Eclipse Challenge Cup - Day #4 Semifinal

 Sunday, Aug 17

As it turned out, our potential match up against Carmel was delayed as the wildcard winner was St Louis Scott Gallagher out of Group C.

Ohio Elite won Group C with 7 points and Carmel won Group B with 9.  Those two teams along with us (the Group A winner) advanced into the semifinals.  The fourth team in was the wildcard that came down to PDA and SLSG.  Both ended with 6 points but SLGS smacked a local U11 team that was solicited at the last minute to fill out Group C due to a cancellation (I think).  I'm sure PDA was pissed as an easy group game for SLSG helped decide PDA's playoff fate.

As the Group A winner we were supposed to play the Group B winner (Carmel) in the Sunday morning semis, and the Group C winner was slated to play the wildcard.  But since the wildcard team came out of Group C, the wildcard winner got matched up against the Group A winner, us.  So MTA vs SLSG and Ohio Elite vs Carmel.  Good company to be in. 

Bargsy had had to leave Libertyville last night in order to get back to MN for another commitment today so we had 4 subs to work with.  

I was absolutely sure that SLSG would be a talented team.  After the huge merger in St Louis last summer, bringing together Region II powerhouses St Louis Soccer Club and Scott Gallagher along with Missouri Premier and Metro United from southern Illinois, there was a large talent pool to draw from.  Apparently the team we faced today was the top team of the 6 teams SLSG has at the age group. 

Talking with Andy yesterday I decided to switch our midfield shape a bit for today to more of a standard 4-3-3 rather than at 4-2-1-3.  We obviously have a lot of work to do on team shape and involving our midfield in both our defense and attack, so the idea today was to try and simplify things as much as possible.  With the two holding mids and the attacking mid formation we weren't getting what we needed.  Worked out well this morning and we'll see what happens with it today.  There was the thought of even starting in a 4-5-1 against what I thought was going to be a superior team, but after prepping the girls about how to adjust to this change if/when needed, I opted to look to attack first this afternoon and gauge our defensive needs early on.  

Beautiful morning for a game, and I set up the Hi-Pod in the Olympic Record time of 11 minutes, 54.3 seconds.  Beat that. 

We were awarded the kick off and tried to spring B-Money down the right flank with a long ball.  SLSG proceeded to win possession and string nearly 14 passes together.  It was instantly apparent that the SLSG girls were organized, technical, and had a collective idea of how to move the ball around the field.  Yep, I had the "Uh oh, could be a long morning!" thought again.

SLSG Uh Oh from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

We settled in though quickly.  The emphasis of today was confidence and composure (I had to explain what the latter meant to the girls).  Though we were coming into a semifinal and potentially a final later today, "important" games, I challenged the girls to try and look to play a bit more rather than the frantic, direct style that had been a great majority of our game the last two days.  We showed some good signs of this early on as we looked to actually play the ball out of the back at times.

SLSG Good Build Up from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

5 minutes into the game we got on the scoreboard.  Meggy (RD) played a one time ball forward under pressure at the right back spot.  Babes (Point) pressured and won the ball off a SLSG's defenders first touch, showed great strength and balance on the ball to retain possession for us, drew in three defenders, and found B-Money (RF) with a calm outlet pass to the space on the right flank.  B-Money, with the attitude of a goal scorer, didn't hesitate to pull the trigger from just outside the corner of the penalty box, and her high shot caugh the SLSG GK off guard and sailed over her head across the line. 

SLSG Goal For - B-Money from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

10 minutes later we doubled our lead.  Some snappy and tenacious midfield defending from Cal (RM), Kait (LF), and Maddog (CM), with a final 50/50 tackle by Payt (CD) won the ball for us.  Payt picked her head up and found Babes (Point) with a 20 yard long ball to the top of the circle in the SLSG's half.  Babes let the ball run by her, knicked it past the challenging SLSG defender, took a great touch in towards goal up the left side of the penalty box, and hit a low, near post shot for the tally. 

SLSG Goal For - Babes from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

With about 5 minutes left in the half we nearly put the game out of reach.  A good step to pressure and tackle by Cal (now at CD) in 15 yards in our half and a quick slotted through ball to Chels (Point) sliced the SLSG defense apart.  Chels out-raced the SLSG last defender and flicked the ball past her on her way to goal.  Another touch took her to the top of the box just to the right of the goal, but her hard shot was batted down by a good save from a GK who was in a fantastic position. 

SLSG Chels Shot from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

2-0 at halftime.  The most dangerous lead in soccer and against a quality team.  

Halftime speech was fairly simple.  Praise for the effort on the field, the highlighting some good moments, and the reminder that this game was not done.  We knew SLSG would come out firing in the second half and we needed to be prepared for that.  My words to the girls - Could we keep our compusure under the pressure?  Could we continue to look to connect passes?  Could we continue to find ways to attack?  Could we enjoy the challenge that SLSG gave us and recognize that they were a terrific possession team?

5 minutes into the half, some good combination passing from SLSG and some ball watching from us saw SLSG play out of our right side to the middle of the field about 25 yards from goal.  We closed fairly quickly from our center defense (an aspect of our game that was not at the level we needed to be at yet).  The SLSG midfielder under pressure touched the ball back to another SLSG midfielder who took the opportunity of a slowly rolling ball back to her to fire a shot off.  No problem as the ball looked to be about chest high for Normy (GK) who was standing just inside our 6-yard box.  However, very uncharacteristically, sure-handed-Normy bobbled the ball backwards.  She attempted to bat the ball away but in the panic of the moment it looked like she batted it into her own legs and it trickled into the goal.  Extremely inopportune moment for something that is atypical from our best GK and I felt bad for her as I knew she felt she should have done better with the shot. 

SLSG Goal Against 1 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

The momentum had shifted for sure but the Thunder girls responded well.  I guess I expected a little more panicked play, but we got some of our best build up yet.  6 passes in midfield saw us change the point of attack and spring Quicksy (RF) up the right sideline.  A great first touch from her and a fantastic early cross across the 6-yard box caught the SLSG GK in no-man's land.  Phi Phi (LF) who had been instrumental in the midfield build up in our half of the field, had followed the play up the field, sneaking into a good position at the far post.  Her shot attempt on the low bouncing cross from Quicksy just missed the goal. 

SLSG Good Response to the Goal from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

From the ensuing goal kick, SLSG pushed up the field, once again combined up our right side.  A panicked clearance by Payt (CM) into the ref's shins saw the ball rebound back into our defensive third.  The SLSG left forward received a 2v1 Lead Pass from her midfielder and sent a low cross into our box.  Our central defenders weren't quick enough to step to the ball before a SLSG attacker, and another panicked clearance attempt by Maddog (CD) saw the ball drop to the powerful SLSG forward who ripped a shot near post past Normy.  Crap.  Could have easily been up again by two goals and less than a minute later we're all tied up.  That's soccer. 

SLSG Goal Against 2 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

The rest of the second half was an even contest with neither team able to find the net again, so we headed into extra time.

A few minutes into the first OT period we were disected by some good passing from SLSG and a lot o ball watching by us.  B-Money (RD), Cal (RM), Payt (CM), and Fense (CD) were all guilty of it as the SLSG left forward made a great run calling for the ball behind three of them.  Gizmo (RD) was also then caught ball watching a bit as her mark, the SLSG right forward, ran by her to received a slotted pass in our box.  Normy saved the low, first time shot to keep us tied.  Great play by SLSG, lots of coaching points for us when we watch the video this winter. 

SLSG OT1 Trouble! from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

The first OT period ended with the teams still dead-locked at 1 goal a piece.

Now the mind dance began.  Who was on the field?  Who had been subbed in?  Who hasn't seen the field yet in OT?  Who do I want taking PKs at the end if needed (who had to be on the field)?  How to I get all the players involved while still having the shooters on the field?  Do I need to get everyone involved?  Man, that Hi-Pod over there looks cool. 

We created the two best chances on goal in the 2nd OT period.  B-Money's brave header attempt nearly gave us the winner.

Some compusure by Payt (CM) and a good long ball to B- Money (RF) saw the SLSG GK have to make a decent save. 

SLSG OT2 Header from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

No break though though for either team, so on to PKs.

I instructed the captains to choose to shoot first if we won the toss.  They questioned the instructions asking if it wouldn't be better to shoot second.  We had been in at least 2 PK shootouts in championship games this last year and I had confidence in our shooters and in Normy in goal.  I wanted to try and put pressure on the SLSG players if we could.  

We lost the coin flip and SLSG opted to shoot first.  Their shooter shot high and wide.

Babes stepped up and buried her shot into the left side netting.

SLSG #2 hit a high shot that Normy, who got a good jump on the shot, got some fingertips to but couldn't stop.

B-Money hit a low hard shot to the left that snuck by the SLSG GK to give us the lead 2-1.

SLSG #3 missed the goal wide left, Fense roofed her shot in the upper left and after the third round we still had the advantage 3-2. 

SLSG #4's shot hit the left post and bounced away from goal, and we were off to the championship. 

SLSG PKs from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.

Very good result against the best soccer playing team I've seen play at this age group.  Though some of the parents might not have liked me saying it, I told the girls that SLSG was a better team than us in terms of grasping soccer concepts, movement, and overall techcical ability.  Our goal was to develop this passing ability into our team's game.  I don't want to replace our attacking style but I do want to add another dimension to it.  We're not lacking this possession dimension completely, but we need to be able to keep the ball under pressure better against competition at this level.  More on this later.