Win or Go Home

State Cup Game #4 vs Prior Lake 13s

Last group game today vs Prior Lake's 13s.

We had seen some of these girls this winter in the indoor league in Rosemount. They had a couple athletic girls who could play, but I liked our chances if we played well.

PL, like us, was undefeated thus far, beating PR 12s 2-0, NLS 3-2, and Eagan 3-0. We had won 2-1, 1-0, and 4-0 respectively, leaving them +6 and us +5 for goal differential, so we needed to win outright. A loss or a tie and PL would advance to meet our 13s tomorrow.

Horribly windy day in Lakeland. The only good thing was that unlike the last 4 games we've had at this complex on this field (3 State Cup and 1 league), the wind was not directly favoring one team. Rather, it was more or less blowing straight across the field, slightly favoring the team defending the North goal. I say this was a good thing as an older team with the wind at their backs could negate the higher overall skill that the MTA girls possess.

I opted to play a more attacking 4-3-3 today, looking for our strength up the right flank to cause problems for the PL defenders. I asked Normy to play in goal as I feel she is our strongest GK at this point. The plan was to keep her in their for 1/2 the game, then make a change if needed.

Pre-game talk was all positive like last Sunday, reiterrating the "Leave it Behind" triggers and the importance of positve communication and energy.

Game started well for us. The girls seemed to be clicking, and looked sharp in the attack.

First goal would be huge for us, and it came at the 13 minute mark as Vivi (Point forward) received the ball with her back to goal about 25 yards out from goal on the left center of the field. She took a touch to the center of the field with the right inside of her foot and sent in a far post cross to B-Money (RF). B took a good first touch, beat her marking defender with some quick cuts, and ripped a low, hard near-post shot to give us the goal.

We continued to play some of the best soccer I've seen us play to date, stringing passes together and generally making good decisions.

8 minutes from the halftime whistle, we scored a terrific goal. Vivi (Point) in a similar position on the field as she was in to set up the first goal, again received the ball with her back to goal. This time, she laid the ball inside the field to the path of Em (CM) who was moving forward into some open space. Em continued the left to right ball movement on the field and slipped the ball square to Bargsy (RM), who took two touches and played the ball wide to B-Money (RF). B took a quality touch forward and lasered the ball across the face of the goal, where a PL defender, running back to her goal and caught off guard with the pace of the cross, deflected the ball into her own net. I said above that we scored a terrific goal, and though we didn't get the final touch on the ball, it was some very good ball movement and technique to work up to the goal.

Seemingly costing into the semifinals, but we'd been in this position before - completely dominating a team in the first half only to not play so well in the second.

Same thing happened today to some extent. With the heavy wind slightly favoring PL in the second half, I asked Normy to give me 15 more minutes in goal. If we could get the next goal early in the half, I'd sub her out.

However, PL battled back to make the game close in the 13 minute of the second half. Their speedy right winger tore up the right side on a 40 yard run and sent in a cross to the far post. Meggy (RD) was their to hinder the PL forward, but the ball squirted through her legs on the tackle and the PL forward got off a shot that bobbled under Normy's diving save attempt.

The last part of the half was a bit more frantic than I would have liked it to be, and PL created a great chance to equalize with a few minutes left on the clock, only to have the PL forward's shot from 7 yards out sail wide left.

Good battle in tough conditions. Off to the semis tomorrow against our 13 Blues.