Blue-Gold 2

16 March 2019 in Blue-Gold 2 at Aquinas in 50-degree weather with no snow (0-0).

Well, the Basketball Girls are back, and that definitely gives us a boost.  That being said we are still missing Maggie Ryan, and Kate Goza was keeping stats as she heals up for our first match this coming Thursday—really, this coming Thursday?

With that said, we must get a lot better by Thursday if we want to put a "W" in the result column. We did dominate possession as you would expect, but we were not dangerous at all. We must find a lineup that gives us many more opportunities to score.

On that front, freshman Assa Kante will definitely be one of those ways we can create opportunities. Her long deadballs, her ability to switch the point of attack from wherever she plays, and her ability to come forward from right back—are all dangerous.  

Kyli looked as if she hadn't missed a practice back at centerback.  We need to get her forward on all set pieces as she can be a weapon inside the box. 

And Grace got us into some scoring positions when she was in at the "10." But we have to be more effective in making use of her talents.

But after that, we have lots of work to do in 4 days.  We moved Bella back up front and outside in one of the shifts yesterday, and that was by far our most dangerous shift. So we will have to look at that, but whatever we do we need a far more effective understanding of our attack from our wings. And the "9" position has to become way more dangerous. Right now rarely does the pass out of the "9" put us in a scoring position or in a position where the next pass might lead to a score.

On the JV front, we really like the play of Ella Gregovich and Emily Neilsen in the back. And once again the JV got very good midfield play out of Claire Innes and Gabby Mazzarese.

Here are the game stats (keep in mind we only played 30-minute halves.)

We got off 11 shots (sort of) with only 2 being on goal, none of those requiring a real save. Bella and Grace had 3 shots each, and they were the girls who had shots on frame.

We created only two corners. We did generate 5 STA balls (t's, boxes, D-balls) Cox created two, with Bella, Grace, and Trinity creating one apiece. We loved that screaming diagonal ball Trinity put on the back post to Bella.

We did create some nice throw-in opportunities. Ram and Kutey have pretty good throws, as does Assa.

Deadballs and defense usually win you early matches in the soccer season. We looked pretty decent defensively—our deadballs are on the wrong side of dangerous.

Thursday we will be at Blue Valley.