EKL vs. BVN

Game 9: 20 April vs. Blue Valley North at Home (2-1)

Wow.  We played pretty well in the first half of the match. North may have gotten a shot off, did not earn a corner.  We got a couple of goals cashed, maybe should have cashed another one, but still pretty sharp, holding most of the possession.

Well, all of that got us was a different BV North approach in the second half. They went high pressure and direct, with an extra midfielder. For us, we needed to go through it as no one has approached the match that way in a long, long time.

And the Mustangs were successful.  They did earn corners, they did get shots off—hey, they even scored on a corner, or rather we scored for them on a corner.

What can we take away from the match? We need to settle down, find feet, receive a ball and turn away from pressure—pretty basic stuff, but not in real time. We miscleared balls, creating more balls immediately back on us. We turned into pressure, immediately losing the ball. So all those little things we knew to do, we did not do.  So settle down and just play.

So hopefully, the second half becomes one of the most important halves of the season for us.

BWhite named Caroline Romme that BWhite Player of the Match, but he gave two huge shoutouts: one to Nicole McEnroe in goal. (Wow, how about the parry over the goal?) And another to freshman Kate Goza.  Learning from her work in the Divine Savior match, we inserted her at the top of the diamond—that changed things.  We started winning the ball; from that 20-minute mark in the second half, we took the game back over. (Of course, they did create a 1 v 1 with the keeper with a minute or so to go; we won't count that one.)

STATS:

Saints: Shots: 4 (2) Corners: 2

22:50 Kimball (Marge pushes it forward into a miss-clear that goes square)

19:36 Mallory (Mustangs can't clear it)

Mustangs: Shots: 1 (0) Corners: 0

Second Half:

Shots: 2 (0) Corners: 1

Mustangs: Shots: 10 (4) Corners: 4

31:04 Own Goal (Corners bends in and hits off as few as 1 and as many as 3 of our defender to go in)