This was a great game for us to learn from. We were already starting this game without Monica Becerra who is recovering from a hard hit to the head in our previous game against Lansing. However, without our full squad we still knew that this was a game that we would not only compete in but would have a very good chance to win. The game began and we seemed to be playing exactly how we wanted to. We were getting into the attack and creating chances, but so was Heights. The past few games our defense has been able to really shut down the other teams attack and force them to win second balls in order to get into dangerous areas. That was not the case in this game, for whatever reasons Heights was able to find the gaps in our defense and create many dangerous opportunities. This put a lot of stress on our defense and caused us to lose our composure and put a lot of unneeded pressure on ourselves. I felt the game was very even back and forth up until the moment the game took a turn for the worse. Our sweeper Amy Bilger got caught up on defense and Heights took advantage of it with a through ball that turned into a foot race with Bilger trailing. Amy did all she could do to keep up with the opponent and against her better judgment she reached out and grabbed the girls jersey from behind. Although she didn’t take her to the ground this was considered to be a deliberate action to stop an obvious goal scoring opportunity and Bilger was presented with a red card. This put us into a very interesting position as now we were playing with 9 field players and now without 2 starters. We made it to half time with the score still tied at 0. The second half we came out with the intention of playing this game just how we started. We wanted to continue to attack and not get caught playing defense. Unfortunately we just didn’t have the personnel to do this and after not much luck the first 10 minutes or so of the 2nd half we ended up playing a lot more defense and hoping to counter attack in order to score. This was definitely the ugliest game we have played in terms of our organization and our composure on the ball. We lacked movement off the ball which made it impossible to have any form of possession. However, the score continued to remain tied as the clock wound down to 10 minutes left. It was at this point that I felt if we could just make it out of regulation, we could regroup and play for the draw. With 7 minutes left in the game and overtime looking more and more like a possibility the center ref decided the game wasn’t going to go into overtime and awarded a penalty kick. Heights made the PK and took any wind we had left in our sails away. It’s frustrating to receive a call like this in such a hard fought game against many odds. I have seen much more contact in the penalty box go uncalled and for this instance to be given a PK was just heartbreaking. We pushed everyone into the attack in hopes of getting a goal to tie the game. This left our defense pretty vulnerable and Heights was able to notch a second goal with little time remaining. This was a great game for us to learn how to deal with unique situations.
Coach Smith |
