans 10 years from now, not the result of the game we just played.  It's all about positive experiences with soccer, and one of the reasons that I love this event so much.