Monday, September 26, 2011

Valiant Effort Not Enough, 1-2

Well, the Green Ons did look out. I am pretty sure that they put larger posts on the goal and may have even made the goal a little smaller. Funny thing was, they switched the goals at half time to keep the advantage. Think about it, did any of you watch the goals during half time to see if they were switched. But enough with the imaginary excuses...

As we all warmed up before the game, we all seemed ready to go until we had to field a team and realized that we only had 2 subs at game start. No one panicked though and we started playing our style of soccer. And that is what impresses me most about our team, our style. We can play the short game, we can play the long game, we have a lot of weapons and options at our disposal during the game. This created a lot of opportunities that we just could not finish at the start of the game. While the defense was holding them to very non-threatening opportunities, our offense could not finish the threatening opportunities. It was one of those days.

Finally, as we broke through. I think Matt G. got the goal, but honestly, I don't remember because I think 4 people shot the ball before it went in. Their defense seemed to create a lot of congestion that we could not break through easily. Not many of our shots were clean.

I will speak for myself saying that I was relieved when we got that goal. However, the old adage held true, the most likely time to get scored on is within the next 5 minutes after you score. Unfortunately it was twice. The first time had one of their players streaking down the left side of the field. I played the passing lane and lost sight of my mark in the middle. The Green On laced a pass between Chris, myself and the posts, about 3 feet from the goal line, and it found my mark at the back post. Admittedly, I let it go though for fear of an own goal, but I guess if it's going to go in either way, I should have taken a shot at it. The second goal was shortly thereafter. A well placed cross from right to left found the head of their tall striker which he convincingly placed in the left side.

We played very well. In the end, we only had 3 subs and I think that was our downfall. There were some great late saves on their break aways by Jonathan, Chris, Mike, Jeff, & Skip. But if someone is going to take us for that many all out sprints down the field, we need to have 3 defensive subs alone. I know I am still tired today. I think if we had better attendance, we would have had them. Make sure you get with Sean about extra subs and check in early so he has the time to get the whole team together. Be a responsible team player.

Speaking of which, thanks Chris S for playing goalie the entire game.