By popular demand (and common sense), we're changing the names of the characters for better readability. For reference, R is now Dutch (her real name is that of a former President's last name), E is Ellie, B is Breezy, A is Ash, K is Kenny, J is Jennie, and O is Ollie.)
“Little girls are mysterious. And silly and powerful. I gave up trying to figure them out years ago.” - Ted Lasso
When we left our squad in the prologue, we'd reached a tentative peace after a bit of intrasquad drama. And goodness gracious if these kids have been anything but supportive of one another. On their own, they:
- organized big/little sister pairings
- designed, collected money for, and had printed custom tie-dyed team t-shirts (Mac, another of our senior captains, spearheaded that effort)
- sorted out a clusterfuck of uniform distribution; trying to outfit 27 kids with uniforms enough for 22 is a test of coaching mettle and patience
Jorge Campos, also a short, quirky keeper |
Lindsey Horan, also a tall, smooth attacking midfielder |
And then, all of sudden, Kenny got to a ball, and found Kenz, a slight freshman winger, who beat her defender with a nifty feint and delivered a sweet return pass that Kenny ripped...just wide of the keeper. We kept the pressure on, pinning the opposition back for a good five minutes, and our nerves abated.
Midway through the first half, Ellie made a spectacular save on a drive from 10 yards out, tipping the ball over the net. On the ensuing corner, our defenders left two opponents unmarked, and one of them toe-poked a ball into the net. 1-0, bad guys.
Just a few short minutes later, Breezy got turned around our opponents' striker - an exceptional player - who lashed a ball into the top of the goal to put us down 2-0 at the break.
We switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1 after halftime because our midfield was allowing too much space to our opponent, and we controlled the ball for much of the first portion of the last frame. Kenny stripped the ball in midfield, took one touch, and sprung Kenz, who took a sublime first touch and struck a low hard shot to the far post. The keeper got a hand to it, but deflected it directly into the path of Jennie, a diminutive and speedy winger. Jennie slotted it home, and we were within a goal.
Not three minutes later, the referee spotted a foul that I'm still looking for, and awarded a free kick about 30 yards out on the right wing. The kick found its way to the back post and none of our defenders attacked it, giving the other team an easy goal to make it 3-1. Five minutes later, their stud striker turned another defender and rifled a ball to the top corner of the net, and it was 4-1.
That's probably a fair result, all things considered. We emptied the bench in the final five minutes, and got all but 1 active player into the game. Our friend's niece got her first high school playing time, and acquitted herself well, sticking in on a tackle and making a nice pass.
I remain impressed with how much the kids support one another. Ab, our third senior captain, didn't start and didn't play very much, but she sat with a bunch of underclassmen and talked to them on the bench throughout the game. Several kids were pissed about losing, but none of them took it out on each other. We'll get another shot at this opponent next week. We've got some work to do, but I think it'll be a fun journey.
10 comments:
Wife and I are six episodes into Lasso. We love it.
Good luck, Rob. Ya fuckin’ wanker.
Enjoying the drama, but I think it would help my confusion if these players had names that weren't letters. Even if it were Artichoke instead of A or Equinox instead of E. So far Mac and Roo are the only ones I can recall.
that’s a fair request. i’ll edit this post with new names.
Nice!!
I’m looking forward to the local scandal when one of the kids finds this site and let’s everyone know that coach thinks the backup keeper is socially awkward and that one of the senior defenders is pretty.
objective facts, marls
nice rob! so this was a varsity game-- you guys combined teams and have all 27 playing on one squad, right? that's a logistical mess in itself. i hate uniform day as it is but that must have been a nightmare.
two years ago we had some success with a 3-5-2. it's interesting formation-- you need two very fit outside backs who simply track the ball and contain-- you try to force the other team to pass to the middle, where you have numbers and can intercept and move forward quickly. if the wingers get beat there are huge channels to defend and it gets dicey, but it might be fun to try instead of a 4-5-1, which creates loads of possession but not many goals.
Updating the nomenclature upon request is pretty spectacular service.
the shed is shingled!
https://sentenceofdave.blogspot.com/2021/04/this-new-shed.html
nice, dave. i'm trying to talk the coach into a 4-2-3-1 to give us some defensive stability. our wingers and #10 are good enough to create offense via the counterattack, and we've got a couple of kids who would be strong holding mids. we have a game friday against a team that isn't historically strong, so hoping for a better result.
learned today that the other team's striker is headed to play at towson on scholarship, so she's a d-1 caliber player. i can buy that. we're gonna need a bigger boat when we play them again next week.
Post a Comment