2001 Girl Knights 2013

Our goals for the game continue to be passing and support. The first 20 minutes of the game were outstanding – we had about 10 SOG and almost 100% possession. Then our defending (I don’t mean necessarily the Full-backs, but our defending as a team) lacked and Woodbridge scored. I could sense the disbelief and players panicked. It was a brawl until the end of the half – passing and support were an after-thought. We started the second half strongly and more composed. Deja vu. Woodbridge scores again and we panic and forget our game. We got progressively more composed. Our Support was very weak, both on attack and defense. Good news is our players really worked hard to try to get it back and Sara had some excellent saves and was decisive coming out of her box when was needed.

Injuries, vacations, Yonge Street construction traffic and Justin Bieber could not stop the Knights on Thursday evening from having their best half of soccer yet. Our focus on games continues to be passing and support. The 13 players on the roster this evening delivered. Before the game I told them they could beat anyone if they passed and supported as I know they can. They didn’t disappoint, specially in the first half. The second half we saw the courage and determination these players have and good defense and saves helped Sara get the shutout she deserved. Fun 3 goals to watch – one of them I really would like to have on tape as it should have been in the sports section of the evening news.

In true Knight fashion we played with 10 players as UMSC only had 10 on their roster. Our focus was on passing and support. The players were enthusiastic and didn’t let the heat interfere. We passed well and also exercised good support on both attack (triangles/passing options) and defense. Also played well wide. It was good to see a Pavlich (4-trick). We took the opportunity of the score advantage to play players in different positions.

Tough loss against EG. Many of our players lacked focus, particularly in the first half. There were some good moments, but we were mostly disorganized particularly in the defensive zone. Our good passing was not there. I did not like listening to criticism from some players to other players – that’s my job, they should only support their teammates all the time – we will have a talk and correct that. We did end the game well – better passing and hunger for the ball, so hopefully we build on that as we get ready for our next game.

Aggressive play by our midfield helped us neutralize Newmarket’s aggressive midfielders (we pushed back) when defending and also helped us stay wide on the attack. Our Center Mids took advantage of the attention our Wide Mids were getting by Newmarket defenders and they moved the ball well up the middle. Outstanding defending by our Full-backs helped us stay most of the game on the Newmarket side of the field and attack more confidently – we stopped every counter-attack.