Away vs. Prospect Lake Wescor

Prospect Lake steals a point from Gorge Canadians with a 1-1 Tie

We travelled to Beckwith Park on cool bright morning ... great day for soccer! We were lucky to be playing as the fields had been closed the night before and Beckwith had a lot of standing water (i.e. that means puddles with ice on them ... for the girls to "discover" with their feet!)

The game started out slowly for us with the play going back and forth for a while ... it was definitely going to be a game that would be won or lost at midfield. Gorge carried most of the play (65%) throughout the game and any attacks by Prospect Lake were quickly nullified by our defense, who were playing a great game. Coach Brad was moving the girls around quite a bit in today's game with some girls seeing all three positions. It seemed like a good day to experiment. One breakdown by our defense (caught waiting/watching their attacker instead closing space) saw a good shot on net. Paige, who played keeper for the full game today, caught a piece of it but the ball got through her grasp and rolled into the net.

A quick pep talk at half-time with some additioal coaching on centre midfield positioning saw the girls invigorated again and ready to get the goal back (and more). We got on the scoreboard within the first 5 minutes of the second half with a very nice through ball from the foot of Jaymie and two of our attackers broke through their defense with Cara picking up the pass and putting it into the back of the net! Great ball Jaymie and great run Cara.

The remainder of the game saw Gorge attacking a lot more but we could put another ball in the net. We definitely picked up the pace in the second half. Some plays of note in today's game ...

• some very good passing today --> I saw a couple of multiple pass plays between the girls and a couple of give-and-go's
• good solid game again from Katlyn and Jaymie ... where do these girls get those lungs!?
• Alanna's defensive playing and great two-way playing at midfield
• Erin had a great defensive game and in the second half showed some of her old brilliance with attacking runs on the right side with excellent crosses into opponents goal area
• Cara was playing good two-way soccer today ... coming back to assist the midfielder even when playing forward
• Lauren received an excellent leading pass sending her in on goal and scoring with a great shot; however, it was called back due to Lauren definitely being offside (we'll work on that rule next practice)
• Indy was playing a little more agressive today and won a number of her challenges
• Heather's defensive play is improving with each game
• Again, Paige played a very solid game ... her goal keeping kicks and throws are getting better and better

Some things to work on over the next week...

• Again our midfield is pushing too far forward and not coming back
• Also, we tend to leave a large opening in the middle on goal kicks from both ends
• We will be working on improving our re-starts...
• Throw-ins ... going both ways (attacking and defending). We are not taking advantage of our own throw ins - we are too slow and not using the tactic of surprise. When the other team has a throw in we are standing around and not picking up checks
• Penalty kicks close to the goal. We have had a few of these and not yet capitalized on them (i.e. using the wall, using the far post, etc.)
• Goal kicks --> we are leaving a huge hole in the middle at both ends

Lastly, the biggest thing about the day .... It was Mafaldas's 35th birthday (again) and we forgot to wish her a happy birthday!!