Not much fan fare for this game since we knew early on that we would be up against a desperate team. Shortly after the whistle blew, we figured out that their game plan was to contain our offense and try to not give up too many goals. They certainly were successful the first half as they stacked their D like no tomorrow. It seemed like they were playing a 8-1-1 formation! Top Gun kept the ball on their side the entire first half but failed to put the ball in the net. This is mainly because we brought our game down a few notches and played their game... desperate, kick-ball style of soccer.
Second half Top Gun finally figured out that they had to spread the Jag's defense out to create some lanes to attack. Our mid-fielders started to move the ball around the perimeter of the shooting zone and sure enough, we started to see more light towards the goal. Cynthia started things off for us by weaving through the 4 layers of D to create her own lane and finished strong with our first goal. Next we attempted cross after cross, all of which were good but just not quite perfect. After our 29th attempt, Yovanna's right foot volleyed one in from about 16 yards out to make it 2 to nil. Momentum was now on our side and the girls started move the ball and create holes like we coaches knew they could. Jordan proved that her hamstring was not hurting anymore by hustling extra hard to put #3 in. Shortly after, she intercepted a pass and beat two defenders to put the nail on the coffin with her second goal of the game. Four to nil, game over!
Our defense was absolutely impenetrable and started playing up and pressuring with our strikers. For most of the second half we had 8 players up against their 8 defenders. Good thing we had a big field to work with! Again, our keepers were very lonely back in the box the entire game - trust me, it is not supposed to be timeout for you guys... : )
This game taught us that we still need to be disciplined and play our game even with opponents that have wacky, desperate game plans. We need to learn to control the tempo better so we can play "our" game, but this can only be learned with more games. Second half was a joy to see and much more fun to watch even though the refs were "off-side" happy. Nice work by all to take control of the game and start to finish with a bit more conviction. Great work by our two Santa Clara stars, Jordan and Lauren to play at 110% the entire game.
We were now tied with the other first place team, Sunday's game would be pivotal to the standings since we'd be facing them. Stay tuned for Chapter 4 of this ever evolving story...
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