Bellevue vs Redmond - 10.13.26
bellevue 6 - 0 Redmond
8th min 1-0 Maggie (Saleen) Corner
17th min 2-0 Ava (unassisted)
22nd min 3-0 Saleen (Hailey)
67th min 4-0 Tanna (Lola/ Aanya)
69th min 5-0 Maggie (unassisted)
79th min 6-0 Maggie (Saleen) Corner
AC/DC, Guns n Roses, Ozzy...our warm-ups at Redmond felt like MY teenage years. It was fun to take the field with the "Back in Black" chords ripping, but the color of the night was definitely pink. As many of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and the theme of the campaign is wearing pink; and so many teams in our league show their support by adding a bit of color to their traditional uniforms. We've been wearing pink socks in October since Annika and Carlie were taking the field for Bellevue over ten years ago. Since early detection greatly contributes to positive outcomes, I'm thankful that high school girls soccer teams embrace this awareness campaign. So when the entire Redmond soccer team (the Mustangs traditional colors are green and gold) took the field in all pink, with their coaches sporting pink hoodies, it made me proud of our soccer community. Socks and hoodies don't cure cancer, but the if the seeds of awareness and education are sowed early, we might be giving a future family a significantly better path than otherwise. Well done Redmond, hugs and high fives from your friends in Bellevue.
But let's hop back onto the Crazy Train to Paradise City, because after an abbreviated, but rockin', warm up, our team was at its head-banging best. We've been working hard at practice to simplify our offensive possession. There are times when we over-complicate things by over-dribbling or panic passing rather than choosing a simpler, poised option. But as Johan Cruyff said: "Playing football is simple, but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is..." (Cruyff was one of the most influential people in all of world football, both as a player (Ajax, Netherlands, Barcelona) and a coach (want to know why Barcelona/Spain are the best in the world right now for men and women? Their flowing style of play was installed and refined by Cruyff...). What does "playing simple" mean? The answer to that question is a dissertation (which perfectly illustrates the point). But ideally, I'd prefer our players to be more efficient in their touches in our defensive and middle thirds of the field, playing one and two-touch soccer with lots of off-the-ball supporting movement. Ball watching and flat footedness are the enemies. Spatial awareness, constant angle adjustments, and anticipation are the core principles. Then once we get into the attacking third, we can add more individual creativity with clever dribbling, good finishing, etc.. So, we're playing a lot of two-touch soccer at practice. And when we do, we are breath-taking. It's beautiful. It's simple. And the hardest thing there is...
But our game against Redmond was the closest we've come to putting together a full 80 minutes of patient, fluid, quick, technical, smart soccer: simple football. Long may that trend continue.
Our goals were a mix of great build-up and well taken set pieces. We opened the scoring in the 8th minute from an excellent corner by Saleen that found Maggie at the far post; a thumping header back across the goal from our sophomore center back made it 1-0 Bellevue. Excellent. Less than ten minutes later we doubled our advantage when Ava won the ball deep in the Mustangs' end, spun her defender and launched an early shot into the far netting from 25 yards. 2-0 Bellevue. And in the 22nd minute, we scored a fantastic team goal: Keira pressured the Redmond fullback into a rushed pass, Maggie stepped into the lane at midfield, won the ball, charged forward, committed a Mustangs midfielder, and then slipped a simple square ball to Hailey. Hailey took two touches before threading an inch-perfect entry pass to Saleen at striker, perfect outside-of-the-foot one-touch turn, one-touch to settle, and one touch to blast a shot past the helpless goalkeeper into the upper corner of the goal from 20 yards. 3-0 Bellevue.
With a comfortable goal margin, we discussed keeping our focus and FTJ'ing the second half (yes, it's become a verb). And despite a small lull to start the half, we continued to play patient soccer. In the 67th minute, Serena sent an audacious and clever spinning chip into the corner for Aanya who crossed confidently to Lola rushing in from the right wing. Lola cushioned a pass to a trailing Tanna to finish off the underside of the crossbar. 4-0 Bellevue. Two minutes later we were treated to an absolute golazo. Maggie won the ball at the top of our box, 90 yards away from the Redmond goal. And immediately took the direct route upfield. I've mentioned several times in previous recaps how effective transitional forays from our center backs are at unbalancing opposing defenses, as most defenders don't want to leave their mark to engage. So as Redmond's defenders kept retreating, Maggie gladly kept charging forward, taking the space given to her...finally a defender broke her lines to challenge, Maggie skillfullly beat her on the scissor dribble at full gallop and fired a wonderblast from 30yards that rippled the net over the outstretched arms of the keeper. Full field romp. Pure joy. Maradona at the Azteca. 5-0 Bellevue.
And then a goal of deja vu. In the last minute we won a corner. We did our best Barbie to slow down proceedings, then Saleen and Maggie had their curtain call as the ball was whipped into the back post for our defender to head powerfully into the goal for her hat-trick. 6-0 Bellevue. Final Score. Hats and octopus thrown onto the field for our sophomore center back. Cartwheels for the shutout.
It was our most comprehensive game of the season against a good team. Just the week before, Redmond had played very competitive games against LW and Skyline, narrowly losing by identical 1-0 scorelines which simply highlights how good we were against the Mustangs. Now we set our sights on Bothell on Thursday at Pop Keeney Stadium. Last season, we got caught in a classic "trap game" against Bothell and lost 1-0. I'm hopeful that this year we will have learned our lesson and come focused and ready.
Perhaps we need the right playlist for the bus ride to Bothell: thumping drums, virtuoso guitar licks, mosh pit, screeching vocals, big hair and leather pants.
See you on Thursday.
Peter
