Juanita

Bellevue 7-0 Juanita

​ There were so many good things about this game for our girls I'm not sure where to start. Prior to our game, Juanita had tied Redmond, Liberty and Interlake and beaten Sammamish. All good results. They are a solid mid-table team and deserved our respect and complete attention. We gave it to them, in what was surely our most polished and comprehensive game of the season. We were simply superb, and poor Juanita paid the price.    In preparation for Juanita, we talked about continuing our up-tempo and upfield pressure, increasing our passing efficiency rate, and improving our shot selection by looking for clever combinations closer to our opponents goal (in other words: stop taking so many low probability long-range bombs..). In all respects, we earned passing grades. Our pressure forced numerous errors from Juanita giving us possession upfield, and when we got possession, we kept the ball with poise and precision, bombarding the excellent Juanita keeper from inside her own box (mostly). If not for a string of impressive saves, this game could've been even more lop-sided.    We weren't perfect. There is still room for improvement. Technically we still had a few mis-traps on the wet surface, and tactically we got caught with our wingers a bit slow to recover into our defensive shape, but these are aphids in a field of roses. In the end, we pounded 28 shots at the Juanita goal versus 4 efforts from the hosts. We added another 12 corners to zero for the rebels. Comprehensive.     We started well. In just the 2nd minute, Jojo slipped the ball to Kiley's feet who proceeded to beat her defender and send an unstoppable shot past the diving keeper. In the 17th minute, Sophie was taken down in the box after being set free by a smooth through-ball from Grace. Sophie dispatched the resulting PK and doubled our lead to 2-0.    And. we. were. buzzing.    We played with joy and aggression as we rained shot after shot after shot at the Rebels keeper. It wasn't just the volume of chances, but the creative quality of the chances. Our wingers overlapped at full pace, demanding the ball. We played one and two-touch soccer. Nobody really caught a bad case of the "dribbles" where a team's rhythm is disrupted by a player who insists on beating one too many defenders on the dribble. In fact, sometimes the best Juanita defenders were our own players as Bellevue shots bounced off blue jerseys in our eagerness to score. Finally, in the 37th minute, in her first touch since since her injury in our game vs Newport on Sept 2nd, Carly arrived at the back post to hit home after a perfect cut-back pass from Katie.    Knowing how hard she's worked to come back from her tendon tear in her ankle, I couldn't be happier for Carly. It's a great lesson about the value of hard work, perseverance and maintaining a positive attitude in a frustrating situation. One goal doesn't make up for the five weeks of rehab and patience, but it's a thoughtful welcome-back gift. Carly now has two goals this season in 20 minutes of playing time. Great ratio. I hope she keeps it up as her minutes increase.     But our most consistent recent scorer (with all due respect to our actual top-scorer jojo) might be our central defender. Two minutes after Carly's "welcome-back" goal, Maud added another to her own resume after depositing a half-volley into the net from a corner-kick lofted over by Courtney. It's Maud's third successive goal in as many games. Impressive. She's getting a taste for goalscoring and I think she likes it.       So 4-0 at halftime and some of the most beautiful and fluid soccer of our season.     The second half was more of the same. Jojo blasted a rocket into the upper right corner with her "weaker" right foot in the 47th minute. Ellie Bryant finished from a rebounded Jojo shot in the 49thth minute to push the score to 6-0. Until I watch the video, I'm not even sure how we scored our final goal. But Elllie B, Jaden and Sophie were all involved and the poor keeper might've even had the final touch as we reached the final scoreline of 7-0 in the 51st minute.   Incidentally, I was proud how our girls "shut it down" after scoring our 7th...for the final 30 minutes of play we focused more on possession than scoring which is the right thing to do.          Highlights: Juanita didn't have a shot in the entire first half. Our pressure defense was simply awesome in recording our third shut-out on the bounce. pressure D takes the commitment of 11 players, but special recognition to our backline for playing with composure, toughness and confidence: Caylee, Maud, Claire and Priya in the first half, with Paige, Nikole and Margot joining the party in the second; Sophie, Grace, Joelle, Claire, Kiley and Carly all played very well on our wings, supporting our striker and midfielders with aggressive runs and deft touches; Jojo, courtney and our holding midfielders (Ana, Ellie & Katie) kept the ball moving quickly and crisply in what surely was our best passing accuracy performance of the season; finally, some much deserved recognition for Jaden and Margot as they opened their season accounts with some very good minutes up front, and in our backline,  respectively; finally, as coach Fikay mentioned tonight mid-way through the 2nd half, "Wow, I knew the varsity team was deep, but this is amazing."  Amen.  Yes, one of our biggest team strengths is our depth of talent, and I love that we were able to showcase that depth tonight at Juanita. It's a testament to the quality of our entire roster that we had 10 different goal-scorers and assist-makers in one game. So deep. So good. Long may it continue.