Boring boring zero zero…actually…forget the boring boring

Photos issued by Patrick K. - uploaded soon!

Player of the match: Ethan the keeper, if it weren’t for him…we would have lost…he’s so good wow!! 😅

OOPS of the game: I knocked over a guy accidently while running with him…I apologized and he was alright but eek…

1st Half

Here’s a game one could be on the edge of one’s seat for! What a game! The middle third was weak on our part only because were outworked in those zones. Other than that, we played a strong game on all sides. Coach Josh has been excellent, playing us in positions we never expect to improve our play depending on how we are playing in the game. He fitted the pieces together and played Ian up top. To Ian’s surprise, he played well in this position and was able to use his defensive skills to keep the ball high on the field. Near our goal, this team (Texoma) was a dangerous team to face. The game was back and forth for quite a while, resulting in the running down of some center-midfielders not only for our team, but also for their’s. Players in the back field were overrun late in the 1st half when an attacker came up the middle and was bold enough to run all the way to the goal. This ended abruptly when I sprinted back and slid into his feet…coming out without a foul! Ian retrieved it and kicked it down the sideline to Jack for some more middle third toil. The half ended soon after, and we jogged in for halftime.

“Y’all need effort and pressure in the middle third. This game depends on it. I will sub you if you need it. Otherwise, work until you can’t. We are playing well, we just need those extra 50 50 balls to be won in the middle third. If we do that, Jack, Landon, or one of the other wingers and midfielders can get up in anticipation of a counter attack.” Those were the words you would have heard from various coaches at halftime. Our attitiude towards this game was positive. 

2nd Half

As anticipated, this team was bound to be nasty. They even spat and called me some colorful words during the second half. This, in fact, did not mirror their playing. They were soft and scared on the ball, but passed quite well. We handled the middle third well until we began running out of fuel, about 10 minutes left in the game. Our passing was better than exceptional; an unexpected delight. It is really the crisp passes that makes the team a better competitor. Slow, decaying passes will never reach the target player. Instead, there is a possibility it will get into the goal...potentially not our own. We had multiple close calls in the bdefensive thirds evantually cleared out by not 2 but three things: Ethan, our keeper, the defense, and in the closest case of all, the crossbar. The game kept going back and forth. One corner kick was barely saved by Ethan. Then he threw it far down the sideline for the 9th counterattack of the game! The game ended 0-0, but fortunately, it was anything but boring.

I think if we had wanted to improve our game even more, we could have had more 1 2's, combinations, etc.
It might have also helped is there hadn't be so many fouls

Thanks for reading this week's game summary! Come back on Thursday for the next game against Solar: