Nomads Game 2 vs Nomads

Evan and I arrived at the field early to watch the White team play THUSC, the Oregon State Cup Champs.  The Whites had one really good chance and a couple of other chances but they were not able to score.  THUSC received a mysterious foul called and scored on the ensuing free kick.  THUSC had some other really good chances but could not finish and the game finished at 0-1 in favor of THUSC.  I thought the Whites played well and THUSC was a pretty good team.  I was looking forward to our game with them.

After that game Evan grabbed us some Chipolte and we relaxed.  I was extremely frustrated that we couldn't score more goals in the first game, but the 3 soft shell barbecoa tacos and lemonade put me in a good state of being.

As the girls arrived at the field they noticed the huge canyon behind one of the goals.  Common sense says that if there is a canyon behind a goal there should be a fence.  There was none.  What was in front of the canyon were warning signs saying to watch out for rattle snakes.  Te girls either thought it was cool, or they expressed their fear of snakes. 

We made our way to the far side of the field to put our stuff down so we could warm up at the goal that did not involve the rattle snakes and 250 foot canyon.  The Nomads coach had obviously seen the canyon on the one side of the field and they positioned themselves to take the same side of the field as us.  The chess match was on.

Since we were early, the girls were hanging out waiting to start the warm up when we kept hearing a sea gull behind us.  It kept chirping on and on and I finally turned around to find Bella walking a ways back behind us making the noises.  She started laughing and said that she was calling for help as if she had been bitten by a rattle snake.  Everyone broke out in laughter asking her if that was really her call for help.  Bella then proceeded to say it was her call to hunt rattle snakes.  I love how funny these kids are.

Evan set up the warm up for the girls and as we were part way through it, the whistle blew to end the game before ours and the Nomads team immediately sprinted out to the non canyon half.  Touche to them.  I guess we will not be doing any shooting in our warm up.

We started off quickly with our chances again as Sophie received a cross from Gaffer but the shot was saved.  Nomads had a dangerous forward in #13 who got a shot a minute later off a turn but AJ saved it.

Nomads played with a very deep sweeper.  Deep as in out of the play deep.  I have always told our forwards that if another team is playing with a sweeper that they should go as far as the sweeper would let them go.  Doing this created a problem for us as we became very spread out.  Looking back on this I should have told the forwards to play normal and we would just play 10 versus 9 with their sweeper being out of the play.  I am really upset with myself for not seeing this during the game.

Ten minutes in Kenzie showed some sweet skills and dribbled 2 defenders and played Gaffer in but her shot was blocked at the last second.  The ensuing corner saw the ball fall to Kenzie but she shot it just wide.

After that chance I looked over and saw Evan laying down on the ground.  I said "Hey Evan, it's ok we'll get one."  He then informed me that he wasn't reacting to the missed chance, but that he had a major bloody nose.  Evan was out for at least 30 minutes without being able to stop the bleeding.  

Without Evan, and no bench to sit on, my note taking went out the window.  I really need to be sitting to take notes.

We continued to press Nomads into their end but we couldn't get anything in.

At the 26th minute we were able to take our first lead of the tournament when Lydia hit a corner into the mixer.  The ball hit off their goalie and LK started screaming that it crossed the line.  No call was made from the ref, but as LK was screaming that it was a goal, she was also crashing in on the goal and buried the ball into the back of the net for good measure and the refs signaled that we had finally scored.

Half time came and all the girls asked what happened to Evan.  He said that LK hit him in the nose when he said something she didn't like.  The girls all asked LK if that was true and she played it off perfectly saying that Evan deserved it.

At half time we addressed the fact that with their sweeper hanging back so far and their midfield dropping off super far as well we had a ton of space to get the ball to our outside backs.  I really wanted us to find our center mids and then have them find our outside backs.  We had played well and needed to keep it going.

We had the kick at the second half and Britt played the ball down to the left corner.  Our forwards and mids sprinted up the field, but Nomads won the ball and popped it back up the field to the space that the mids had left as they were pressing up field.  Our defenders were asleep and hadn't moved at all so there was a 30 yard gap between our mids and defenders.  Their forward was in that gap and received the ball.  Since the field was 100 yards long it meant that she was within shooting distance.  Nobody stepped to her and she finished a nice shot to the corner.  

I screamed inside my head about how we could allow that to happen.  Then, a couple minutes later, things got worse.  Bella was dribbling up the field and beat a girl with a scissors move 10 yards before half.  As she was dribbling away from the girl the ref called a foul on Bella.  It was another shocking call by the ref as it was Nomads 15th free kick of the game to our 2.  The final foul count was even more lopsided, with us incurring foul calls whether we were dribbling or defending.  We couldn't do anything right in the eyes of the ref.

From the ensuing free kick the ball bounced in the box and found one of their players on top of the box who had a nice volley into the net.  Down a goal again in a game we were dominating.

The girls responded brilliantly and we began to play really well again.  We continued to create chances and at the 45 minute mark Gaffer was able to tie the game.

After that goal I decided to have us go for the win and we pressed up into a 3-4-3 since Nomads were not threatening us with any chances.  When we did this we began to create even more chances and with 8 minutes left we crossed the ball into the box, it bounced once and Bella and Gaffer crashed in and put home the ball.  The ref blew his whistle and disallowed the goal.  I never received an explanation of why it was disallowed.

We spent the rest of the half in and around their box and had a couple of near misses but we failed to score a goal that counted.  

It was another frustrating draw that we deserved to have won.  After the game we talked about the fact that the players that start the game and second half need to be tuned in and ready to go.  The 2 early goals in each game cost us valuable points.  Especially when things are not going our way we need to be focussed on defense and not concede goals.

I told the girls I was happy with how hard they battle to get back into the game and how hard they pushed for the win.  It was a tough day for us putting the ball in the back of the net, but we were doing the right things offensively and just needed to keep plugging away.