I had a deal with the girls; if we win well, we don’t have to practice early morning on Saturday and it seems they took it very seriously. I started with Bella; Inês and Katy defending; Suh-Young, Louise and Marta midfield and Phoebe as a striker.
We started slow, giving even some space for their team to attack. Our first moment of pressure was with Marta at 5 minutes into from the right she tried to cross and the goalie threw for corner kick. Louise tried a corner kick and violà! Suh-Young scored the first goal of the season anticipating the goalie and just tapping inside.
With already Kyra and Hailey in the team, we started keeping the possession in BISS’s half of the pitch. In a counter-attack, these two pushed forward with Hailey, who shot one ball at the bar and Kyra got the rebound and scored the second goal. I have to confess that I was really happy to see Kyra playing and even scoring a goal after all the problems she had throughout this season. But wait, there is more to come…
At the 12th minute, Marta decided to show why she is MartaMessi. A beautiful “1-2” with Hailey, one passing to each other, Marta dribbled two and shot with no mercy a powerful ball. No chance for the goalie. SCIS 3 goals.
Around 20 minutes, Kyra asked to be subbed, she was not feeling well. This worried me a lot. I asked her to rest and see how she feels. During that time Sinead was already in the pitch playing on the right wing. I moved Hailey to the left and tested Marta as striker. Suh-Young, who just got into on Sinead’s place, pushed forward and shot on the lower right corner and scored her second goal. 4×0 at 27 minutes.
At 28 minutes, the first ball from BISS towards our goal and Bella easily deflected. Bella must thank a lot Katy, Greta and Inês. They made her life much easier but whenever we need, our Swedish Wall was there to protect us. At 31st minute, our Captain rested a bit, and I pulled Marta to midfield and placed Kyra as striker. In less than 2 minutes, Kyra had already shot twice at the goalie.
On the 32nd minute, I got scared. Their best player, the number 31 dribbled Inês, passed by Katy and shot at our goal but Bella was already there, so it was out. For a second I thought it was in.
I asked my players to keep the same pressure during the second half. I moved Inês to the middle and greta got in defending on the left and seems that my change worked fine. We had a free kick in front of the box and our own Cristiano Ronaldo (Inês) shot it perfectly over the wall but the goalie did not have a chance to hold it. This was with one minute and a half of the second half. Keep the score, 5 x 0.
Then it was one side match. For more than 10 minutes the ball did not cross to our half. Until after so much pressure, Kyra had a side throw, she threw it towards their goal and a defender scored an own goal.
At the 16th minute the moment of most tension in our team. Marta asks to be subbed, she was feeling like a pulled muscle after a sprint. Seems that it was just cramps but since we had a good difference, Phoebe got into her position and took care of the right side.
On the 22nd minute of the match, Kyra, playing left wing, gave a marvellous assist to Hailey, who trapped well the ball and scored her goal in the match. It was the 7th goal.
To close this wonderful first match of the season, Kyra got the ball from a BISS goal kick, had all the calmness in the world to trap it and shot it on the lower right corner. 8 x 0.
It was amazing playing with such a crowd supporting us. I never saw that many people here cheering for us and I am sure the girls are extremely happy with the support. Now Marta will go to England for college interviews (good luck, Marta!) so she is out from our match at Suzhou.
It’s a great start and I still keep the tradition of never losing my first match of the season. We have a lot of space to improve and I am sure those girls will give their best in this season.
Goals: Suh-Young (2), Kyra (2), Hailey, Marta, Inês
Assists: Louise, Hailey, Marta, Kyra
MVP of the match: Kyra