GIRLS SOCCER 2010 GAME RECAPS!

Vs. Fremont 3/23/10:  This was the result that I had hoped for and I had pictured in my mind, but sometimes things don't always go as planned.  Tonight, nearly everything went as planned.  I knew that it wouldn't be pretty, as we are still a work in progress learning as we go and feeling our way through this.  It wasn't pretty, although at times I felt as if we were really fluid through the middle and into our attacking 3rd of the field.  GREAT ball movement and attacking on the flanks this game, especially in the 1st half.  Great crossing in the 1st half as well.  Actually, although we scored more goals and didn't allow any goals in the 2nd half, I thought our better overall play was in the 1st half.  It's a great start ladies, but bear in mind we have a lot of work still to do.  Having said that, it was nice to shake the cobwebs off a little bit tonight.

Offensive Player of the Game:  2 stand out in my mind, although there were several who did very nice things.  Emily Weber stands out as a player who was the engine that drove the attack tonight.  Her relentless effort got us a spark and she managed a goal and an assist even while being double teamed most of the match.
Tenia Bullock (T-BULL) had a pair of goals in her first varsity match!  First one was sweet.  We had been laying balls in from that left side for most of the 1st half and couldn't connect.  Karli Jo had to have been frustrated, as she was putting in some sweet crosses.  Finally Tenia drove in a beautiful header for our second goal. Her chip of the keeper was pretty nifty as well.  A lot of other girls did some great things, and I want to take nothing away from them.  Keep working hard

Defensive Player of the game:  Again, two names stick out in my mind.  Ellisa Janzen did a great job and played HUGE tonight.  Her relentless defending and ability to set up attack in transition were fantastic.  Shelley Erickson was another player who played very big tonight.  Really want to keep up the defensive effort, but play a lot smoother as a unit.  It'll come. 

Vs. Hastings 3/25

Actually, I was expecting Hastings to be a lot more lethal up front, but like last season, we seemed to be able to handle this game pretty well.  I was particularly pleased with how well we won balls back in transition and were able to attack in space.  I was a little bit frustrated with our ability to develop play from the back to the front, but our actual ability to defend was top notch.  Holding them low in the shot total and at 0 in scoring opportunities was something we can hang our hats on!  Again, we had multiple gators score and another win where we had the game in control for quite some time.  I'm pleased, but I also know we have a lot of work to do.  Keep working, as the competition will get even tougher as we go through the season.  Just keep working, and we'll be fine.  

Offensive player of the game:  Emily Weber.  She is doing all sorts of things for us right now.  Her penalty in the first half was earned, and she nailed the goal.  Inspiring play.  Really, we had a lot of nice play from several people. 

Defensive player of the game:  Rachel Wenzl.  Very steady and very organized play in the back was nice to see.  While we weren't quite polished, I felt that Rachel is stepping up her game, recognizing that we will still need to improve to achieve our goals.  Her ability to organize our back line is getting better all the time.  

AT BURKE INVITE:

Vs. Omaha Bryan
I had looked at scores and tried to estimate what we were up against regarding Bryan.  I told the girls that I knew that they would play hard and that they had a good goalkeeper, so we needed to be prepared.  I think they got the message, as we got off to a great start and continued to roll throughout.  I think that we played particularly well offensively and defensively, as I don't believe that we had any shots allowed and we were very good at finishing most of our scoring opportunities.  It was a great starter game, but I knew that we would have a tough challenge on Friday. 
Offensive Player of the game:  Emily Weber (4 goals, 2 assists.  Great effort!!)
Defensive Player of the Game:  Shelley Erickson (Played very well and extremely efficient at the sweeper position)

vs. Omaha Burke  Well, there isn't much to say about this one after it was done.  I think that we came out and matched them physically at first, and I actually felt the best about the first 20 minutes of this game, but when we allowed one goal with just 4 minutes till half, I felt as if we put our heads down.  Because we pouted a bit, they were able to get another goal late in the first half.  These consecutive goals were back-breakers.  Sometimes I feel as if we allow one and don't respond well to that.  We HAVE to respond better to a team scoring on us, otherwise they'll only get uglier.  Either that, or just don't ever let anybody score:) The second half was more of the same as burke just beat us physically.  They had one target striker who served to our forwards as an example of what type of work rate you need to finish goalscoring opportunities.  We simply didn't get much going in this game.  

Offensive player of the game:  ??  Hard to say, as I saw very little threatening attacks.
Defensive player of the game:  I'd have to say that Rachel Wenzl played the most steady back there, but still it was too much pressure to put on our back 4 to play a great match.

vs. CB Lewis Central  WOW!  This will go down as a game that I will never forget coaching.  It was a thriller!  I am very proud of our team for competing so hard with only 13 players available at the end of the match and with this being our 3rd game in 3 days, our fatigue could have been enough to do us in (it almost was), but we finished what we started, and that is so critical to us as a team.  It was nice to see Ellisa back out on the field, and she didn't disappoint, as she punched in the game winning penalty kick in the shootout.  About that shootout.......ladies, we practice these regularly in practice so that we are SHARP when the time comes.  We were not sharp today.  Thankfully they were even worse, and we had a better goalkeeper.  We almost let one slip away, and that would have been unfortunate because we were the better team.  Speaking of toughness, KJ to Justine with 20 seconds left!!!!!!!?????  How awesome was that.  That threw the momentum back on our side.  It took guts, but we brought home the runner-up trophy.  It's not what we wanted, but it is about as good as it could be if we weren't going to beat Burke.  Big week this week.  Hopefully we're all healthy for EAST.  Need to keep rolling.
Offensive Player of the game:  Karli Jo Hitz and Justine Boucher.  No question, they were the reason that we were able to win today.  Great effort and desire from both of them. 
Defensive player of the game:  I'm going to go with Aly on this one.  She was the most vocal, made no mistakes, and helped us through the shootout.  Her steady play is going to be something we rely on in the final stretch of the season.

Vs. Columbus 3/30/10
I am writing this very quickly as I get past this game and ready for Northeast.  Recaps are always nice, but the pace of the season requires that we focus not on the past, but on the future.  It is always nice to learn from your setbacks.  I have mixed emotions about this game.  While I feel as if we truly did play hard, I don't think that was the case for the first 15 minutes of the match, and because of that we paid the price.  We needed to start much quicker than we did in this match, and we did not.  Against a physical and athletic team like Columbus, we needed to match that intensity early.  I think that we can do this, and if I can take some positives, it is that we fought really hard to even that match out, and even after the quick score in the overtime period (a great goal by Columbus) we fought extrememly hard to give ourselves several chances to even it out again, but did not capitalize on those opportunities.  It is something to build off of and make us stronger in the long run.  No time to look back.  Northeast tomorrow. 
Offensive Player of the game:  I'd have to give this to a couple of players.  I thought Morgan Ihde worked very hard for several opportunities, and of course Emily played very hard, but I really felt that we had set up some great attack with Janay working her tail off up front.  Tenia nailed another goal, so I guess I'd have to mention those four in particular.  No one in front of the other. 

Defensive Player of the game:  I am going to go with Aly on this one.  She had a several nice saves on a night where we were a little bit out of sync for the opening period. 

4/1/10:

vs. NORTHEAST.  Even 4 days after the match, it still feels like the worst April Fools joke somebody could have played on us.  When you're barely into the match and your starting goalkeeper gets ejected for something that still baffles me (I don't have enough space to write why there was no merit in the card and why it was the wrong call), you would think you would be in for a long night.  I still blame myself a lot for this loss, because if I would have been able to adjust immediately to the card and gotten us settled right away, we wouldn't have gotten scored on.  Hats off to Northeast for capitalizing at the perfect time, but I'd love to do this one over as a coach.  Once we got settled, and Aly made me realize that Ellisa would be more valuable on the field than in goal, we started to play perfectly.  Even at halftime, I sensed no panic, doubt, or worry about what we could do in the 2nd half with 10 players.  I was very proud of our efforts throughout the match and especially in the 2nd half.  We executed our plan perfectly with 10, but didn't managed to get the equalizer.  Again, if I had to do this over, I would have pushed one more into the attacking 3rd and tried to hold our own with 2 in the back.  If there are any regrets in this match, it is the things that I didn't do as a coach, but definitely not the things that you all did as players.  I have heard nothing but compliments about your play in that match, and most folks said that they would have never guessed that we were playing a player down for almost the entire match.  In the end, it's a loss, and we want more than that as a team.  However, I think this past week has developed the character of our team even amidst two heartbreaking losses.  We need a strong week this week.  I believe we can get solid play from everyone.  The time is now.  Northeast is in the past.

vs. Southwest (4/8-HAC Tournament)

I thought it was a good match, at times.  We had a couple little breakdowns and that cost us.  I would have liked to see more pressure up front and more attack from the flanks, but what we are starting to see is that we are not trusting one another all the time to do our jobs.  That is tough, because we weren't always like that.  I think our efforts to score are still there at times, but we are losing our ability to distribute friendly balls to our midfielders and forwards, and they are losing connection with one another.  We worked on patterns earlier this week, and I'd like to see those take hold.  We were stung on a couple of backdoor runs and were stung again by a ball from distance.  It was a tough match, and we were out possessed, but I anticipated that.  I think we performed nicely in the first half, which was good to see, but let up a little bit in the 2nd half.  It's tough, but I like that we have already seen them once, so we'll get another chance to see them again.  We'll regroup, and get healthy this week.  We've got another one tomorrow.  Time to get back into the win column ladies!

vs. Lincoln High (Round 2 of HAC Tournament)
Well, it is really difficult to tell how well we did on a night like tonight.  We did some experimentation and got some players in position to get a goal who normally won't be in that position.  Our next go around with Lincoln High will probably have to be done with some specific targeted goals and objectives in mind because we want to make sure we prepare for the 2nd half of our season.  Technically, we will be halfway through our regular season game schedule after Friday night, so we want to make sure we are doing the things now that will prepare us for the challenges ahead.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME:  Emily Weber (2 goals and 3 assists.)
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE GAME:  Aly Wurster (Not very often a keeper gets the opportunity to get a goal, so we'll give her this since she actually nailed her PK in order to get her on the board for scoring!)