A Tale of Two Games

It was the worst of games, it was the best of games...

What a great weekend of soccer. Our first game of the season was a tough, tough game. The Ajax are a well coached team, and they were probably the worst team (worst in the sense of the toughest team) we could face for our first game with so many new players. We were also missing two players and one, Garrett, is the anchor of our defense. The score pretty much says it all. We were able to put together three or four pointed and sustained attacks. But their defense was very tough and was able to disrupt our passing lanes. We had three bonafide shots on goal, and one almost went in. In all, I was pleased with the way we wanted to play. But we could not pull it together against probably the best team in our division.

Today's game was as if we had a completely new team. This team was making strong passes, defending and holding possession the middle third, and running down and disrupting our opponents attack. By the first 15 minutes, we had scored twice, each time on beautiful centering passes that Charlie one or two touched into goal. At the end of the half, we put together a lovely through pass that Alan-Henry picked up and easily put passed the goalie. At the start of the second half, the Blue Jays put together a very nice counter attack that caught our defense off guard (the only time really), and they blew it past our goalie who had no chance of stopping it. But after that, we sank into a lock down defense. Their only real attacks were called back for clear offsides (after some cajoling from the sidelines).

The Blue Jays are a good team, and we match up well with them. We've beaten them before and we've lost to them before. The difference on Sunday was an awesome team effort. Everyone played as a team. 3 players had scored with assists from 3 other players. Charlie had two goals, Richie had two assists. Garrett, Jared, and the Bens held a strong defensive line, keeping the Jays outside of center most of the game. A really great effort on Sunday. I'm pleased that we came out of the first weekend with 3 points. I think we'll be ready for our next weekend double header.

Coach Steve