Bellevue vs Newport 3-9-21

Varsity
 
BHS 1-0 Newport
a
At its best, soccer can be beautiful improvised poetry and flowing creativity. But there is another side to soccer that can't be forgotten: it's the disciplined organization, gritty effort, and competitive fire to do the destructive work of preventing the other team from getting into any offensive rhythm. To create, we must first destroy. And after destruction, we must immediately become creatives. Both styles must exist within the same team at the same time. A cognitive dissonance. Jekyll and hyde. Chocolate and peanut butter (you decide which is which). After our season opener against Newport, I couldn't have been happier with the latter set of skills and spirit within our team. We played excellent team defense. We kept the Knights from finding any sort of offensive rhythm with effective pressing, crunching tackles, and balanced cover all over the field. However, not surprisingly after only three training sessions, our flowing creativity going forward still needs some work. Our poetry needs some editing.  
However, the potential for that creativity is enormous in this team. I've seen it repeatedly over the last week in training. So although it took longer than I would've hoped, in the 70th minute we scored an exquisite team goal to break a nervous goal-free deadlock. The stat sheet will list that Rebecca scored from an assist from Halle. But like most goals, there is so much more to the story. The goal began with selfless destruction from our center forward (a lot of goalscoring can be traced to how well the front line players commit to good defense), Mo stole the ball at midfield by tracking back, and we kept possession by patiently but quickly rotating the ball across our defensive line (Zoe to LilyR to Audrey). Audrey picked out a checking Kendall with a perfect two-layer pass, Halle smartly filled the space that Kendall just left (and Ava was overlapping from LB to give even more options), Halle received the ball from Kendall, and then split the defense to an onrushing Rebecca on the left wing who dribbled straight at the keeper and fired home from close range (but both Mo and Maeva were there as options, as required). It was an excellent team goal. Just beautiful. Poetry. 
In the end, the stats were in our favor 13/5 in chances created, and we humbly take the win against a very tough and organized Newport team. It wasn't a flowing game, but it was effective. A good start.     
Most importantly, it was a joy to be back on the field for game-night at BHS stadium. Thank you to the entire BHS girls soccer community for your help and flexibility in making this season work. 
Now we turn to our first away game at Sammamish on Thursday evening. Last year the Totems were the most improved team in Kingco and gave us two very very competitive games. Bus will depart from BHS at 7pm.
Coach Peter
Junior Varsity
 
BHS 5-0 NewportIt was a great start to our abbreviated Covid JV girl’s soccer season at Bellevue High School on Tuesday night. The Newport Knights visited BHS stadium on a chilly, damp evening.
We came out strong to start the game but showed a few first-game jitters as we struggled to string passes together and maintain possession. It was expected when a new team plays together for the first time.
Once our passes started to link, we became more dangerous. Our goal and the program’s goal, for the season is to play possession soccer and move about the field as a team. The other team can’t score if they don’t have the ball, right? So once we had more control of the ball good things started to happen.
Cami Johnson got us on the scoreboard with a fantastic near-post header off a corner kick. Header goals tend to be unicorns in girl’s soccer. That is, they are rare. Cami was in the right place, at the right time and finished her goal with great technique. Bravo!
From there the flood gates opened and we began to score at will. Emily Wang, Madison Tucker and freshman Lilian McAughan all produced fantastic long distance strikes to take us into halftime leading 4-0.
During the break we talked about continuing to control the ball and support each other. Goals were not important but practicing ball movement was. Viven Brekke capped off the night’s scoring with a blast the goalkeeper couldn’t contain. Final score, 5-0.
Overall it was a decent performance for our first time out and the statistics showed it: 27 shots, 8 corner kicks and just one shot allowed on our goal. However, lots of room for improvement but a great all-around effort from everyone. On to Sammamish on Thursday for our first road game of the season.
Coach John

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