Chrowdsourcing: On the Horns of a Coaching Dilemma

To try to win or not to try all that hard to win, that is the question. And it's a vexing one.

With a come-from-behind 2-1 win last night (the game-winner is posted below for your viewing pleasure - in both of our meetings against these guys, we've scored in the final three minutes to break their hearts) your Huskies clinched no worse than second place in the Dulles District and guaranteed at least one home playoff game. We have one more District game, against the team that's ahead of us in the standings, and which thumped us, 6-1, in our first meeting. 

That first contest was marked by a number of unsporting acts on the part of our opponent. In addition to near-constant chirping of the official by players (despite being warned about dissent during the coin toss), they celebrated a penalty kick goal (their fifth of the long-decided match) by doing the worm on the penalty spot. Their coach added insult to injury by leaving his starters in the match until five minutes remained. 

I would very much like to beat this team.

Here's where it gets weird. If we do beat them, it'll leave us in a flat-footed tie for the District title, with both teams on 6-1-1 records. The winner of the District regular season title automatically qualifies for the Regional tournament. If the winner of the regular season title makes the District tournament final, the other finalist also qualifies for Regionals.

In the event there's a tie for the District title, the tiebreaker is a playoff game. So if we beat the current first place team at their place, we'd be rewarded by having to play them again to earn the title. If we lose either game, we'd need to win a single home game to reach the Regional tournament - that game will likely be against the team we beat last night - we've beaten and tied them this season, though both games were taut affairs, and we had to come from behind in each to get a result.

Your Fightin' Huskies

To add some context, I think our opponent is slightly better than us. They've scored 27 and conceded seven in their six District games to date. We've scored 11 and conceded eight in seven games (only two in the six games against other schools). The 6-1 score was an anomaly, in my professional opinion, but beating them twice in a few days is a heavy lift.

So here's the question: do I push hard to try to win to set up a playoff for the regular season title, or do I let the chips fall where they may and conserve energy and focus the kids on the District tournament semifinal as our path to Regionals? 

What Would Emma Hayes Do?