Saturday, May 05, 2007

State Tournament Update 1

My U-16 team played the state quarterfinals this afternoon against the same team we beat last year in the quarters. It's never easy to repeat. It is even tougher to repeat when the first step on the road is a team looking out for revenge. We gave up a penalty kick 5 minutes in but our goalie made an awesome save. 2 minutes later we were down 1-0. Things were looking a little bleak but we fought through it and tied it back up. Eventually we slipped in the winner from the left mid spot. A 2-1 victory that left us exhausted and with the semi's 3 hours away.

In the semifinals we played the exact same team we played in the semi's last year, except for the fact that in the interim they combined teams with their rival to make a better run at the cup. Less than 10 minutes in and we were down 1-0 again. We fought back again and tied it up. Eventually, we slipped in the winner from the left mid spot.

Both game winning goals were from players coming off the bench. Depth is key. Character is huge. We clearly have a target on our back and we just came back from two 1 goal deficits against 2 of the best teams in the state to advance to the title game.

The final is tomorrow and I think we are ready to finish what we started.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

good to go coach will...good to go...got that paul simon music playing????

Unknown said...

Congrats on the big wins and good luck in the Final.