Back again. As the title to this posting says, it appears that we are running out of steam. I think it traces back to our loss to France where we were so close to pulling off a win that would have pushed into the semi's that the let down is still felt. After having our game yesterday postponed following a severe storm that left the field flooded, we have to play our game versus Russia this morning. Due to the condition of fields at the different venues and in the interest of keeping them in shape for tomorrow's games, we have the chance to play at the training facility for Partizan Belgrade a local pro club. Their team was actually training at the same time in preperation for a champions league match next week. Our captain Des Scott and goalie Jackie Dunnet had been ruled out for the balance of the tournament but we were confident that Kristen Funk who had back stopped her Trinity team to a national championship would fill our just fine. Unfortunately, we had a terrible start defensively and left her all alone and we quickly found ourselves down 2-0. We were able to take a goal back following a penalty shot we were awarded but then again gave up a bad goal and went into half time trailing 3-1. At the point, it would have been easy to go through the motions and run out the time but the players stepped on the field and worked hard. We managed 2 goals and tied the game and seemed to have Russia on the run. We managed a few more chances but following a corner kick, Russia scored a 4th goal which turned out to be the winner. We still had 21 minutes to tie the game and felt that if we could tie and go into penalties (there is no overtime in this tournament), we liked our chances of winning. The rest of the game mirrored our tournament, hard work, determination, but some bad luck, tough calls against us and lack of ability to finish. Russia added a fifth goal in injury time. Tomorrow we play China again for 7th and 8th place and it will be tough to beat them again but I am sure we will get a great effort from the team as they have shown throughout the tournament. Seeing how close we can come in game, it makes one wonder how we could do as a team if we had just a little more time to prepare as a group.
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AuthorAfter many years of coaching at various levels and with different teams, I thought I would share some of my experiences and thoughts about coaching. Archives
January 2023
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