bellevue 0 - 1 Mercer Island
41st min 0-1 MI goal
I woke up the morning after the Kingco Championship, poured myself a cup of hot coffee and sat down at my kitchen table; and flipped open my laptop browser to review the events from the night before...and...surprisingly, couldn't find any mention of our game. I checked all of the usual places: the Seattle Times, Wall Street Journal, New York Times...even the BBC. However, news editors all over the country chose to cover news unrelated to our performance against cross-town rival Mercer Island. Amazing. Trees falling in forests without making a sound and all that.
So we begin a new day, cloaked in the obscurity of a news cycle that somehow ignored Kingco girls high school soccer results in all the major outlets. The media blackout was so comprehensive that our usual NFHSnetwork broadcast didn't stream at all last night (my parents in Portland, who never miss a BGS game, sadly stared at a blank TV screen all night...). Strange days.
Congratulations to the Islanders. As I told our team immediately after the final whistle, hurt and frustration are to be expected, but it's in those challenging moments that it's important to rely on character: decency, respect, and sportsmanship...look your opponent directly in the eye, shake their hand, and congratulate them on their victory. And so we did. I'm proud of our team.
The Islanders played a smart, organized and disciplined game. Nothing they did surprised us, we reviewed how they frequently shift in defense from a low block to high press, how they prefer diagonal entry passes to opposite side wingers, and how they are set-up to counter-attack in transition when opponents make possession errors. Check. check. and check. Championship finals are often cagey affairs with just a few opportunities for either team, the margins are thin as well-organized defenses are difficult to break down. By my calculation, we outshot MI 10/4 with a 5/3 corner advantage. Well below our 18/shot average per game. And to be fair, other than three excellent gilt-edged chances, most of our attempts were speculative, from long distances that require perfection rather than redirection. If our offense struggled to create good chances, was MI any better? Nope. Our team defense was solid all night, with only four chances at our goal, two in each half. Unfortunately, one of those chances hit the upper corner of the net in the 41st minute. And for the balance of the second half, protecting a one-goal lead, the Islander defense was resolute. With 15 minutes left in the game, we shifted formation to get Maggie in attack (losing 1-0, 2-0, or 5-0 are all the same result...so we took on additional risk to try and find an equalizer) in an attempt to overload their backline. However, we struggled all night to link possession through midfield into attack, as the slick turf, heavy touches, and jittery nerves made it difficult to find our attackers' feet with any consistency. I'm not sure shifting to six forwards would've made a difference. It just wasn't our night.
Final whistle. 0-1 loss. Trophy to MI. Ouch.
For the first time in a long time (since 2019), we drop down into the consolation bracket to try and secure the last remaining berth in the State Tournament. In less than 48 hours, we must "goldfish" our MI result, physically recover as much as possible, and dig-deep into our well of mental toughness to play a loser-out game against Liberty on Thursday. No more safety net. The good news: we play the game at Bellevue Stadium. At home. 7pm kick-off. Although it's been a while since Bellevue had to take this path to State, it is not unprecedented. I'm hopeful that our team will ask Carlie & Annika about their senior-year journey that included five consecutive knock-out games that started in the Kingco consolation bracket: three PK shootout victories, a golden goal OT winner, and a final minute of regulation winner to reach the Final Four via the most dramatic route possible. Games like those aren't determined by technique, but by competitive fortitude. Guts. Determination. That's what we'll need on Thursday.
Although we haven't played them this season, we know Liberty well as they return most of their roster from the State Championship Final from last fall. Many of our players are club teammates with many of their players. Games against friends are always the most competitive. Especially when the stakes are high. With a victory, we move on to the State Tournament. With anything less, the season would be prematurely over.
We choose the former. But it will take total buy-in and concentration on Thursday. Although I can't fault the effort we invested against the Islanders, we certainly didn't play our best game. There is room for improvement everywhere (starting with better coaching). I'm confident our team will respond and be ready for the challenge.
Thank you to our supporters for coming out on a chilly Tuesday evening. I'm well aware that on Tuesday night there was nothing else going on in the country more important and newsworthy than Bellevue Girls Soccer. The most important, of the least important things.
See on Thursday.
Peter
