Peninsula Steals A Win From Gorge 4-3 in a End-to-End battle
A cool day and sunny day for soccer at Peninsula's Rotary Park. We were playing the third and last of the Peninsula teams; and our last game before the Christmas break.
The game started out fairly good for the Gorge side as we were taking most of the play (60/40). We maintained our standard 2-3-2 formation with Paige holding the net for the game. We have been depending on her for full games when the teams are tougher or the games closer. Jennifer was not at the game today and we definitely miss her presence in midfield.
The game basically went something like this ....
- As said above, the play was fairly even with both side making some attacks into each others ends
- Peninsula got two quick goals in the middle of the first half on some sloppy defence by the Gorge side. We allowed their best player, with a good hard shot, to have some clear shots on net
- Gorge still pressed but we could not get close enough to take any quality shots - although Jaymie was getting some penetration and her left footed shot is coming along great
- Peninsula had a quite a few quality shots ... but Paige was usually quick to answer them - especially on one hard shot that Paige snagged out of the air
- At half-time Coach Mafalda suggested that we just weren't getting enough passing and ball movement up front and suggested switching things around ... putting some of our stronger passers up front and stronger players on the midfield sides because Peninsula was using the width of the field effectively. We also tried some of usual midfielders at defensive positions (good job Kaitlin and Kaitlyn picking up on this)
- At the start of the second half we came out firing on all cylinders
- Erin, Cara, Alanna, Kaitlin, Kaitlyn and Jaymie started moving the ball around
- Erin played up forward and moved Cara to midfield --> this seemed to work great with Cara feeding Erin and Erin running down the side and crossing the ball effectively into the Peninsula goal centre. Similarly Jaymie's runs down the left side were starting to break down Peninsula's defense
- We were rewarded almost immediately with a goal from an Erin corner kick going to Jaymie who put the ball in the back of the net
- Immediately after that we again attacked and Erin got a beautiful feed from either Alanna or Paige and Erin, running at full speed, put a Ronaldinho-like move on the last defender giving her a clear shot on net - which she capitalized on. Paige's clearing kicks from net to our forwards were stymying the Peninsula side
- Peninsula was not dis-heartened and took advantage of our aggressive attacking in the second half and put another goal past Paige
- Again we countered with some more attacks on their net and again, on a corner kick, Erin placed the ball to a well placed Jaymie and in a very crowded goal area she cooly put away another goal
- We continued pressing and Peninsula continued to counter the bigger than usual midfield holes left by our goal-hungry girls --> this allowed Peninsula to put more goal past us (a very weak one)
- We continued to attack but ran out of time.
GREAT GAME GIRLS ... THE FANS WENT HOME SATISFIED
Some additional highlights of the game ...
- Indy played a very strong game today up front ... she was all over their players applying pressure and causing them to kick the ball away. definitely, her best game this season.
- Our girls are starting to follow the ball to the goal (Lauren almost got a goal on a rebound)
- The toughness of Alanna ... she was tossed around by some of the larger girls but always came back fighting. One particularly hard fall, had Coach Brad worrying that she dislocated/broke her collarbone.
- Kaitlin and Kaitlyn --> these girls love to run!
- Heather was tough on defense and her positioning is improving (i.e. awareness of where to play)
- Paige ... what can we say? I think the other coach said it best, when he said to me after the game "You've got a great goal keeper there!"
Some things to work on in the future ...
- Goal kicks from our end and our positioning on these (we are giving the ball to the other team a lot)
- Set throw in plays (the players on the field are not moving enough, we will try organizing some set plays and signals, etc.)
- And as always .... passing, passing, passing. Good passing will out do indiviual dribbling almost every time.
