Is that 3 well played games in a row? Or is it 4? Having become slightly depressed in October games started to blur together. But the girls' play and sun shining off the first real snow of the winter is bringing everything into sharper focus.
Sure this was just a tie (1-1 against OUSC 99). But the Force are starting to look like a brand new groups of girls -- skilled and tough. They took on a big, athletic U13 squad this morning. They were back on their heels at first, responding to the size and speed of OUSC. Had this been 2011 the girls would have collapsed into a defensive shell while Kate got shelled. This, however, is 2012. This is the undefeated year. Even after a call went against the Force just outside the 18 and the free kick banged in off Kate's hands the girls gathered themselves and began to move the ball upfield as the first half progressed.
Sawyer applied tremendous pressure up front. Zoe and Lauren were terrific at midfield, the latter taking balls off her body like a pro. Claire, stepping up from the White team, gave some very good minutes at mid. Jill is just so ridiculously consistent on the backline it almost gets boring to talk about (but not to watch!). Annabelle seems now virtually ambipedal, turning like Phil Mickelson to knock balls away with her left foot. Rhea stepped in nicely to center d to shore up the defense who were playing without injured Emmi or Sophia.
All this team play paid off. The girls got the ball deep and "MSH" Christina pulled a six foot tall keeper out of position before tucking the ball into the corner. MSH's motor runs just a little faster when the ball gets in the keeper's box. Indeed, with under 30 seconds left the Force's leading goalscorer dug hard again to the keeper's right before being knocked to the ground. With time running out power striker Lauren hurried to take the pk for the win but knocked it hard over the top.
As the linesman said to us: the ref could have let an 11 year old know she has the pk (the first ever awarded this group of Force girls!!!! pk only go to the Jags in league play!!) even if time runs out but....
At any rate, this sure felt like a win.
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