MRL Game #9 vs Bangu Tsunami White

Our second match up against our sister second team in 10 days.  Fresh off a very good accounting by the White team in the State Cup final, I knew they'd be coming into the game full of confidence.  BTW, I'm still working on that write up, in case you can't tell :)

 

Even after the State Cup final performance, I still believe we are 3 goals better than the Whites.  However, we have yet to prove that.  I understand I carry some bias with this thought, and I'm not trying to diminish the work the White coaches have done or the improvement this White group has shown in the last year. 

 

We were slated to play tonight at the Rich Valley Athletic Complex in Inver Grove Heights - one of the hidden field gems of the Twin Cities.  Not a lot of use by the small local club, immaculate fields that were flat and wide.  Great for us.

 

However, we are pretty banged up.  Nash out, casted and crutched, Maddie 50% at best with her back, Ripper and a broken wrist that she's been able to play with but not at 100%, Korky coming straight from a doctor's appointment for an ear infection, and Bidi out tonight with a school function.  Again, Ripper was able to play and Maddie could give us a few minutes here and there, but realistically, we had a grand total of 11 fit players on the day.  

 

Somehow, I had managed to double book myself for the evening with my U11s in the Apple Valley tournament with a 6PM game.  Our 14 game was set to kickoff at 5:30PM.  I couldn't find anyone to cover the 11s, so my plan was to get the 14s going and stay for the first 20 minutes of the first half.  Then truck over to Apple Valley to take the 11s.  Not ideal, but the 14s are in very capable hands without me. 

 

We started again in our 3-5-2.  The fantastic surface and large playing area saw us come out and press the attack.  The Whites had one or two forays into our end, but nothing dangerous.  The Blues were much sharper than they were in the State Cup final, knowing that they had something to prove.  

 

I felt confident that I'd hear a favorable result when Cook called me an hour later.  I didn't.  We dropped the game 1-0 on a late goal that Cook said was a bit of a fluke.  A free kick served in, redirected by our team, then spinning and slipping on the wet surface through Zazu's legs. 

I bet the White team was ecstatic about the win.  As they should be.  For me, though I expected the Blues to finish their MRL season undefeated, in the large scheme of things this loss isn't a huge thing for us.  We'll be able to use it to learn from and continue to motivate the kids as we work towards peaking later in June, and we still need to try and run the table at the mid-June MRL playoff weekend against the three teams from the Northeast Division.  More about this later.  It also will help the Whites qualify for the MRL playoffs, which I believe they would with a win in one of their last two games next weekend in Madison.  Good for them, they've worked hard and are playing some good soccer. 

 

So not a great result obviously for us, but not a tremendously negative end either.  

 

Cook may have some tough decisions to make come tryouts for next year's U15 team though as there are at least a handful of current White team players who could make a serious run at next year's Blue team roster spots.   

 

Nike Manchester United Premier Cup - US Finals

Day 2, game 1, Chicago Sockers (IL)

Day two brought us for first glimpse of the sun since arriving in Portland; did you know it rains a lot here?  Today’s first game was against the Chicago Sockers, at team that I can honestly say that I did not know much about and really was not sure how good they were.  Again I emphasized how important it is to win the 50/50 battle and to make sure that we look to play side to side as much as we can.  I have to say this was not how we started the game; we got outplayed from the opening whistle.  Our central players were working hard but seemed a step to slow, we just were not able to get a hold of the ball, nor were we winning any of the battles that we dominated the day before.  We gave up a goal about ten minutes into the game and were fortunate not to give up another as the Sockers hit the cross bar a few minutes after their first goal.  The half ended with the Sockers leading 1-0.  

At halftime I had to reinforce to the girls that winning the 50/50 battle and getting our outside mids back on defense we be the key to getting back into this game.  The second half was much better half for us, we created several good scoring chances and we able to keep possession of the ball for longer periods of time.  Unfortunately, we had one major incident in the second half, Nash was closing down a defender and as she stepped to win the ball her ankle got caught in the turf and she rolled her ankle in the wrong direction.  Immediately she was in a lot of pain and felt that she had broken her ankle.  Play was stopped as a trainer was called to the field and Nash was carried off the field.  I want to give special thanks to the Sockers coach, Greg Maim for coming on the field and helping get Nash to calm her breathing and relax as we waited for the trainer, a truly classy act from a great coach.  After play resumed we were able to win a corner kick, on the ensuing kick BD played a ball into the box that was deflected off of Maddie's hip to Becca, who took a touch and volleyed the ball into the back of the net from 12 yard out, a great finish and just what we needed to get back into the game.  The remainder of the game was pretty even, both teams had chances and we almost got the win in the final 30 seconds, Millie was slotted a ball between two defenders and was about to get off a shot as the goalkeeper came out to smother the ball.  Final score 1-1, probably a fortunate result for us as we were not at our best.

Note on Nash’s injury, she was taken to the hospital for x-rays (thanks Carolyn Werth) and was diagnosed with a hairline fracture, done for the tournament but not as serious as first thought.  Hopefully, she will be back for regional’s!!☺

Day 2, game 2 vs FC Portland (OR)

The final game of group play was against FC Portland it was our first chance to play at the Nike Headquarter on Ronaldo field.  There was a lot riding on this game, we needed a tie to advance and a win would allow us to finish first in our group.  FC Portland was 2-0 so they were through but we new that we should be in for a great game.  I could tell in warm-ups that our energy was back and we would be a different team than we were in the morning game.  Right from the opening whistle we took control of the game; we were controlling possession, playing side to side and dominating the 50/50 battle. (I was told by one of our parents that they overheard a couple of coaches asking “who are these guys, they’re pretty good”)  Our opponent was playing a very aggressive offside trap, something we have seen before and once we realized what was happening, something we were able to exploit.  Our fist goal game 10 minutes into the game.  As FC Portland was stepping Chilly was played a long diagonal ball on the left flank (sorry can’t remember who played it).  Chilly drove end line and then cut the ball back to beat her defender, she then played a low ball back into the slot that Millie ran onto and calmly finished from 12 yards out.  Our second goal was déjà vu all over again, except on the other side of the field.  The ball was played back to RVK at left back, she found KK in the central area of the field and as FC Portland was setting the trap KK played a great diagonal ball to BD on the right flank, BD was all alone on the right side with 50 yards of space in front of her.   BD got end line and played a great ball back into the slot that Chilly ran onto and calmly one timed into the upper 90 from 14 yards out.  The half ended 2-0 with us fully in control.  At halftime I spoke with the girls on ways to exploit the trap and how we need to continue to string passes together and play side to side.  Half number two was much like the first one, we dominated possession, did not give Portland any chances and we were unfortunate not to get a third goal as BD had a great volley off a cross only to hit the under side of the crossbar.  The final score was 2-0, which meant we won the group and would be facing Sereno in the round of 16.

Day 3 vs Sereno (AZ) - round of 16

After a long morning of sitting around the hotel we arrived back at the Nike campus for our round of 16 game versus Sereno.  I was able to watch Sereno in the finals of their event back in January and knew we were in for a battle.  Right from the opening whistle Serono had us on our heals, they were winning every ball in the air; we were turning the ball over and were unable to get out of our end of the field.  Player for player, Sereno was bigger, stronger and faster than we were, something I have not seen with this group.  I will give our team some credit; we battled hard and defended well.  Sereno has several good scoring chances, only to be denied by Tori’s brilliant goalkeeping, all I can say was wow!!  Half time finished 0-0 and we were fortunate to be scoreless.  All I could tell the team at the half was to continue to battle, get numbers behind the ball and the need to play quicker balls to feet not in the air.  

The second half started well for us, we were able to string a few passes together and our intensity was good.  That all changed about 7 minutes into the half, a Sereno forward was sent in behind our defense on a great through ball, Tori came out to smother the ball only to be beaten to it by the Sereno forward.  The Sereno forward tried to dribble by Tori, only to be tripped by her, whistle PK. (the correct call in my opinion)  This is where thing got really interesting, the referee ruled that Tori impeded a goal scoring opportunity, straight red.  I could not believe what I was seeing, first off the ball was 30 yards onto the other field behind our goal, when the Sereno forward tried to dribble Tori, she kicked the ball way past her and out of bounds.  She had no chance of catching up to the ball and even if you ruled that she had a chance to score her shot went wide and was only tripped after the shot.  For the first time in a long time I went ballistic on a referee, this was one of the worst decisions I have seen in some time. (Well not worse than the call on the corner kick at state cup, but really bad)  The fourth official took most of my rage as he tried to get me back in my technical area but my guess is everyone anywhere near the field knew how I felt about the red card, the call essentially ended any chance of us winning.  Maddie was inserted in goal to face the PK and although Maddie served us well and in few games back in MN it was not the same as playing against a team as good as Sereno.  (Special thanks for Maddie going in goal with no complaint and keeping a positive attitude)  Needless to say we played the rest of the game with 10 players and lost 4-0.  I do not want to take anything away from Sereno, I felt all along that they were the better team and deserved to advance, it was just too bad that the referees decision changed the whole dynamic of the game and really gave us little chance of winning.

 

Day 4 vs PDA (NJ)

Our final game was a friendly against PDA, ironically we joked with them before the Sereno game that maybe we would see them in a friendly as they had just lost to Crossfire before our game with Sereno.  The only really eventful part of this game was getting Tori back on the field.  Because of the red card she was supposed to sit out a game, however, this was a friendly and I felt it was not fair to play without our keeper and the coaches from PDA agreed.  We got the tournament officials to allow Tori to play and the game went on as planned.  The game itself was a rather dull affair, it ended 0-0 and Tori played a great game, PDA created the better scoring chances but for the most part a game played with no emotion and very little flow, typical friendly after a long weekend.

After the PDA game we went over the field 1 to watch the finals, Texans vs. Crossfire.  Crossfire was in our hotel and we built a pretty good relationship with their parents and coaching staff. (Ironically one of their coaches used to live in MN and I knew his wife back in the day)   So needless to say we were rooting for Crossfire.  The game was a very entertaining game, played at a very high level.  Crossfire had the better of the play and probably should have won the game, however it went to PK’s and the Texans won to advance to Sweden. (I believe the Texans won 3 knockout games in PK’s)  All in all, the best event I have attended as a youth coach and can only hope that I can attend again with another team from our club.