BrookfieldSoccer

      Date               Time               Place

      May 24th         10:00am           USA
      May 25th         2:00pm             USA
      May 26th         10:00am           USA

      Date               Time               Place

    June 6th            TBA                 Voigt
     June 7th           TBA                 Voigt
     June 8th           TBA                 Voigt

Hi Again

As promised, the tale of two halves continued versus the Lakers in our second league game of the year played yesterday under cold, windy, and rainy conditions again. But, we are used to that now.

The field was one of the narrowest I have seen, the penalty area and the touch line were bout a yard or two apart. Boy, did they take advantage of that fact with their route one right down the middle smash and grab run like crazy long ball approach. They really jumped off strong and fast off the opening whistle and we easily could have been down 3 nil inside the first 5 minutes, but as luck would have it, we were only down the 1 goal in 5 minutes. It was all hands to a panic stricken deck much of the time in the first half, where it took everything we had to keep from going under big time. We had some semblance of foray into their end, but never really got off much of a challenge to their keeper. It looked quite bewildered out there and took a long time for us to find our footing. At least, finishing the half only a goal down, was pretty good blessing.

During the second half, we regained control of ourselves, our game, and the game overall through the first 20 minutes, where they spent a considerable amount of time defending our advances, which were much better constructed. We drew level after 9 minutes on a Mason knockdown of a cross for Stevie/Erik to finish, which Stevie ended up claiming as his own. Mason had another chance go begging from the left side, but with his less favored foot the keeper was able to save it. A few other chances went begging wide of goal. Just as I was thinking, okay, we got things in hand and should be able to get ahead, 2 consecutive foot race breakaways occurred, one in the 21st and the other 2 minutes later (this one kissing the post and going in) put us 1:3. Nevertheless, I thought the team rallied together once again to put forth more challenges to our opponents, which were on the back leg for the balance of the game, unfortunately our efforts only yielded a PK in the 30th minute and the final score turned out to be a loss of 2:3.

We were caught in possession far too many times and were not quickly decisive of our passing. We were also hindered by poor off the ball effort in the first half, which got better in the second. The final third, in both halves, needed one additional touch or give and go combo to break us past their defense or to get proper shots off, but at times our desperation led to ill advised solo efforts which ended up agonizingly short of the mark. Again, there was semblance of improvement in second half, but just a bit more vision off the ball and we could have done better on the scoreboard.

I think we will do better in our rematch upcoming Wednesday night under the lights at home at 7:30, because we should do better combining on the bigger field, but we should also be able to use some of our pace over the top with Mason, Aaron, Erik, Stevie and Van doing some menacing runs of their own. They tend to be larger canvas type players, so childrens hospital field should be able to accommodate. I fear it will be rock em sock em robots sort of affair Wednesday night, where both teams will be looking to punish the other with long balls and pace. We will try to re-arrange our defensive line to better match up and diffuse their pace, while sorting out our midfield to generate the width and direct forward pace better than we did yesterday, too.

Practice tonight will be lighter, I think, in light of the heavy action of the past couple of days and the clash we face on Wednesday at 7:30. We will talk about our two weekend experiences, what we have learned from them, and how we plan to approach Lakers rematch. We will work on quicker touches, fewer touches, and improved off the ball movement for some of the work tonight. I also hope to work some long ball activities in, as well.

Everyone be at the field by 6:45 on Wednesday night.

See you

PEP.