Hello Breakers Blackwatch ..

I trust everyone is back home safe & ready for a little rest .. or back to work as it is in my case.
I want to thank everyone for a wonderful weekend, the girls really enjoyed bonding & spending time with each other ..

Before I go on to summarize my point of view on this weekend I would like to share the following true story. Playing my last year of competitive soccer before leaving to college my team had qualified to the regional quarterfinals .. it was a big thing for us as we weren’t expected to advance so far .. in this quarterfinal game we had a very good opponent, I had a few scoring chances, but my best scoring chance came with 1 minute left in the game as I beat the last defender, then I got fouled inside the 18 yard line. A penalty kick followed & my entire team wanted me to take the kick .. I put all my power behind this ball, struck it so perfectly & so powerfully .. but my shot hit the cross bar & bounced off about 30 yards into the field .. the other team took the ball on a counter attack & scored on us. I felt horrible .. lost & very frustrated. Had I hit the ball 1 inch lower .. the game would be over, I revisit this game in my mind every so often .. I revisited it this weekend on my way home & it reminds me on how cruel the game can be.

3-0 loss vs SD Surf White
Surf White is a very good team, we really came out flat & took us a few minutes to get into a rhythm. We allowed an early goal that bounced between our players & then we allowed a nice goal in which our defense was caught off position. The second half was another story .. we battled them very hard & we had the upper hand for periods of time, we really didn’t have too many clear scoring opportunities, but we played with a lot more energy & desire. I felt Surf White was a deserving winner, however I think the score should have been 1-0 or maybe 2-0 based on my observations.

1-0 loss to OC Premier
This was an even match for the first 10 minutes .. we then turned it on & controlled most aspects of the game. We made 1 clear mistake where we allowed OC Premier to take a shot & this shot would bounce off the post into our goal. On the second half we threw everything we had onto their goal .. we had at least 4 clear scoring opportunites .. a few of them were no more than couple of feet from the goal line. I really enjoyed watching the girls put so much pressure & working relentlessly, but in State Cup we can’t make mistakes & forgive our opponents mistakes .. this was our game to win & we’ll learn from this loss.

2-0 loss to Real California FC
This was our second game against them in 2 weeks. We lost 3-0 to them on the first time around, this time around we should have won 2-0 .. our performance on the first half was tremendous .. we connected on our passes, found ways to penetrate their defense consistently, but we could not get any balls into the goal. Again .. we only made couple of mistakes on this game & on the way this weekend went, for every mistake we made a goal would be scored on us.

NO matter the outcome of these games, the girls were fantastic .. besides our inability to score, we had one of our best weekends of soccer. What we’ve worked on all year came to play & was very evident .. every team we played knows we deserved better, OC Premier’s coach told me so & had very nice things to say about the girls. The game of soccer can be a very cruel game, our girls need to learn to be more decisive in front of the goal & they will go into next year’s season knowing they must do so.

We finished with combined tournament & league record of: 29 wins, 13 losses & 9 ties. My goals for the year have been accomplished. the girls know how to play together, they have improved their individual & collective skills, they are competitive against any team out there & they play beautiful soccer. My goals for this coming year will focus on making the girls decisive players, on building captains in the team, on expanding their understanding of the game. We need leaders, our captains are in this team right now & we’ll work on making them effective, inspiring & constructive.

THIS WEEK
Street Soccer Tuesday & Thursday at 6pm

• No practice until after tryouts .. I will everyone posted

TRYOUTS
Next week .. Tuesday & Thursday at 5:30pm, be at Mance Buchanon no later than 5pm.
We have many kids trying out, I may hold a third tryout session to finalize the team for 2010.

• All players must be present in order to be considered for the 2010 team ..

Thank you parents for a great year .. the girls are on their way to greatness & they owe it all to you.