Maybe
our previous win against Vanguard had us feeling a little too confident
about our game on the pitch. Before the game even started we knew we
should beat Blades. Their
average player age is probably 15-20 years more than Vanguard.
However, this was not the story of the first half.
The
experience of Blades was shown in patience with the ball and movement
through the mid field. Both teams were producing opportunities from the
start of the game, but ours
were more counter-attack style, and theirs were more possession based.
About 15 minutes into the first half one of their offensive pushes
resulted in a slow trickling ball a couple yards outside of the 18 and
one of their players gave it a quality strike.
No spin, knuckling in all directions, and it found its way just under
the cross bar. Definitely a tough one from Kyle to anticipate and get
his hands on.
The
goal didn’t seem to phase us as we all still knew we should win the
game, and we clearly believed it too. We kicked it up a gear and
started producing more opportunities
up top. David K. got sent in on 3 or 4 break-aways but every time
their keeper cut the angle down nicely and David couldn’t find either of
the corners for the tying goal. The play was still pretty even through
the first half, until Blades made a nice progression
down the left side of the field and managed to connect a few passes
together inside the box and trickled another one in for a 2-0 lead. I
think that one stunned us quite a bit as we did not expect to find
ourselves down 2-0 before tying the game. Regardless,
we continued to play as though we weren’t going to lose the game.
Finally
before the end of the first half, one of plays down the right side of
the field materialized into a goal. Scott got sent in (basically alone
again) on a nice through
ball from [Justin?], but once again the keeper managed to cut the angle
down and make the stop. However, fortunately for us this time the ball
bounced in the direction of David K. and he put it away with
authority. The half ended 2-1, and I think we were
happy to just be back within 1 goal before taking a rest.
The
game completely changed in the second half. This is where the age of
Blades probably became a factor. We had all the momentum. It felt like
we spent the first 30 minutes
of the half on their side relentlessly attacking the net. The tying
goal came on a play from Karol down the right side. He beat the
defender to the base line and played the 45 degree pass back to Hintzki
about penalty spot height. Hintzki found the bottom
right corner of the net on a one timer.
We
knew the job wasn’t done and pushed until we took the lead. The go
ahead goal finally came on a great header from Patrick off of a corner
kick from Karol. A big weight
was taken off our shoulders after that 3rd goal fell and we held out the remaining time for the 3-2 win.
-Hintzki
Goals: David K., Dave H., Patrick
MVP: Scott
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