OLYMPIAN

ORACLE

October 21, 2000

From the opening kickoff the game was evenly matched, with each side having its share of chances. For the Olympian offense, wingers Simone and Tiffany, with crisp passes from Amanda and Juliette in the midfield, were able to consistently get the ball down the sidelines before crossing to strikers Devon and Jordan in the middle.

The Olympian defense for its part was impenetrable in the first half.  Erikka and Nora did a great job of clearing balls up the field and Casey provided her usual superb job of handling most of the balls that got by them. This meant that there were only a handful of balls that needed to be saved by Sarah in goal. The result of all this fine defensive play was a scoreless first half.

In the second half the battle continued apace. Colette in the midfield and Jamie at left wing combined on numerous plays to get the ball deep into Hot Lava territory. Midfielder Erikka had a nice long solo run down the field with the ball before passing it off and resuming her "marking" duties. And Simone had a beautiful cross to strikers Devon and Amanda. But despite the numerous Olympian onslaughts, the Hot Lava defense held their ground and prevented the Olympians from scoring.

Meanwhile the Hot Lava offense was having their own share of scoring opportunities. Unfortunately for the Olympians, a couple of these shots, one in the third quarter and one in the fourth, found their way into the net. The end result was a 0-2 loss for the Olympians.

Play of the Day

The play of the day today came during the second quarter when the Hot Lava had what looked to be an almost certain scoring opportunity. However, midfielder Jamie, who had come back to help on defense, was able to get the ball away from a Lava attacker and pass it quickly off to Casey, who in turn was able to quickly boot the ball up the field.

Coaches' Commentary

Like in last week's game against the "Untitled" team, the Olympians played good soccer this week and both this week's and last week's games were much more competitive and evenly matched than the score would indicate. Two things though to keep in mind for next week.  First, on offense, when an Olympian is inside the opponent's penalty area with the ball, her first thought should be "Do I have a shot on goal?" Only if she doesn't, should she think of passing or dribbling the ball. Second, on defense, when the ball is in our own penalty area, each Olympian's  first, second and third thought should be to kick the ball out to the sides and away from the middle of the field (the only exception to this being if the keeper has called for the ball).

One thing we'd like to do this week is to see if everyone can be at the field by 12:30 or so so that we can watch the second half of the game that precedes ours (Paul and Dave will provide commentary). Watching others play under game conditions can be a great way of learning; it's much easier to see what other players are doing right and what they're doing wrong  when you yourself are not running your tail off.

Special thanks to Jamie and Erikka, who both did a terrific job in marking Ginger, who had a difficult time getting the ball and an even more difficult time holding onto it once she got it.  The pressure brought to bear on Ginger prevented her from scoring.

Also thanks to Sarah and Simone for their fine work in goal.

The Olympians missed Emily and look forward to her return next week.

Next week's game is at 1:10pm  against Tony's Tigers. Like the Frosted Flakes, they may be G-R-R-REAT, but I'm betting the Olympians will be G-R-R-REATER!