Soccer Sunday's: You Win Some You Lose Some

Well, I haven't posted a weekly soccer update in a while. For two weeks in a row now my women's league has been rained out! It always seems to rain on Saturday's and since we play on grass fields they call the games. (Honestly I'm glad they call the games because playing on a muddy field is how I hurt my foot in the first place.) Sunday's however have been bright and clear.

So last Sunday my co-ed team played an amazing game! We won 5-0. Our forwards were on fire and our defense (where I play) was unbeatable.

This week however we lost 0-4... our worst loss of the season. So what changed in a matter of a week?

Well last week we had one sub...which went down to zero subs because one of our forwards suffered a hamstring pull, but at least for half of the game we had someone with fresh legs.

This week we had no subs and everyone had to play the entire game.

Last week all of our incredible forwards were present and gave us a solid lead which they took even further in the second half.

This week two of our forwards were out (one with a hamstring injury).

During last week's game one of our strongest forwards dropped back to play defense after we had a solid lead. Either he coaches or he's just that smart of a player but he's an awesome communicator on the field. It's good to have someone who communicates especially on defense because that way someone essentially has another set of eyes for you and warns you if someone slips in behind you. It's good for moral too and I'm the type of player who likes to have someone giving me direction especially because I did not play growing up and didn't ever have the guidance of a good coach. I felt like we played one of our best games defensively because of good communication and working well as a team.

This week communication was severely lacking on the field. I felt like our defense was a bit scattered and the other team took advantage of that. We played the team I was on last year and I knew how most of their players played (but they also knew how I played...however I have improved a lot since last season and my former captain acknowledged that at the end of the game... thank you very much!) So anyway, I pretty much knew there was no way I could out run their captain, he was too fast and he's also got a strong shot.

Having a lack of communication on defense let another guy slip by me that ran in quick and I could have been marking him instead of playing so far outside and he ended up scoring as well.

Sometimes a loss helps you realize where you need to improve and having such drastic scoring differences between these two games made me see how I think we should play going into the play offs and my teams mates agree we need a line up like we had last week. I'm crossing my fingers that with us likely having a bye week next week due to our ranking (3rd place) it will give time for our one forward to recover from his hamstring pull and everyone will make sure their calendars are clear so we have a sub or two!

I'm feeling optimistic for a good post season! (Now hopefully it won't rain next Saturday so I can see my gals again before our season ends and play on a dry field!! I can't injure myself for my Sunday team we've got some play off games to win!)