State Cup Semi Final vs Tonka

Everyone was excited for today as the girls were bidding to become only the second play up team ever to reach the finals.  It was a windy day and Tonka is a tough team with a great goalie so we knew before kick off that we were going to be in for a battle.

For the first half we would be going directly into the wind and it would prove difficult for us to move the ball very well for a majority of the half.  A problem that we would have the entire game actually. 

The entire first half we really struggled as we had no team shape.  We were spread out with our defenders being 20 yards behind our midfielders.  Our midfielders were all in a straight line so we had no depth.  And our forwards were not shifting quickly enough to the right places.  All of these factors led to us rarely connecting 2 or 3 passes.

About 25 minutes in we had a goal kick and we miss hit it into a couple of players just on the edge of the box.  We had two defenders there who tried to tackle the ball but were unable to and the Tonka girl hit a nice shot into the far side of the net to give them a 1-0 lead.  It was a real disappointing goal to give up and we need to remain sharp on our goal kicks.

Despite our troubles we were able to create 3 decent chances but nothing to really trouble Tonka's goalie.

As half time came I was not too worried that we were down 0-1 since we would have the wind and I figured we would come out shooting in the second half and be able to create some very good chances.

At half time we talked about the need to keep our team shape and how to close off the gaps that were open in our midfield and defense.  The girls all knew the proper shape but they really needed to focus on it in the second half if we were going to be successful. 

We also talked about taking lots of shots with the wind and I reminded them that no matter what happens you keep on battling until the final whistle.

The second half started and again the game was played mostly in the midfield but we were holding our shape much better.  About 10 minutes in Jordy received a ball just inside our half and beat her defender.  We now had a 4 on 3 going at Tonka's defense and Jordy took the space that they were giving her.  As Jordy was dribbling Blitz drifted out wide with the exact run that we have been working on the last couple of trainings.  As Blitz's defender stepped to the ball Jordy played Blitz in out wide.  As she dribbled into the right side of the box Kari was making a great late run into the box with Mad Dog trailing her.  The center defender stepped over to Blitz and Blitz took the ball around her and played the ball across to Kari who one timed the ball home for a great goal.

As we were celebrating our first good soccer of the game and our goal we looked and saw the linesman's flag up for offside.  How could that be?  The ball was played diagonal back or at the very least straight across and Kari ran from behind her?  No goal.

That stunk but we were excited that we had finally put together a good sequence of soccer and we felt we would do it again.  Unfortunately that would be the last piece of really good soccer that we would play all day.  The rest of the day would come down to individual efforts and trying to get the ball forward.

After my talk with AJ about owning every through ball after the Mahtomedi game she was coming out for everything.  I mean everything and it made for about 3 very interesting chances for Tonka with one late in the second half while we were pushing up where she came out to clear a ball but the Tonka forward beat her to it and AJ fouled her and received a yellow card. 

With about 15 minutes left in the game we went to a 3 back system and I pushed Bella up into the midfield.  With our limited game experience we have not worked on a 3 back system or pushing numbers forward so I was interested as to how we would handle it.  When I pushed Bella forward I told her to go play in the midfield and go make plays.  I didn't adjust our shape at all because we have a bunch of girls who will do whatever it takes to make a play so I just let them go after it themselves.

With 10 minutes left Bella did make a play and she went in on a break away.  Just as she was about to shoot she was hit from the side and knocked over by the Tonka defender who did not get any ball and the ball rolled to the goalie.  Bella is very strong and never gets knocked over so we all looked at the ref for a PK but he shook his head no and we played on.

As the game opened up Tonka had a couple of chances and we kept pushing numbers forward and trying to get the ball in the danger area.  It was not pretty soccer but it was exciting.

With 1 minute left it was deja vu all over again as Bella was sent through on another break away and just as she was about to shoot she was hit off the ball again, with the defender again not gettting a touch on the ball, and the ball rolled to the goalie.  The difference this time was that Bella did not go down but merely was hit off the ball and she caught her balance but by that time the ball was in the keeper's hands.

Then we heard the ref blow the whistle and point to the spot for a penalty!  (While this play may or may not have been worthy of a penalty the one before was and this was almost the exact same scenario.)

The girls were excited and Blitz stepped up to take the big kick.  How exciting it must have been for her to be up there with no time left and our team down by one.  It is the type of moment that we want all of our girls to enjoy being in.

Blitz set the ball up and waited for the refs whistle.  He blew the whistle and Blitz took a couple of seconds to calm herself.  Then she stepped up and hammered the ball into the upper corner and everyone went nuts and the ref blew the whistle for the end of regulation.

At the break we simply talked about how we love playing over time and how fun it is.  We talked about the fact that we always get chances late in games to either in or tie the game and reminded the girls of Sprout's goal a month ago in WDM that won the game for us.  Lastly, I told the girls that everyone would play during the overtime so go out there, play good defensively and lets go get the winner.

We had two 10 minute over time periods ahead of us and both teams were tired after regulation so it would make for some wide open play.  In the over time Jordy almost got through on two break aways but was stopped by the last defender.  Our defenders made some good plays also and as the whistle blew to end the second over time our girls jumped up and down with excitement and celebrated that we were going to a shoot out.

Yesterday we had challenged the U14 Blue team to a shoot out and we had gone 9 shooters deep so the girls were very confident.  Our 5 shooters in order were: Sprout, Blitz, Bella, Gaffer, Mad Dog.  We had talked before that shoot out that there are only two possible outcomes of the shot before you take it.  You either make it or you miss it.  That is it.  The sun still stayed up in the sky when we missed a shot yesterday proving to the girls that the world would not end if a kick was missed.

-Sprout stepped up and put the first one into the side netting for a great start.
-Tonka's first shooter stepped up and laced the ball into the upper left corner to tie it at 1-1
-Blitz stepped up to take the second kick and she told me she was nervous because the goalie knows where she shoots.  I told her first that the goalie already knows you scored on her so that is good for you and if you shoot the ball that hard into the corner it does not matter because she wont be able to save it.
Blitz did shoot hard but it went right down the middle and was saved. 
On her way back there were no tears from her and that was great for our team's morale and she just said 'Oh well.  I guess it's better that I made the first one' and moved on.  Because of her reaction the team was still confident and we looked to AJ to come up with a save for us.
-And she came up huge as Tonka's second shooter hit the ball low and hard to the corner but AJ dove to her right and made the save. 
-Bella was next for us and she hit her kick with confidence into the corner.
-There next shooter hit a good low shot to the lower right corner to tie the score at 2-2
-Gaffer stepped up next and hit her shot so hard that the goalie did not even have a chance to move and we went up 3-2
-Tonka's fourth shooter hit the ball right at AJ and she stopped it to give us the lead going into the final kicker
-Mad Dog went up there and absolutely crushed the ball as she went for the upper 90 but she hit it a couple inches over the cross bar.
-Tonka's last shooter stepped up and needed to make the shot to send it into extra kicks.  She stepped up and hit the ball to AJ's right.  AJ dove and hit the ball away and ran out to her on rushing teammates to celebrate the win for the team.

MVP's:
-Bella for her hard work at defense and making the plays on offense at the end of the game
-Blitz for stepping up and making the penalty to send us into over time
-AJ.  No explanation needed

Thoughts After The Game

During and after the game I kept kicking myself for switching the positions around during the Mahtomedi game.  Before that game we had been playing some really good soccer.  Maybe switching the positions around helped us in the last couple of minutes pushing forward and going for the goal, but I think we lost our flow and didn't get it back for this game.  We will work in training tomorrow on finding our rhythm again and keeping our shape.  Lesson learned by me when we are playing games during State Cup.

Now we are off to face the U13 Blue team, who beat Wings 1-0 in the other semi, in the Finals Wednesday night at 6:00pm.  With both our U14 Blue team and White team advancing to the U14 Final this will be the second year in a row that our club has put all the teams in the Finals for these two age groups.