Sept 11 – U12 v KC Select at LSSA 16
U12 was prepared for their second game of the season after the poor start opening weekend. This time at LSSA field 16, which for the first time was not a wind tunnel. A beautiful morning for an 11am start.
The first half was pretty even as we worked out of our normal 2-3-2. Hunter got through their backline and had a lovely touch around the goalie to put us up 1 to 0 in the 4th minute. The half was pretty even with KC Select equalizing in the 21st minute and we went into half tied 1 to 1. We had just edged them in shots 8 to 6.
In the second half, we moved Riley into goal to give us some time to work on our new formation, a 3-2-2. Not sure if it was the change, or we were just asleep at the wheel, but Select kicked off, sent the ball down the side, ran through our defense and pounded the ball into the back of the net. We have seen this before where we start with our feet in concrete boots. This quick goal seemed to wake us up and a minute later, Hunter once again found his way though the back line and beat the goalie on another 1 on 1. So just a few minutes into the half and we are at 2 to 2. Two minutes later, Hunter completed his hat trick with another through ball putting him on goal and a nice finish. In the 10th minute, Hunter ran his tally to four goals and put us up 4 to 2. Unfortunately, we were too busy patting ourselves on the back and Select kicked off and ran through us and scored again. This was their second goal that was probably offsides, but that is part of the game.
We had switched back to our 2-3-2 as Select had gone to a 4-1-2 to try to shut us down. In the 15th, we had some really nice team play and Lolo had a great finish to put us up 5 to 3. This goal was probably our only team goal of the game. Both teams battled hard as the sun beat down and both teams were wearing down a bit. In the 21st minute, Select scored again to make the score 5 to 4. Hunter scored his 5th goal of the game in the 22nd minute, followed 3 minutes later by a goal from Trenton Willis putting us up 7 to 4 with 5 minutes to go. Select scored one more in the 29th making the final score, 7 to 5.
A great win for the boys, as we outshot Select, 15 to 5 in the second half. We are still working on coming together as a team. 6 of the goals were individual efforts taking the ball all the way to the goal. An important part of the game and an exhibition of great individual skill. No doubt. But if we are going to have continued succes, we need to improve our team play, possession and communication. The good news is, the boys have rekindled the fire and fought to the end to make sure they stayed on top. Now back to the training pitch to get ready for the tournament.
