Beaten by Medan Vale

We played Medan Vale Colts today, in our 2nd home match. They were somehow relegated from Division 3 last year, so it was always going to be a tough game, but after last week’s result and performance, we had hopes of pushing them close.

A Shaky Start

Unfortunately, Medan Vale scored within 2 minutes of the start, and then again 2 minutes later, which left the girls a little shocked. Medan Vale scored a 3rd not long after, even though there was a push in the back on Katie in the box that the referee didn’t see.

However, we then suddenly started to press them hard, stopping them having space — this was led by Naomi and Estee in the middle, and Freya and Alice out wide. Our defence started to reduce the space they had to run into, and intercept balls before their forward players could get moving.

A Goal Back

From this, Katie played a ball out wide to Alice, who drove into the box and crossed to Cheska. She shot at the keeper, but the rebound came back to her, and she laid the ball back to Naomi, who stroked it into the goal. The half ended with Medan Vale scoring a 4th, but we came in at half time feeling the girls could get into the game more, get them thinking about us more, and maybe score a couple more goals.

A Difficult Second Half

Unfortunately, Medan Vale had other ideas, and quickly scored 3 goals, which seemed to knock the girls’ confidence and belief, and we started to sit deeper and deeper, inviting pressure onto ourselves. Layla, Daphnie, Estee and Naomi continued to try and hassle Medan Vale as best they could, but we weren’t able to get any sustained balls to allow us to break free.

Medan Vale continued to score, without reply from us, until the last few minutes when we started to maintain some pressure down our left, with Alice and Ella putting in shots. We even had a free kick just outside their box that Naomi stepped up to take, but shot wide. The pressure at the end just wasn’t enough to get a consolation goal, so we lost 14-1.

What We Take From It

As a team, we need to learn to play to our strengths and how to be hard to beat as a team. We need to be braver on the ball and want to get the ball when we don’t have it. Every game has something to learn from, for both the girls and the coaches.