Varsity - Bellevue vs Bothell 10-8-24

Bellevue 2-0 Bothell
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50th min Saleen (Mia)
74th min Saleen (Mia)

One down. Five more to go.

During my sophomore year in college, at mid-season my team was the #1 ranked NCAA Division 1 team in the country. We had won our first ten games. Then we took a bad loss 0-3 where everything that could go wrong did. The game after our loss, we were held to an ugly tie by Stanford 1-1. We were wobbling, and our #1 mojo was shaken and dreams of another national championship got less realistic and more dreamlike. In our next game, we gutted our way back into the win column with a victory over USMNT hall of famer Kasey Keller and the University of Portland (a very difficult team to beat at that time). it was also an ugly game, our passes weren't as crisp as they were during our 10-game winning streak to start the season. Our flow wasn't flowing. But we finally broke the jinx and beat Kasey and the Pilots 2-1. And once the downward slide was reversed, we won another 9 games to finish the season.  

Glory days reminiscing by the coach? Absolutely. But the lesson is this: momentum matters. In both directions. And sometimes to break a downward trend, what is required is more of a "gut check" than glittering soccer. Collective will power and mental toughness can turn a season.   

Our gut check came against Bothell at Pop Keeney Stadium. It wasn't pretty. In fact, our first 40 minutes might have been our worst soccer of the season (precipitated by the unfortunate (and scary) injuries to two of our players in the first five minutes of the game (both were OK)). But we turned the game around in the second half, as Saleen scored two goals in the 50th and 74th minutes (both assisted by Mia, with a hockey assist to Kasia on the first) to get our team back to winning ways. It is important to note that although Saleen was her usual 80 minute highlight reel of dribbling talent, her two goals were due to hard work and diligently crashing the box. Sometimes you nutmeg your defender and smash a shot into the upper vee, and other times you need to be in the right place, at the right time, with hustle and concentration. Saleen gave us both in a much-needed 2-0 victory. 

The stats also reflect the balance of the game. In the first half, we had 5 chances and 2 corners to 5 Bothell shots and 3 corners. Even. But in the 2nd half we created 17 shots while holding Bothell without a single shot on goal. It was a tale of two halves and we certainly finished the game in a much better place than where we started.    

We'll see if the positive trend continues tomorrow night against North Creek, another 4A school above us in the league table. There are no "gimmie" games this season. Any loss of concentration will cost us. I've made this point before, but Bellevue Girls Soccer currently has the highest strength of schedule rating in our RPI calculation in the entire state. Nobody has played as challenging of schedule as our Wolverines.

We are battle-tested. We have played the best, and now our best is ahead of us. 

Five more games left in our regular season.  

See you Thursday. Mojo and momentum.