Another day, another win
Team NorCal is on fire!
Today we played Onsala BK - a team from Onsala, Sweden about 30 km south of Gothenburg near the city of Kungsbacka. Onsala is a fairly nice town, expensive property all near an inlet to the ocean (the portion of the North Sea between Sweden and Denmark).
The team was from the local athletic club. We learned they charge the families $400 per year to participate in and be a part of the club. This allows the kids to partake in soccer of course, but also handball, tennis, watersports, etc. Because it is a club, any girl who wishes to play on their soccer teams can, but only certain get selected for the higher profile tournaments like Gothia Cup.
Make no mistake about it, this team was well coached and very disciplined. They had won their first match 9-1 with one of their top scorers having a hat trick in the first 10 minutes or so.
The match started off again fairly even - our girls seemed a little slower than yesterday and this team certainly attacked with more skill and coordination and had a much stronger keeper than yesterday. Still team NorCal seemed to have the run of the play and we put one through about 15 minutes into the first half. Shortly thereafter we doubled our lead but Onsala grabbed one back just prior to the half.
At half time it seemed anyone's game - a 2-1 lead but they had gained the momentum and we had some players struggling with breathing... it has been very windy here the past two days and a lot of pollen has been coming down from the trees (remember we are much farther north and the temperatures much cooler than California - so I think we are in prime allergy season here).
So there was some nervous energy at half, but Coach David did a good job of calming the ladies and reminding them that they had controlled a good portion of the 1st half.
The Coach has an interesting line up - he starts nearly all Davis players plus the Redding GK and until this week Alyssa at defender to make up the 7. Off the bench was mostly Redding and Simone.
He switched Alyssa off the defensive line and now she comes off the bench along with Simone to make up the two wingers/mids (they play 7v7). The switch has worked well. His nearly all Davis starting offense tends to make a lot of chances and they are certainly fast and aggressive, but they don't seem to get shots off as much nor pass as much. The second unit of Alyssa, Simone, and McKenna from Davis tend to work off each other very well. There is a lot of first or second touch passing, switching sides, and creating opportunity. Alyssa has realized she can shoot from distance especially on this small field, so she's starting to crank those out more and has been a tad unlucky a few times. But of the 8 goals scored in two games, this unit has contributed 5 or 6 of them.
So half started and he went with this starters again, but sadly Coach David's daughter took a point blank shot off the cheek bone and she was out for the game. They actually took her to the hospital because they were worried about a fracture, but she just has a really bad bruise thank God!
Alyssa and Simone teamed up a number of times and finally on a corner Alyssa spotted Jayda on a short corner and she blasted in NorCal's third goal. We put one more in off a miskick from nearly half field - ball bounced over the keeper and in to finish the scoring at 4-1 in favor of NorCal.
So the girls have played the two toughest teams in the bracket and come through nearly unscathed. Tomorrow we play a team that is really struggling. We watched part of their match on Monday and could see they are not that great... so I expect another win tomorrow which would mean finishing a top our group and moving into either the final 16 or 8 of the top playoff bracket! That's pretty awesome!
More to write later.
Onsala were top class inviting out to their training facility and having a series of fun, easty games and activities for us. Plus they bought us over 60 pizzas... I am not kidding you.
It was a good day. One more big win and tthen onto the knock out rounds likely into the top brackets. Rumor has it we may either play a team from Sweden or SoCal.
70 countries here, we've met 2.
Today we played Onsala BK - a team from Onsala, Sweden about 30 km south of Gothenburg near the city of Kungsbacka. Onsala is a fairly nice town, expensive property all near an inlet to the ocean (the portion of the North Sea between Sweden and Denmark).
The team was from the local athletic club. We learned they charge the families $400 per year to participate in and be a part of the club. This allows the kids to partake in soccer of course, but also handball, tennis, watersports, etc. Because it is a club, any girl who wishes to play on their soccer teams can, but only certain get selected for the higher profile tournaments like Gothia Cup.
Make no mistake about it, this team was well coached and very disciplined. They had won their first match 9-1 with one of their top scorers having a hat trick in the first 10 minutes or so.
The match started off again fairly even - our girls seemed a little slower than yesterday and this team certainly attacked with more skill and coordination and had a much stronger keeper than yesterday. Still team NorCal seemed to have the run of the play and we put one through about 15 minutes into the first half. Shortly thereafter we doubled our lead but Onsala grabbed one back just prior to the half.
At half time it seemed anyone's game - a 2-1 lead but they had gained the momentum and we had some players struggling with breathing... it has been very windy here the past two days and a lot of pollen has been coming down from the trees (remember we are much farther north and the temperatures much cooler than California - so I think we are in prime allergy season here).
So there was some nervous energy at half, but Coach David did a good job of calming the ladies and reminding them that they had controlled a good portion of the 1st half.
The Coach has an interesting line up - he starts nearly all Davis players plus the Redding GK and until this week Alyssa at defender to make up the 7. Off the bench was mostly Redding and Simone.
He switched Alyssa off the defensive line and now she comes off the bench along with Simone to make up the two wingers/mids (they play 7v7). The switch has worked well. His nearly all Davis starting offense tends to make a lot of chances and they are certainly fast and aggressive, but they don't seem to get shots off as much nor pass as much. The second unit of Alyssa, Simone, and McKenna from Davis tend to work off each other very well. There is a lot of first or second touch passing, switching sides, and creating opportunity. Alyssa has realized she can shoot from distance especially on this small field, so she's starting to crank those out more and has been a tad unlucky a few times. But of the 8 goals scored in two games, this unit has contributed 5 or 6 of them.
So half started and he went with this starters again, but sadly Coach David's daughter took a point blank shot off the cheek bone and she was out for the game. They actually took her to the hospital because they were worried about a fracture, but she just has a really bad bruise thank God!
Alyssa and Simone teamed up a number of times and finally on a corner Alyssa spotted Jayda on a short corner and she blasted in NorCal's third goal. We put one more in off a miskick from nearly half field - ball bounced over the keeper and in to finish the scoring at 4-1 in favor of NorCal.
So the girls have played the two toughest teams in the bracket and come through nearly unscathed. Tomorrow we play a team that is really struggling. We watched part of their match on Monday and could see they are not that great... so I expect another win tomorrow which would mean finishing a top our group and moving into either the final 16 or 8 of the top playoff bracket! That's pretty awesome!
More to write later.
Onsala were top class inviting out to their training facility and having a series of fun, easty games and activities for us. Plus they bought us over 60 pizzas... I am not kidding you.
It was a good day. One more big win and tthen onto the knock out rounds likely into the top brackets. Rumor has it we may either play a team from Sweden or SoCal.
70 countries here, we've met 2.
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