Over this past weekend, I traveled to New Jersey and played soccer matches in the scorching sun. It was a heat wave all up and down the East Coast. We played four games overall: 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. I had no idea what the competition would be like but I just wanted to play my best.
Usually my mom and I fly to tournaments but this time it was close enough to drive. We were able to carpool with one of my teammates and drive seven hours down to Bensalem, PA where our hotel was located. For these tournaments, you have to stay where GPS (Global Premier Soccer) says you have to stay. We were were about 40 minutes from Fort Dix, NJ where our games were being held.
Here are some highlights of the games:
Game 1 vs. Centre Court FC (a NJ club)
My team, GPS 2006 North National, won the game 3-1. We had a lot of chances but we just couldn't finish more goals. My coaches was looking for high intensity, good communication, and through balls throughout the weekend. This first game was the easiest out of all four games. However, it was the first game that our team had played together since we went to the National Futsal tournament in Kansas. This was a challenge because we don't get to play together a lot. But, I think we did very well.
Game 2 vs. another NJ club
This game was a very hard-fought match but we ended up losing 2-1 to very unlucky goals. I thought I did very well in this game. In the second half, we did a LOT better because we noticed we weren't communicating effectively in the first half and we were a bit slow at the start. It didn't help that it was 2:00pm and 98 degrees (not including humidity). Despite it being almost too hot to play, I did have a very nice "nutmeg". A "nutmeg" is when you kick the ball through the opposing player's legs.
Here's what happened: I was right near the left sideline and had one strong defender trying to trap me and I no options to pass whatsoever and it was too tight to even try to do a move around her. So, I looked down at her feet for a quick second and saw that her legs were wide apart (which is kind of an instinct when defending because you're thinking about trying to get the ball, not how wide your apart your legs are). In a flash decision, I pulled the ball back with my left foot so it would go just behind my right foot and I kicked the ball through the girl's legs! That was definitely MY highlight of the game (if I do say so myself). What was great for my mom is that is happened right in front of her! She told me she screamed but I didn't hear her. I was just focused on the game. It was a tough one.
In the 2nd half, we started out very fast and with a very high intensity level and we were able to score. Everyone said that we outplayed them the second half but we couldn't pull off a tie or get a lucky goal. This team ended up winning the whole tournament for our age group and bracket.
3rd game vs. another NJ team
This game was temperature-wise, the coolest game. We ended up winning this one 2-1. Technically, we really like to think it was 3-1 because I brought up the ball, beat a defender with my speed, crossed a beautiful pass to our striker who had two girls on her and she slid and scored in the right corner. The ref called it back due to "off sides". The girl who scored, her mom was filming and caught the goal. When we went back to view the goal after the game was over, it was clearly not "off sides". I heard that my coach and the other team's coach discussed it and even the opposing team's coach didn't think is was off sides. Frustrating. The ref was really not good and there was a theory that our first goal was off sides but he didn't call it. So, he decided to try and fix his mistake by calling the second goal which was almost an exact replay of the first, off sides.
4th and final game vs. another NJ team
Well, this game a bit of a let down because we had a healthy 2-0 lead but ended up losing 3-2. We scored our first goal in like the first minute and the second within the next 5 minutes. The second goal was my only goal of the weekend but it was a very nice goal off a through ball. This was what my coach was looking for to create opportunities to score the goals. After I scored, I quickly "dabbed" to my coach because he was joking and said if we scored we should do a dance move like the "dab" or the "running man". I didn't see it but my mom said he did a quick dab back and had a smile on his face.
The second half we started off really slow and couldn't seem to find our momentum from the first half. We let up two easy goals and it was a tie game all the way up to the final minute. In the final minute, everyone was exhausted from the heat, and large field (I forgot to tell you that we were playing 7v7 on a field that was like a 9v9 field), and we just fizzled and lost our energy. They were able to toe-poke a ball to the left corner and scored. There was no way our goalie could save it.
Overall analysis of the weekend/tournament:
Basically, I have to say that overall I feel that we played really well everything considered. This group of girls are people I consider great friends and phenomenal soccer players. It's weird when you don't get to play with your team except on these big deal tournaments. There is a lot of pressure on the team, and we never know what the competition is going to be like. But, in the end, we always try to stay positive and learn how to get better.
One last thing...I would like to say goodbye and thank you to my coach, Matt. He is a wonderful coach but he is moving on to a new job in another well known soccer club, the New England Revolution. He is also getting married in August. So, he will have a lot of new chapters in his life. However, I hope he always remembers the chapter he spent with us and smiles.
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