Game 4: MO-KAN 3rd Place Match

4 April vs. St. Teresa's for 3rd Place at MO-KAN (0-2)

We just played a great defensive half against the wind, highlighted by a diving Calvert save as time expired. Hania Crow took on the honors (with a little relief from Bridget Linder) of handling Dorian Bailey. She handled her first half and then she handled her second half.

We did not, however, handled Kitts very well.  

We did come out very well to start the second half, generating 3 good chances in those first few minutes. Unfortunately, we got broken down in a very similar manner to how we have been getting broken down at the beginning of the second half.

Our right side of the field is so far up when we lose the ball. If we already have a center midfielder and a underneath mid defending that sideline, we do not seem need our right-side backs up so far, as it is a long run back. As you watch the video for this goal we can see Reynolds and Tyler pull all the way over to destroy the first attempt, helped by a nice retracement run by Holmes, but we do not seem to get other middle refills fast enough to blow up the follow-up shot. But Kitts hits a very good shot to the back post. So she gets most of the credit.

We still found some opportunities to even the score, but when we gave up that second goal later in the half, we seemed to finalize the result. Kitts gets a shot off from the "D"/Top-of-the-Box area here.  We dive at midfield and then allow a little too much room in front of Kitts, allowing her to get a pretty good shot off. Allyia just misses the ball as she dives even though she is somewhat screened off by one of our defenders. Anyway one was enough.

Overall we played a pretty solid match missing 2 key starters.  We all tip our hats to the first-half performance against the wind.  We almost needed to be perfect defensively for the match, and that is not likely to happen against a very talented Teresa's team. I mean, hey, we took one shot the entire match. We did create 5 corners and a couple of low deadballs that did offer us scoring opportunities. But still we are playing for a 1-0 game or perhaps a shootout at 1-1 or 0-0. 

And keep in mind that Teresa's took only 2 shots all second half and scored 2 goals. That is a solid performance all over the field by a lot of Saints.

Congrats to All Tournament selections Sarah Tyler and Jamie Kutey. (Sarah Tyler was also the BWhite Player of the Match). 

We are off for awhile, so hopefully we get some players back and we tweak some things with some practice.

STATS: 

First Half:  Saints: Shots: 0  Corners: 2 (Kutey and Reynolds)

Teresa's: Shots 12 (5) Corners: 3

Second Half:  Saints: Shots: 1 (1) Corners: 3 (Kutey 1, Reynolds 2)

Teresa's: Shots 2 (2)

33:23 Kitts

17:54 Kitts