We played this team 6 short weeks ago in the Midland Invitational tournament, with the result being a 1-1 tie. This is a solid team that has always been on par with us in all of our competitions.
As this new contest opened up, we spent the first five minutes settling down and giving NMSC a number of chances on goal. We made some early adjustments to move players around and account for missing players. After these tense moments passed and we settled into a possession game once more...things changed.
The next 75 minutes belonged to us, spanning the remainder of the first half and the entire second half. NMSC played hard throughout the contest and displayed a high level of skill...but they could not match our possession and finishing ability. Huff and Rozin continued to build on their central midfield play and setup some great possession and scoring opportunities. For the contest, we had 12 shots on goal...with 4 of them in the back of the net. We also had 4 corner kicks...the last one almost put in by Lisa Zaffina who struck the goalpost with her header attempt.
About 10 minutes into the contest, Shelby Watts broke the scoring deadlock by firing a shot on goal unassisted that had some wicked topspin on it. The goalkeeper actually got to the ball, but the topspin on the ball caused it to walk right up her body and into the goal. Not especially pretty, but it counted all the same.
Hannah Rhoades set up the second goal of the contest by utilizing her ball skills and beating first one, and then a second, defender on the ground. A nicely passed central ball put it at the foot of Shelby Watts right up the middle. A second later we were up 2-0 courtesy of Shelby's finish.
We went to the half 2-0. We had already seen dangerous midfield shots from Hannah Huff, Hannah Rhoades, and Emily Loza. Erin Castillo and Jessica Cook worked well on the field to maintain possession and challenge NMSC players. The strikers were working hard with Shelby's runs and goals, and also Meggy McConkey beating players up top to set up some good scoring opportunities. Kara Birrell excelled at offensive possession, keeping the ball on the field and setting up a number of central pass/run combinations with her teammates.
In the second half, Meggy McConkey turned up the heat on NMSC and worked herself deep into the attacking third several times. One of these runs with the ball put her on the far side of the net, where she turned and fired a great cross clear across the goal mouth...right to a waiting Shelby Watts who finished it for her third goal. Our final goal was setup by a series of passes deep in the NMSC attacking third, ending with a back support pass from Shelby to a running Emily Loza who nailed the ball for her first MSPSP League goal of the season. In the second half, Katie Ging was subbed in goal by Erin Castillo. Both Katie and Erin played great and allowed us to post the shutout. Katie got some playtime at forward and struck a ball that just missed the crossbar.
Our possession game was great and was finally capped by an equally impressive finishing game. The entire team was on the same page as far as possession, even utilizing the goalkeeper on a number of situations, and really working well together.
On the defensive end of the ball, we had a number of adjustments that had to be made early in the game. Aimee Jackson and Faith Lieder were both out for this game, so Lisa Zaffina was moved to central defender with Kelsey Beach. The rest of the defensive unit was Emily Mayer and Shellie Marantette. These four ladies played the entire 80 minutes and did a super job. They held their shape well, pushed players as the situation presented itself, shutdown runs, and even hustled to break up a couple of breakaways that NMSC worked themselves into. Kelsey provided great leadership to the unit and worked with Lisa, who had not played defense in quite a while. They worked things out in the back, and Lisa had a great game as a result. It actually added a dimension to our set plays (free kicks and corner kicks), as we could push Lisa in for a finish as the other three held the defensive space. I was very impressed by the play of the defensive unit during this game.
We are two-thirds of the way done with our MSPSP league schedule. We are currently the division leaders. We have three critical games ahead of us: Michigan Gators, Clarkston, and Troy. In each game, we will be the target and must be prepared to execute at the level we played on Sunday...or better. We are getting things together and peaking at the right time. Stay focused, practice hard, and play even harder.
Next game is Sunday 10/11 in Lenox township versus the 2nd place Michigan Gators.
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