State Cup Game #4 vs PSA

Gail force winds and chilly weather, typical Minnesota day in May.  I looked around my car and was glad to see that I had an extra jacket and my winter coat to put on.  I then scrummaged around my trunk and found my choppers to put on my hands.  

• For those of you not from MN, Choppers are leather mittens that keep sub zero weather from inducing your fingers to turn into icicles and snap off.

 I arrived at the fields for the 10am games and watched Mark's 12's play a great first half against Prior Lake's U13's that saw them advance to the Semi Finals tomorrow to play us.  I also saw EP score a late goal to defeat Rev 2-1 to set up the other semi final vs our White team, who beat Sibley 5-0.

The weather conditions and the condition of the field were going to play a big part in the game today, but I hoped that we would be able to adjust to the elements and finish off group play with a good game.

PSA had the wind the first half and we struggled to get the ball out of our end for the first 8 minutes.  We kept trying to string passes together from our own 18 but we were not switching the fields with our passes so PSA was able to get defenders around the ball and play it back towards our goal.

One possession that we had saw our CM fire a pass back to our central defender, a really hard pass, who was at our PK spot to keep possession and play out.  The pass caught our central defender off guard and her first touch went to a PSA player in the box.  AJ was alert and rushed out to cut off the angle.  Their girl was forced wide by AJ and LK came in behind her to make the tackle.

That was the wake up call we needed.  One minute later we scored a fantastic goal when our defenders played the ball up to Gaffer (Fwd) on the left side of the field 15 yards into our half.  Gaffer turned her defender and dribbled diagonally across the field drawing in PSA's center backs.  Kari (RM) sprinted up the right side as Gaffer dribbled and Gaffer slotted her the ball between the center back and their left defender.  Kari slowed down with her first touch to draw her defender in, then accelerated by her.  As the center defender stepped over to her, Kari faked inside and went around her on the end line.  She kept dribbling down the end line, towards the goal, and played a pass to LK (LD) on the far side of the box.  LK received the ball and played the ball back to Lydia (CM) who was just outside the top of the box.  She took a touch and put the ball in the upper right corner of the goal.

I am not sure, but I think LK was the player who played the first ball to Gaffer and proceeded to make the run all the way into the box from her left defender position.  Jordy, outside mid on that side, was also in the box for the cross.  This goal is the type of devastating full field movement that these girls are capable of producing.

Each time I see this I question if we should play a low pressure defense and let other teams attack us more because we are so good in transition.

The remainder of the first half saw us play marginally better, but it was not the level that I've come to expect from the girls.  Half time score was 1-0.

At half time we talked about passing the ball around more and making PSA chase us instead of always trying to go forward.  The girls took in the advice and the second half was much better as we strung passes together and moved the ball from side to side.

The ball movement led to a handful of chances.  Carly was able to score off a rebound in the box with a left footed volley.  She has been working really hard in training the last two weeks on her finishing and it was nice to see it come through in the goal.

That goal was the 14th goal that we scored in our 4 group games.  We've had 9 different players score.  One of this team's greatest strengths is that so many girls can score goals and we do it in a variety of ways.  

Looking back over our State Cup games I think that, because we are working on scoring goals in a variety of ways and through a variety of players, we have not scored as many goals as we could if we just focussed on one way to score.  I keep reflecting on the fact that in the short term, (this U13 year) that the emphasis on finding different ways to do things might not achieve the same results as if we focussed on a certain style, but I really believe that we will be more dangerous for years to come because we will be able to adapt to any situation and have a number of girls who will be able to step up when we need them.

The game finished 2-0.  The girls were very excited to get out of group play with 4 wins and move onto the semi finals.  I told our girls how important it was that our defenders (Brownie, AJ, Jazzy, Taz, Bella, Becks, and Lydia) kept their focus and kept the clean sheet.  It is important that the girls recognize how large their contribution is to the team's overall performance and style of play.  

During the game Blitz and Kari found some time to dance:

Tomorrow we play the U12's.  We know better than anyone else because of last year, that this will probably be our toughest game in State Cup.  The 12's have a very skilled team and they have an incredible history of digging deep down and fighting to win a lot of high level tournaments.  We will have to finish the chances that we create if we expect to move on to the final.