MRL Playoffs vs Internationals (OH)

The bus picked us up at 9:30AM from our hotel.  The White team, staying across the road, was already on board as the bus driver is lodged at their hotel.  We took the 15 minute bus ride to the fields, smack dab in the middle of not very much. 

Cut into corn fields, the Hebron complex is expansive.  The fields are large and grassy, but hard and bumpy in many places.  Might be a tough weekend for us on these big fields with 3 subs to work with.

Game #1 vs Internationals (OH-N)

This is the team we played last year in the Region Finals, as well as the summer before in the U12 US Club Soccer Regon Finals.  They have some skilled players and I was interested to get a glimpse of how we matched up with them after a year of work.  

Things started out extremely poorly for us.  We didn't come to play and found ourselves under intense pressure for the first 10 minutes of the game.  Our right flank kept getting exposed with Bidi (RM) getting caught too far up in the attack, and Gratz (RD) finding herself against 2 attackers at least 3 or 4 times early on.  

We couldn't win a ball in midfield to save our lives and didn't have much drive to find the 50/50 balls.  8 minutes in it cost us.  The Internationals GK punted a ball the we let drop near midfield, though I felt we had at least one or probably two girls who could have made a play to stop the ball from hitting the ground.  The bounce dropped to an Internationals forward who played the ball wide up the right flank.  Their speedy right forward raced onto the ball and I think her quickness deceived Blondie (LD) a bit.  Blondie stepped up to make a challenge on the ball around 25 yards out, but the Internationals forward got their first and nicked the ball past Blondie.  The cross that followed was a good one to the far post, but Bidi was recovering in a good position to make a challenge on the attempted finish.  The ball popped back out to towards the penalty spot, and a trailing Internationals midfielder hit a left-foot volley into the far post.  Good goal in the end but a bit gifted as we made some preventable mistakes. 

Our GK Zazu was with the team but not playing this entire weekend, still with the lingering effects from a hard collision in ODP a few weeks back.  Hannah stepped up to play GK in this game.  Not an easy task against a team that forced Zazu into half a dozen fantastic saves last year.  Not much Hannah could do about this one though.

Two minutes later, again under pressure down our left flank, we gave up a corner.  The Internationals kick taker had great technique and power, and served a high ball the dropped on the head of her teammate completely unmarked in the middle of the 6 yard box.  I think the attacker herself was stunned to find so much space and headed a ball unchallenged into the net for their second.  

We were playing right next to the New United (WI) vs Michigan Rush Nike (MI) game and our benches were back to back.  I overheard the Michigan coach ask the Internationals coach, "Was that your second already?"  The Internationals coach, supremely cocky, said something like, "Yeah, I knew there was something wrong with these divisions.  These guys (Bangu) walked through their division and they're not good." 

Not a very good start, and I remember thinking that this was going to be a terribly long game.  However, the girls settled in after we made some changes and started to take press the attack.  The next 25 minutes were all us.  Finally able to build up and attack out of our own half, it became apparent that the Internationals played a very high offside trap.  We got caught by it a number of times early on, but that was OK.  Please keep playing this, I thought. 

20 minutes into the game we got on the board.  Jilly (RF) received a pass near midfield on the right side.  She turned up field, the Internationals defense stepped up in the trap, and Jilly dribbled past her marking defender and was left clear in space behind the Internationals defense.  Her quick defender caught up with her though, forcing Jilly to turn back, but she cut up field again and served a great early diagonal cross into the danger area towards Madie (LF).  Madie was marked by a defender, but the diagonal cross sailed over the defender's head.  Madie let the ball bounce once, then hit a terrific left-foot volley from the top of the box back to the far post past the diving Internationals GK.  What a goal! 

We continued to press the attack for the next 15 minutes.  Their coach could sense the change as his was the team that now struggled to clear their half.  However, he didn't change tactics defensively and his only instruction yelled out to the team constantly was "Hit the corner flag!".  We broke the trap again and again, and created a number of additional chances.  We couldn't capitalize and the half ended 2-1.  

Though we dug ourselves a hole, we were playing better.  We got the girls out at midfield to illustrate some ideas about breaking the trap and I was confident that based on our assessment of the opposing coach, there was a good chance that we'd see more of the trap in the second half.  We talked about slotting the ball through with measured pace instead of kicking it up field with power to bring their GK into play, we talked about dribbling past the marking defender (like Jilly did), we talked about finding our delayed midfield runners and wide mids with through balls, and we talked about the importance of our forwards working to stay onside even if the ball was back in our defensive third as long balls from our defenders could turn into scoring opportunities. 

Cook talked to the girls about stopping making the game look pretty.  This was a game to play direct and get the ball forward, play ugly, to capitalize on an opposing team's weakness and get a result.  

 Lastly, I talked about the importance of our next goal.  We'd seen this team twice, both times falling behind 0-2.  Both times we'd come back to equalize and take the game into extra time.  I could see the faces of the Internationals players when we scored in the first half.  It was a lot of "Oh boy, here we go again!".  We needed the next goal.

We came out in the second half and continued our dominance.  Much to our pleasure, Internationals kept the trap going.  It was only a matter of time til we'd break it and equalize.   

7 minutes in we did.  Ripper (Def Mid) played a great slotted through pass to Millie who raced onto goal.  The Internationals GK came out to make a play on the ball, but Millie poked the ball past her and was taken down.  Penalty kick.  That's a red card, I thought also, but the ref, after consulting her AR, didn't even issue a yellow card.  Cook questioned the AR and ref about the rec card claiming that the GK was the last man, but to no avail.  Millie clearly would have reached the ball in time and there was no International defender around who would have stopped a chance at goal.  Disappointing as Zazu was issued a red card in Portland for a similar occurrence, but at least we were given the PK. 

I saw Millie step up to take it and I had a distinct thought to call her off the kick.  She wasn't playing up to her normal sharpness and moreover just got fouled.  I scanned the field and thought "Madie" to myself, but since I was distracted with the refs, Millie was already in place and set to take the shot.  I held off my desire to change the shooter, and Millie proceed to miss the goal wide left.  Crap. 

A minute later, almost off the ensuing goal kick, the Internationals countered down our left flank.  We failed to clear a number of chances, and the ball was eventually served in to the far post area and finished by a charging right forward.  Double crap.  From a great chance of equalizing to down two goals again.  

That took a bit of the wind from our sales.  Millie was obviously ruffled by the PK miss, so much so that I had to pull her off the field so she could try and refocus.  The girls continued to try and press forward, but we lacked a bit of the spark we had found in the first half and early in the second.  

5 minutes later, Internationals put the game away.  A ball was played into our box that fell behind Becs (CD).  The ball rolled diagonally in towards goal, and Becs shielded it and thought Hannah would come and get it.  Before either of our players could react,  an Internationals forward snuck in and poked the ball past Hannah.

The girls did what they could to get back in the game.  Millie finished a breakaway at the 25 minute mark from another through ball by Ripper, but it was too little too late.

Disappointing result for sure against a dangerous team that I believe we are better than.