What a Finish - What a Season

Our girls needed to win or tie to maintain their spot and earn a trophy. The other team consisted of girls primarily from the same elementary school as our team which made the game even that much more meaningful. The other team was much more experienced and coached much more emphatically, but we were as ready as we'd ever be.

It was intense from the start and halftime came around and they were leading 1 to 0. Shortly into the 2nd half, our most experienced player moved the ball up the sideline, crossed it to the top of the box, and found our 2nd most experienced player who one-touched it (under pressure) past the keeper into the goal. It looked really professional. The score remained tied for a while, then the other team got another goal to take a 2 - 1 lead.

We were still playing our game in great form. Compared to last season, when I couldn't get half the team to move up and pressure the goal, this season we often had 4 and sometimes all 5 field players up trying to score. This left us vulnerable to a breakaway, but our girls would get back so fast, we almost never let the other team get a good shot on our goal. And our girls were doing it all with almost no coaching from the sideline (other than occasional reminders about "balance").

With literally one minute left in the game, the girls pushed up hard to try and score. Again, we coaches were just watching. The girls were playing hard. We had all 5 up near the goal. One of our backs and a forward pressured the ball all the way up into the other team's corner. The ball got past them, but a 2nd back had them covered. She passed it toward the middle where our 3rd back crossed it to the top of the box. Our other forward was there to one-touch it past the keeper with a beautiful shot. The whistle blew and the game was over and tied. Let the celebrations begin. If we'd had one player not there, it wouldn't have worked. Everyone of them contributed on that goal. They played bravely and with their very best effort. I couldn't be more proud.

I have to attribute the change in attitude toward getting forward to working on the give-and-go early in the season. I still didn't really see a "classic" give-and-go started by a back in a match all season, but I think it put enough forward motion into our girls that it worked to get them moving forward. I think they got past the mental barrier that backs only defend and got them into the mindset that backs press forward too. With this being only the 2nd season for almost half the team, earning a trophy was a real accomplishment. It took all of them playing their hardest, taking care of each other, and playing with a smile to make it happen.

-Bill