Matchday 1 @ SLSG Navy Postgame

I have to admit, pre-game I didn’t like our prospects. Playing a club that had 3-4x our numbers at tryouts, who had tryouts in February, and who already had a competitive games under their belt didn’t seem to bode well for us. More importantly, the thought of playing against a player who seemed to have had her way against our 08 team last spring didn’t instill loads of confidence in me either.

Started in the 4-3-3 that we’ve been working on.

5 minutes into the game and I thought we’d be extremely competitive with them. 5 minutes after the game I was disappointed we didn’t get 3 points. 

Ms. Phenom and friends (1 or 2 other 09s) were still with their 08 ECNL group. We wouldn’t get a chance to see her firsthand. That was a bit of a bummer. 

But the Navy team was strong. Athletic all over the field, speedy wide players, quick and tidy central players, and fast defenders. They played tough, and didn’t give us any time or space on the ball. 

There was a fairly strong wind that favored one team, and we were against it the first half. On top of this, the girls couldn’t seem to kick the ball. 

And I’m not saying that like you think I’m saying that. I’m saying that literally. They girls seemed like they couldn’t kick the ball. I would find out later that to a man, or to a woman in this case, they all thought the ball was water-logged and heavy. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to believe that the Select soccer balls the girls use for training and the Nike ball they were using in the game were so different. 

I wonder if I somehow messed up with this practice ball purchase this season…

Not sure what could be done. We play with $150 Nike balls for matches. Not going to have the 12-yr-old girls purchase these. I feel bad asking families to spend $45 on the Select training balls we have.

Bright spot of the morning was the surprise tactic of not starting Kenny on the left wing (see Game Day - SLSG Pregame). She came on midway through the first half, and within 10 seconds, this happened.

Best chance of the day by either team. Not entirely sure how the ball stayed out.

Hard fought 0-0 battle to open our season. Girls were nervy for sure, but showed a lot of heart.

Disappointed not to get a result in the end, but we’ll take it. Siena and Izzy playing likely tip the balance in our favor, but we’ll see as we will meet this team again on our final weekend of league competition in the spring.