Varsity: Bellevue vs Moutainview 9-7-2023

Bellevue 9-0 Mt. View

1st min Leah (unassisted)
5th min Mia (Alex)
7th min Saleen (Mia)
10th min Leah (unassisted)
16th min Lillian (EmilyD)
30th min Amy (Saleen)
32nd min Raina (Lexi T)
65th min Gaby (Nora)
78th min Emilie B (Nora)

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
― Ferris Bueller

8 seconds. 
That's how long it took for Bellevue to score the opening goal in the return contest against visiting Mt. View from Vancouver. 8 seconds. The fastest goal I can remember scoring while at coaching at Bellevue. And then life moved even faster for our opponents, as four more goals followed in rapid succession and before the game was 15 minutes old we were leading 5-0. 

It was a devistating display of efficient and lightning quick scoring. We scored our first 5 goals on 6 shots. All of excellent quality.  
 
The 8 second opener was scored directly from the kick-off. Gaby lobbed a ball deep into the Mt. View end and the center-back accidentially cradled the ball with her arm before it bounced free. Every Mt. View player stopped in shock waiting for the referee's whistle for an obvious hand ball...but not Leah. She raced onto the ball and hit it first-time into the net. 1-0 Bellevue and very good refereeing for allowing our advantage as we would always prefer a goal to a free kick outside of the box (9 of 10 referees blow the whistle immediately, so I was impressed that our center waited a beat to see if we would press our advantage...and equally impressed by Leah "playing to the whistle" and continuing her run despite the obvious handball)

After our opportunistic but well-taken first goal, the next four were all works of art as we overwhelmed the visitors. Alex raced down the right wing before sending a perfect cross for Mia to finish. Then Saleen took a simple square ball from Mia, danced around two defenders and blasted the ball past the helpless keeper from 20 yards. Two minutes later Leah pounced on another deflected shot and scored her second. And five minutes after that Emily Duke crossed into the box for Lillian to score with a one-time finish.  5-0 Bellevue. 15 minutes into the game.

This was not what I expected. Last year down in Vancouver, we won a competitive see-saw game 4-2 before climbing back aboard our bus for the long ride home. Later that season, Mt. View qualified for the State tournament and came within a few minutes of playing Bellevue in the round of 16 (a late Blanchet goal was the losing margin in a game that Mt. View deserved to win...and a few days later Blanchet gave us all we could handle in our own playoff game). But soccer can be unpredictable and unexpected, and life moves pretty fast if you get on the wrong side of momentum.  Mt. View is a much better team than our scoreline would suggest, but the game was effectively over within the opening minutes and that is very difficult to overcome.  

So at 5-0 up after 15 minutes we made changes. Lots of changes. All three of our goalkeepers played in the field. Forwards found themselves at center back. Center-backs found themselves on the wing. Leah played goalkeeper. Nobody played in their natural position for the remaining 65 minutes.  

Coaching a game like this is tricky: We don't want to disrespect our opponents by not giving full effort, but we also don't want to disrespect our opponent by running up the score or behaving inappropriately (taunting, over-zealous celebrations, etc.). Instead we heavily rotated roles, encouraged possession, and tried to play with a bit of empathy for girls who spent an entire day on a bus and the game wasn't going how they expected it would. I was proud of our girls for maintaining a joyous attitude in supporting their teammates, while also conducting themselves with sportsmanship (offering a hand up to fallen opponents, etc.) in a very one-sided contest. 

In the last 65 minutes, there were actually fewer goals scored than in the first 15. Much later in the half, Amy scored on a corner from Saleen, and Raina got a goal from an assist by goalkeeper-turned-winger Lexi T. 7-0 at halftime. Then center-back Gaby scored from left wing on a nifty wall pass with Nora, before goalkeeper-turned-midfielder Emilie finished confidently at the back post from an excellent corner by Nora. 9-0 final score. 

8 different players scored a goal. 

12 different players either scored or assisted a goal. Including both senior goalkeepers.  

Nobody was trying to pad individual statistics, we just played smart and quick-passing soccer. And I hope that this spirit of generosity continues the entire season. Playing as an unselfish team is the only way that our total potential will be greater than the sum of our extremely talented parts. 

Next week we continue our home stand with two Kingco League opponents: traditional title rivals Lake Washington on Tuesday, and the rapidly improving program from Juanita on Thursday. Although it is still early in our season, both games will set a tone for our Kingco title defense. I expect two very competitive games. 

(but I've been wrong before).

Let's make sure we stop and look around a bit during this season. It's already very special and moving pretty fast.