11/8/08 Game Recap (3-2 Win)

The Devils incredible season continued on Saturday on another wet and dreary day at the Sunnyvale Soccer Complex. The Devils roared out to a 3-0 first half lead, then held on for a 3-2 win over the Orchard Valley Sparks.

The Devils were in the mood for a little offense early. The girls moved the ball exceptionally well, feeling out the Sparks defense.

They would crack that defense at the 4 minute mark on a highlight reel goal by
Audrey. Sweeping up the right side, the Devil took a centering pass from Manaasa before moving the ball toward the box. A series of cutbacks crossed the Sparks defense, allowing Audrey to draw the ball back to her right before firing a shot on goal. The Sparks goaltender tried valiantly to make a sliding save toward the right post, but the ball had too much velocity on it.

Audrey would set up the next goal on almost a carbon copy of the first, with another set of dipsy-doodle cutback moves. With two Sparks defenders collapsing on her on the right wing, she elected to fire a pass across the top of the box rather than take the high risk shot. The pass threaded past another defender, right to Marlene who was cutting from the opposite wing. With nothing but daylight between her and the goal, Marlene easily tapped home the Devils second goal.

The pair would team up less than two minutes later to make it 3-0 Devils. Dribbling through traffic, Audrey chipped the ball to her left for Marlene, who rocketed the ball off the Sparks goalkeeper's chest. The ball's momentum carried it into the goal for the trifecta.

With the comfortable cushion, the Devils didn't let up on the gas, but fell victim to a little bad luck in the 2nd half.

With the Sparks pressing early in the half, a Devil was called for a hand ball in the box. On the direct kick, the Devils had trouble setting up the wall and allowed the shot to slip between two defenders and into the goal.

The Devils just missed on a scoring chance when a feed from Christene just missed hitting Courtney on a crossing play at the 35 minute mark.

The hand-ball blues would strike again with 10 minutes to play. It was deja-vu all over again, when the Devils wall failed to setup quickly enough. The Sparks took advantage again by rifling their second free kick into the Devils net to make it a one-goal lead.

The defense would buckle down and deny the Sparks another scoring opportunity. Orchard Valley tried drawing their own forwards back to midfield then punting the ball past the Devils defense in an attempt to outrace the Devils backline.

On one chance the Sparks right forward push the ball up the wing, but Karsyn hustled back and cutoff the Sparks forward as she attempted to whip around the right side..

The Devils put the game away with forward pressure that resulted in two corner kicks. The game ended on a peculiar play, when Kelly outworked a Sparks defender to win the ball deep in the Orchard Valley zone. Carrying the ball intro the box, she wound up for a shot, but the referee blew his whistle to signify that time had expired.


Game Positives-–

Marks: The girls did a great job of forcing the play to the outside by concentrating on goal side marks to the center of the field. This is something we’ve been focusing on in practice.

Unselfish Play: The habit of looking for the pass rather than trying to create all alone is something the girls are starting to really take advantage of. That was really evident with the second goal scored.

Stepping Up: When the game was on the line the entire team buckled down on the opposition. We may have seen a different result last season. The girls did a great job of stepping up the intensity when it counted.


Focus Areas-–

Defending Free Kicks: This obviously affected the outcome of the game significantly and is something we still need to focus time on. As can be expected from this age group, this is an experience thing that the girls will learn to react with more game situations. Getting bitten twice in one game will certainly leave an impression on the players.

Communication: One of the reasons we had issues with the free kick situations was that we had too many players trying to command the positioning of the wall, which in turn led to more confusion. Setup should be a natural reaction, not something that needs to be called in the heat of the action.