Saturday, September 25, 2010

Goooooooaaaallllllls


We set a goal for this game to score 1 goal every 15 minutes. Accomplishing that goal in the 1st half was critical. In the first 90 seconds, Jamie Loftis stole a ball in the midfield, caught the goalkeeper off her line, but Lofty's shot hit the crossbar and bounced out. Over the next 40 minutes, J-Tro had 2 breakaways saved by the keeper. Bailey was taken out in the penalty area, but no foul was called. I am sure most players and coaches were thinking, "Here we go again." We did not execute free kicks or corner kicks well enough to get a goal. With 4 minutes left in the half, I had 6 substitutes on the field. I told everyone on the bench to fill up water bottles, because we were going to the locker room for halftime. While the girls were lined up at the water jugs, we got a throw in.

We just changed our long throw in play that morning before the game and practiced it with a few people but not everyone. Erica took the throw in, Dani made her run, Lydia received the throw and got it to Dani in the middle of her run, and Dani put it in the near post with a good left footed shot in the 43rd minute.

While we were celebrating on the sideline and breathing a sigh of relief, I wondered how many of the players actually saw the goal. I told them to stop watching the game and go back to the water. Maybe it was good luck. We were up 1-0 at halftime. It was a Big 5 goal, it was a goal off of a restart, and it was an important goal. In the 2nd half, we scored another set play goal and another Big 5 goal. We scored 5 goals on the night with 5 different goal scorers.

Since the burn, we have declared an 8 game season. So we are 1-0 with 7 games remaining. Hopefully, this will be the game that changes our season. Like Andy said after the game, "Good things happen when you burn stuff."

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