And then there’s games like today, where everything goes right. Almost had a rain out (when the sun was shining and the sky was blue) because the field down in Mason was underwater from thundershowers earlier today BUT we were able to relocate to our field at Hartrick and tip off right after six.
Had a long talk with the boys before the game that if they hustled, if they were first to ball, there was no chance we could lose, and the only reason we’ve lost and had trouble in previous games is because we haven’t done those things. So, we go out, and for 50 minutes we hustle and we are first to the ball. We won, 3-1, against a pretty good team. We scored our first goal on a fluke corner kick…..it was high and the goalie bobbled it into the the back of the net.
Matthew played well; he had a lot of good possession and created a lot of good things…..had a primo chance in front of the goal and if he just would have taken a little more time to settle the ball it would have been good….instead he sailed it way over the net. He had a great play in the 2nd half that led to a goal….we had a free kick and he stood down near the goalie. The ball came in, he stopped it before the goalie could get it and calmly passed it to the side where one of his teammates was rushing in and he buried it.
Cpher’s game was ok….I almost pulled him out once or twice but it didn’t come to that. Played well enough on defense to hold down the fort but seemed to always lack a little hustle in the 1st half. In the 2nd half, he did a great job hustling and I’ll remember one sequence towards the end of the game for a long time. Cpher was playing forward and the other team had a corner kick and they were trying to do it in a hurry……Cpher sprinted back to get to his customary spot on the post and arrived just as they kicked the ball and turned quickly to kick the ball right back out of play. Lots of hustle there to get to a position where he is the unquestioned best kid on the field (defender on the post for the corner kick).
