What a beautiful day to play football. Sunny but not hot, pollution levels at “only” 180. Unfortunately the day started upsetting with the forfeit from Suzhou. It means we will not play against them this Thursday and we won the match by 3 x 0. It’s not the score or the winning. It’s the fact we did all the planning for the season and specially this week. On other hand, it’s good to have one less match in a week where we supposed to have three but we lost exactly a match that would be at home and where we were planning on giving Mikayla some playtime before Friday’s match, when she will be subbing for Bella, away for the ACAMIS swim.
Anyway, I was really anxious for the match today. We never saw French school playing before since it’s their first time in the league. Also, they only lost to the top teams (YCIS and German school) so I tried to think as much as possible on how we could approach better to this match. First of all, I wanted to fix the goal nets so it would bug less Bella by tying the base of it, keeping the back of the net away from her. Mrs Ni was kind enough to help us out with the jackets and they look AWESOME with our names on the back and front.
So, the match itself. They do have a nice team. I kept thinking it resembles actually our team in 2011. It’s a good team that needs more time playing together and enjoying the game. They did not bring any subs, or better saying, brought one but since one of their players got injured in the beginning of the match I guess, they did not have any substitution available.
We started with Bella, Katy, Inês, Louise, Phoebe, Suh-Young and Marta pressuring them since the beginning and as a matter of a fact, we pressured so much that Bella touched the ball first time at 11 minutes, and it was for a goal kick. By that time we already had more than 8 shots at goal and more than 3 corner kicks. As a matter of a fact, we had in the match 14 corner kicks, an insane number in a match like this. Well, it seemed that we needed Bella’s special touch to score our goal. After Bella goal kick we got a side throw, Inês with all her might threw it into the French box, a defender badly deflected and guess where the ball fell? Marta’s right foot and you all know, Marta’s right foot is lethal. And Sorry Inês, side throw does not count as a assist because the defender deflected it. 🙂
We kept pressuring and at the 14th minute Marta outran their defender and simply lift the ball over her to get on the other side. It’s important to say that the French defender was really tall. Beautiful play.
We kept the pressure even subbing players. As a matter of a fact, it was great to see Phoebe playing after getting injured last Friday but she felt some pain on her ankle so I quickly subbed her by Hailey and Suh-Young by Sinead. Every match I can see Sinead getting the grip of being a Varsity player. She is improving little by little. She is fast and she knows the game. She needs to improve her trapping and positioning. As soon as she get it, will be amazing to combine her speed, dedication and tactical behaviour. As a matter of a fact, the team was so solid in the midfield that Bella touched the ball for the second time only at the 24th minute and that was from a goal kick from the French goalie bounced of the field, not even a close risk. And like before, after Bella touches the ball, we score a goal. One thing that I like in Marta as a player is her will. She may not be the best defender we have but when she is upfront, she never gives up. A French defender fumbled so Marta pressured her, stole the ball and shot with no chance for the French goalie. 2 x 0. With this score, I pushed Inês to midfield and Greta felt for the first time (since against YCIS she was out most of the match due to an injury) the pressure of a good team attacking. I was very happy with her defensive behaviour and her unique acrobatic moves. She just need to work a bit better on her timing, sometimes she goes too fast towards the ball. At least against French school it did not compromised at all and actually gave a good security and worked fine with Katy, our lion there holding the French invasion.
Second half, a special moment. At the 13th minute, our Gentle Giant came into the game for the first time. After got injured during the Basketball season, it was the first time Maddi would play in an official match. She did beautifully! Solid defender, well positioned and with a great pass. We have now four super defenders; Katy, Inês, Greta and Maddi. And seems Maddi brought good luck to our team. She deflected a ball that Marta saved almost at the French corner kick area, passed back to Louise that shot a bouncing ball towards the goal. Suh-Young was standing in front of the goalie and kind of distracted her, making it harder to her to defend the shot. SCIS 3 x 0.
After this goal, it was a SCIS blitzkrieg; we shot more than 10 balls towards the French goal. Inês shot two beautiful high shots that their goalie defended. We kept this insane rhythm but the ball was not going in and that, believe it or not, started to stress our own team. I love this competitive spirt we have but I could clearly see in the face of my key players a bit of the frustration of not being able to score. Girls, we are good, we are one of the best teams in the league but you also have to enjoy the game. We made some mistakes but we were pure pressure the whole game.
At the last minute, in our 14th corner, Louise found Hailey in the box and Hail Gribble scored the Navel Thrust goal. Incredible.
I do not get tired of saying how solid this team is. Keep in mind that Kyra and Franziska are out so we will get even better. It’s very hard to pick a MVP this match since we played so well. In the case of today’s match, Marta scored two goals, performed some amazing dribbles and drove the French defenders crazy.
Goals: Marta (2), Louise, Hailey
Assists: Marta, Louise
MVP of the match: Marta