Liberty

Bellevue 1-0 Liberty

If we were a professional team, I would describe our performance against Liberty on Monday as very "professional." It wasn't one of our most glamorous outings, but we played well enough to preserve our undefeated season against a very organized and technical (and young) Liberty Patriots team with a 1-0 win. Both teams play the same base formation, so there weren't any tactical imbalances to exploit on either side. We chose to leave our team in our preferred formation, rather than make a tactical change, trusting that our 11 players would eventually break-down their 11 on sheer talent and will. Consequently, this game was a battle contested mostly at midfield as both teams tried to find their way through very organized defenses. Finally, in the 66th minute, Joelle came on as a substitute, and by the 67th minute she had already changed the game; latching onto a ball at midfield, she attacked the center of the Liberty defense before slipping the ball through to Kiley who powered a shot through the goalkeeper for a 1-0 victory.  It was a sweet goal that we had been building towards for most of the game.   Liberty is a very polished and well-coached team. Similar to our own set-up, their back six are very organized and difficult to break-down. They like to keep possession, re-cycling the ball across their defense until they find gaps to exploit in midfield or directly to the attacking third. In the first half, we got a bit stretched and disconnected at the top of our shape; however, we made a few adjustments at halftime, keeping our striker more central to prevent easy switches, and Liberty's backline recycling was reduced, limiting their possession, and giving us an edge. So after a relatively even first half, we continued to apply pressure with Sophie, Kiley, Grace, Carly, Joelle and Ana, who began to find more space to attack. Eventually, the Liberty defense cracked, and we left the Patriot stadium soggy, but victorious.     On the night, we were the better team, and the game stats support that narrative.  Of our 20 chances, 12 came in the 2nd half, and Liberty only had one decent look at goal after the break. It was a very solid, workmanlike effort by our girls. Exactly the kind of performance that a championship team needs in its arsenal.  Well done.    BHS / Liberty Shots / Shots on Goal:  20/12 v 6/2 Possession %:  56% / 44% Total passes: 265 / 206 Pass completion:  57% / 51% Corners:  3/2   Highlights After a bit of a shaky start (a few bobbles, errant passes and dodgy first touches), our overall defense was outstanding again. Madi, Nikole, Catie, Maud, Paige, Katie and Ellie earned another shutout, their 9th of the season. Difficult to lose any games when you don't let the other team score; Ellie and Katie bottled up Liberty's very dangerous center midfielder, limiting her chances to run at our defense by playing very smart, and physical, defense; I liked how our wingers made several darting runs with the ball diagonally into the center of Liberty's defense. When Sophie, Joelle or Kiley occasionally dribble into the center from our wings, it opens up passing lanes and creates space behind for overlaps. It's something that I hope we see more of in upcoming games; Grace and Kiley were both dangerous up top, consistently challenging the Liberty goalkeeper; finally, Liberty's two holding midfielders are very good, and very physical. And I thought Carly did an outstanding job of disrupting their holding players, applying pressure on defense, and initiating our possession on offense from her central midfield role.     I couldn't be happier that tomorrow night versus Juanita, we won't be saying "good-bye" to our seniors, but merely recognizing and celebrating their contributions to the BHS girls soccer program. We'll save our farewells for sometime deep in November.