2-0 loss to Fusion

November 13th--This game was played at the Morgan Hill Outdoor Center Turf Football field, and it is a big, 120 yard by 60+ yard field. Add to this a consistent 20-30 mph wind blowing from north to south down the length of the field and this game turned into a half field game with whichever team had the wind at their back on the attack. It was very difficult for either team to clear the ball against the wind. Fusion had the wind advantage in the first half, and managed to get two scores, both by taking long shots. The first was a 30 yarder from in front of the penalty area on the left side. The ball popped away from the Sporting defense and one of the stronger Fusion legs drove it into the top of the goal over Kristen's outstretched arms. The second goal started with a shot of similar length, but this time Kristen was able to jump up and bat it away. Unfortunately, a Fusion forward was there to tap in the rebound. Fusion was also able to get a couple more good runs on the goal in the first half, but shots were errant. Sporting did manage to put some pressure on in the first half, penetrating and attacking the Fusion goal, but never with a clear shot.

In the second half, Sporting kept the ball and stayed on the attack for most of the half. The Fusion defense held, though, and Sporting kept playing the ball through the field with the wind and fast turf. Fusion, like Sporting had trouble moving the ball past midfield but did get a couple of near break aways that were stopped by Marina F. All in all the Fusion were a very different team than the one that we faced earlier in the year.

0-0 tie against Palo Alto Hurricanes

November 6th--Another defensive battle for Sporting. Sporting went to Cubberly Field looking to avenge an earlier 2-0 loss to the Palo Alto Hurricanes. Sporting dominated the first half but was still having trouble with the offside trapping defense the Hurricanes had used so well in the first match. Though the ball spent most of the first half in front of the Hurricane goal, Sporting was unable to capitalize. Moni put in a good effort for not feeling well and put some good pressure on the goal in the first half. The beginning of the second half was a different story, with the Hurricanes coming out and living up to their names. They put a great deal of pressure on the Sporting goal, but the defense was able to barely escape with some clutch stops right in front of the goal. After about 5 minutes, though the tide started to turn and Sporting went back on the offensive. Still plagued with offside calls, they did manage to penetrate the pushed-up defense and get several good runs at the goal. Celine, Morgan, Preeya, Marina H and Kiana all had chances at the goal but nothing went in. Preeya was the closest near the end of the game but her bouncing shot went just wide after getting by the keeper. All in all a good effort, but we have to learn to be patient with trapping teams. The center mids of Celine and Maya played very strong in the second half. Not a bad game, certainly better than the first, but the score didn't reflect Sporting's effort.

Hurricanes threaten early in 2nd half.

Kiana battles Skyler for a header.

Morgan runs over the keeper

Celine almost runs over the keeper.

Preeya's shot finishes just wide.

Game 2 October 30, 1-0 Loss to Castro Valley

October 30th--Game 2 of the Medina Tournament went much better for Sporting than Game 1. Sporting came out ready for a quick pace and aggressive team. Control of the ball and the attack seesawed throughout the game, with Sporting's mid-field doing a great job of keeping the ball on Sporting's half. Both teams got off shots on offense, with Morgan and Moni putting pressure on the CV goal in the first half. CV nearly scored on a PK after handling in the box, but Kristen had great anticipation and made a diving stop to prevent the goal. The tie was broken late in the second half on a fluke own goal and that was how the match ended.

Great effort in this game by all the girls, they really stepped up their play. Also, they deserve congratulations on the whole weekend. After the first 10-15 minutes of the first game, Sporting did not allow another goal (by the other team). The 3 goals that were scored on them were scored by the eventual champions of the tournament.

Kristen's diving PK stop

Halloween battle of the scary socks--1-0 Win over Devils

October 31st--The consolation game for the Medina tournament pitted Sporting and their spooky spider web socks against the equally scary skull socks of the Sunnyvale Devils (second picture). This was also the last day of Sportings pink Goals for a Cure jerseys, so we took a picture of the team in pink with spiderwebs (first picture). Kristen also wanted a pink ribbon formation picture, so we did that as well (last picture). The game was a very evenly contested match which featured more headers (pictures 3 &4 of Katie and Marlene) than any I can remember between Sporting and an opponent. Both teams were good all day on defense, with a few good attempts by Marlene and AK for the Devils, and Moni, Morgan and Preeya with open looks for Sporting. The games only goal was a long shot (figuratively and literally) by Katie (picture 5) from the left of the bottom of the center circle. The high arcing shot ball bounced in front of the keeper and high over her head (it didn't look like she had a play) into the goal. Overall a very successful tournament for Sporting, playing competitively with 3 very good teams.

Last day of the pink jerseys.

Skulls vs. Spiderwebs

Headers!

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Katie's long shot

Pink ribbon

3-0 Loss against Menlo Park Strikers

The girls came out a little flat, maybe not used to the pace and footskills of a Silver Elite level team. But still, after two quick goals and a questionable PK made it 3-0 in the first fifteen minutess, the newness wore off and Sporting played good defense and held the rest of the way. Not much happened on offense all day due to the strong Striker defense with the exception of a decent attempt by Preeya. Nothing to be ashamed of in a loss to the Strikers, they are currently in 1st place in Silver Elite league and it is good experience for our team to play against them.

2-1 Win Over MVLA Typhoons

October 16 (Saturday)--Finally, a game with the Typhoons that didn't end in a tie (I think the last 4 have been ties!). After a scoreless 1st half, Sporting started to gain momentum in the second, with several shots just missing. Sophie almost had a running header go in after arching it over the goalie only to miss a few feet wide of the open net. Kristen finally broke the deadlock midway through the second half with hard low shot that got by the keepers fingers into the right side of the goal. MVLA got the equalizer on a shot from the right that rebounded off the left post and barely got by Marina F. With time running out, George moved everybody up into the box for a Katie corner kick, and after touching several Sporting players (and Daniella's header), left defender Rebecca got a clean look and scored from the edge of the penalty area on a lob over the keeper's head. Both teams played well, with Sporting doing the best passing and ball movement of the season. Fun to watch Katie as dominating mid fielder late in the game.

Sophie lofts a header that just misses wide right.















Kristen scores on a hard, low shot.














Sporting celebrates after Rebecca's goal.

0-0 Tie against San Benito Spirit

October 10th (Sunday)-San Benito didn't allow us many chances, with their sweeper, #18 able to stop anybody who got near the goal. We were able to get off a few shots, but nothing really close to the keeper. Kristen stopped the only good chance of the game on a break away down the right side for the Spirit. Otherwise, our defense was very solid as usual. We will need to move the ball better in the future to get around good defense like we faced today.

Kristen saves a break-away attempt.

Moni gets a little room by #18 and fires a shot wide.

0-0 Tie Against Quicksilver

October 9th-Sporting played well, and was so close to scoring on several plays it was hard to believe the ball didn't go in. As always, the solid defense of Daniella, Rebecca, Katie and Celine made it difficult for Quicksilver to get the ball close for a good shot, and the keepers stopped the one or two reasonable shot attempts. Quicksilver played better than our first match against them, with former Sporting player Andrea G. doing a good job on sweeper for Quicksilver in the first half. Sporting had their chances though. Rebecca lofted a beautiful shot from about 22 yards that bounced off the upper right corner of the goal. In the second half, Sophie had two chances from in front of the goal after beating the defense. One was stopped by a diving keeper, and the next one beat the keeper but banged off the left upright. In the end, nothing would go in and Sporting ran out of time.

Rebecca's first half shot rebounds over the keeper.

Sophie's toe poke gets stopped by a diving keeper.

Sophie tries the left side but bangs it off the post.

2-0 loss to Palo Alto 99G Hurricanes

Saturday 10/2. The pink jerseys returned on Saturday but it did not bring Sporting much luck. Neither team had much offense going in the first half, but PA managed a score on beautiful DFK from #19 from about 30 yards. Not much Kristen could do as it sailed over her head into the top of the goal. Sporting offense sputtered all day although there were a few chances. Most attempts were stopped near midfield with numerous offside calls from PA's trapping defense. PA scored again midway through the second half when Sporting failed to clear the ball from in front of the goal and eventually PA took a shot from about 10 yards out of the center of the goal. Sporting will have to wait until November 6th to try and even things up.

Pink Jerseys return for October.

Morgan tries a tough angle in the 1st half.

1-0 Win over Orchard Valley Fusion

Closely contested match in which both teams played well but our defense stepped up the intensity after Saturday's loss and managed a shutout. Moni scored the game's only goal by converting a PK midway through the second half after she was knocked down from behind in the box. New defender Daniella did a great job harrassing anyone trying to come up the left side. Both keepers played flawlessly with Marina making some clutch saves down the stretch to preserve the victory.

Moni sends her PK to the lower left side of the goal.

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Marina makes a save late in the second half.

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After the game.

1-1 Tie vs. MVLA Typhoons

Sporting came out a little slow today, allowing a goal early after the ball sat too long in front of the mosh pit that was the north goal of Grant Park's pitch. The score could easily have been higher, both teams had numerous valid attempts at goal today. Moni, Morgan and Kat had good first half attempts, but most kicks for both teams were errant or directly at the keeper. Keepers Kristen and Marina F did great jobs at stopping everything coming their way. Sporting gained momentum in the second half as the defense got stingier and they finally tied late in the game when Sophie fed Kiana for a hard attempt from the right and Morgan rebounded the keeper's bobble for a score.

Kristen celebrates her birthday in the mosh pit.

Kiana launches the shot that Morgan (background) rebounded for score.

1-0 win vs. San Benito YSL Spirit

Sporting's defense was again strong on their second match of the weekend, with neither of our keepers seeing much action during the game. We had a great possession advantage and had several excellent scoring opportunities but were unable to capitalize on it to score. Fortunately, Daniella scored with a strong kick into the top of the goal in the middle of the second half, which was enough for the win.

2-0 Fall Season Opener

Both teams seemed a little rusty in the beginning, but a first half goal by Celine in traffic and a strong second half goal by Kiana after winning a foot race from midfield gave Sporting the win. We welcome to Sporting a couple of new players, Daniella and Kiana. Both played very well in their first match. Sorry to see Eva and Lexi move on.

0-0, and 2-0

White98 are holding their own near the top of the 3A bracket and with 3 games left to play have a great chance to finish in the top 4.... which would be awesome given how "new" this team is !

First they tied 0-0 with CV Jaguars in a tight battle, and then in a classic game of two haves beat a good OV Rampage team 2-1 with goals from Eva and Monica. The tables can be viewed here (scroll to the Blue bracket)

http://www.gotsport.com/events/results.aspx?EventID=9018&Sex=Girls&Age=11

0-2

Sporting took on the group favorites, San Jose Aftershocks, at Sutter on Sunday and played a great game against a tough and talented team.

Early on it was clear that we would be under a lot of pressure in this game and the girls fought hard to keep the ball away from our goal with Eva making a number of well time interceptions at sweeper. Things were going well until we kind of forgot to kick the ball out of the penalty box and gave away a very soft goal. Despite the pressure, the Sporting offence was not blunt and Monica and Preeya had chances to put shots on the Aftershocks goal, but placed their efforts wide.

Aftershocks scored a good goal on Sporting early in the second half for a 2-0 lead so now we had to change tactics a little. Eva went forward and Rebecca went to sweeper. The changes had immediate impact and Eva ended up with lots of shooting chances - unfortunately the Aftershocks keeper was having a good day and kept the ball safe despite some strong shots. Monica had the final chance to get a goal back but shot wide.

Some of the girls looked sad about their 1st defeat of the season but they should be proud of playing so well against an established team that should probably be in a higher bracket. Their coach was in a state of panic for the final 10 minutes as Sporting threatened to tie the game and was subbing furiously to try to counter our new line up.

Los Gatos 0 Sporting 1

another clean sheet and another win. 3 players missing this weekend ( celine, maya, KK ) so the girls did extra good to secure another dominant win. Monica wrapped up the points with a great penalty kick and the Sporting goal was not threatened.

Next Sunday, with players missing again, we take on the favorites to win the Blue bracket, SSJ Aftershocks.

2-0 win v. Almaden

I only have verbal reports to work from as I had a 4 game clash on staurday.

No shots were made on our goal, the defence was awesome, and new girl Kat scored one and assisted on the other for Morgan. Sounds like a great game... and nice to get one over on an ex player who went to Almaden.

Next up : Los Gatos

outdoor & indoor

the weekend started with a 0-0 tie against MVLA-white played on a cattle grazing field in Los Altos and officiated by someone who seemed to have a vested interest in MVLA securing points from the game. Thats what I heard, anyway, and this view was kind of supported by the abysmal refereeing we endured for the green team v. MVLA-blue/black on the same field on sunday. It was later reported in the Los Altos Town Cryer that a couple of goats had "gone over on their ankles" whilst trying to get a snack at Hillview Field.

On sunday we had to go through the usual heavy defeat to TopGun at OTW. Although it would have been nice to have more teams competing at OTW, these games have been very useful to bring the white team together, and also to help improve the girls touch on the ball... we are seeing the benefits of this already !!

Mount Hamilton domination

White98 girls took on two U12 teams this weekend. On Saturday they defeated Mount Hamilton Crimson Tide 6-5 at a very exciting indoor game. But the full outdoor game on sunday turned out to be even more exciting.



On Sunday we took on MTH Pirates, a more experienced and generally better team than Crimson Tide. The field was wet and the grass very long, and The Pirates provided size 5 balls - don't know why, size 5 comes in at U13 !! So lots of challenges for our U11 girls, with the added issue of only having 12 players as Sophie and Hindman were not available. The 1st 10 minutes were not good from Sporting, maybe the sleepy dust was still in their eyes, but after that they played some of the best soccer we've seen from this new team. The Pirates move the ball around nicelybut were not penetrating our defence too often, and were very susceptible to fast breaks from Sporting. The Pirates hit the post and a mad scramble followed in the goalmouth with Kristen diving around trying to grab the ball, but eventually the ball was cleared... and then a bizarre goal. Sporting moved the ball to Morgan 10 yards inside out own half - the ref called offside, everyone stopped, then he was over-ruled by coaches on both teams - so Morgan headed off to goal with 50 yards to go and chased by 3 Pirates defenders. Morgan won the race and scored with a good shot. 1-0 at half time.

The Pirates scored two soft goals in the second half to take a 2-1 lead and the game was very even at this time. Sporting were now moving the ball around better and playing with more confidence. Eva and KK were sweeping up everything at the back with Rebecca and Lexie covering any threats out wide. We were still missing breaks from midfield though. Kristen, Vaeda and Celine were taking one touch too many when it would have been better to send through-balls to the forwards. However, Sporting started to build a lot of pressure around the Pirates goal and tied the game with the best move of the day. Kristen faked out 2 midfielders before sending the ball wide to Morgan in the penalty box and she hit it first time into the back of the net. Monica made it 3-2 to sporting with the last kick of the game, intercepting a goal kick, then taking the ball back into the box and firing a low shot into the corner !!

Parents were noisy from both teams for this game which means it must have been fun.

4-3 victory at OTW

I wasn't there for the game, but we did see Fuller on saturday evening. According to her, she scored all of the goals and made 20 fantastic saves to keep Sporting ahead in the game.

Here's a link to some great pictures courtesy of Jeff !

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23504803@N08/sets/72157623526339660

Narrower loss to top level U12 team

only 7-2 versus TopGun this week, and tight at 2-2 at half time.

The black uniforms look great ! and the players are improving every week

Next week TG are at a tournament so its Sporting v. MTH at OTW

Indoor Soccer at off the Wall.

Game 1. Narrow defeat to top class U12 team.

If TopGun hadn't sneaked in 9 fluky goals, Sporting would have won 2-0. Kristen and Fuller did one half each of GK duty and pulled off some fantastic saves from wave after wave of attacks from the bigger girls. Morgan and Celine scored for us.

Overall Coaches Jon and George were really impressed by the effort the girls put in for the 1st half. Then, after some half time instruction they proceeded to play some nice passing soccer and to generally calm down. This kept the ball in the TopGun half more often than in the 1st 20 minutes and Sporting could have got up to 4 goals.

The indoor season looks like being a very good part of our preparation for the Spring outdoor season

Scrimmage. 1-1 tie v. West Valley U12s

another great game from the new look team, including another couple of players trying out.

Jeffs_Photos

Sporting White 98 took on WV Olympique 97, so U11 v. U12. This West Valley team won the D2 cup a couple of months ago so are no slouches.

We had almost a full squad with only Jennifer absent.

Sporting started off with a 4-4-2 formation with Fuller in goal for the 1st half and the girls took control of the 1st quarter of the game with Olympique unable to get the ball out of their defensive half of the field. Sporting were moving the ball nicely around midfield but were missing opportunities to play our forwards through on goal by delaying the passes for too long (we pointed this out to the girls at half time). The pressure we were applying on the Olympique goal brought rewards after about 15 minutes when Monica moved the ball down the left, fed Morgan, who fired a high left foot shot over the goalkeeper and into the net. Sporting then had to go on the defensive for the rest of the 1st half as Olympique kept the girls pinned in just outside our penalty box. Fuller made a number of good saves and the defensive line held them out until just before half time when a scuffed shot wriggled past Fuller for 1-1.

For the second half coach George switched the line up with Eva at sweeper and she did an awesome job "sweeping" up everything that Olympique threw at her. Kristen took over in goal and looked quite accomplished in there. The midfield started playing earlier passes which worked very well at releasing our forwards and Sporting created a number of scoring opportunities which really should have brought us a couple more goals, but the game ended as a 1-1 tie.

A shout for Preeya who finished her try out with this game.... which was successful and I'm pleased to say that she has agreed to join Sporting 98 white.... congratulations !!

The team continues to look very well balanced and we are looking forward to the Spring season

2010 New Players..... great start

Following try outs in December, some players leaving the club, and some players moving to the Sporting Green 98 class 1 team; 98G white has a very different look for 2010. In fact, there were so many good players at try-outs that both the green and white teams have a very fresh feel for the coming Spring season.


Sunday Jan 3rd : 1-0 victory v. Juventus Galaxy

The first outing for the white team was a scrimmage on turf in Redwood City versus Juventus Galaxy, a team we tied 0-0 in the D2 cup back in November. Thus this was a good gauge of how our re-formatted white team can develop. On the field, we had only 5 players returning from the Fall team ( Eva and Monica were not available ), so a big test for the new players, including Morgan who was trying out and with us for the 1st time.

Sporting started out at high speed and were in control of this game very quickly. The challenges in midfield were tough and that kept the ball away from the Sporting goal and in the Juventus half. However, shooting chances were kept to a minimum by an efficient Juve defence. Sporting forced a succession of corners, and that's where we lost a bit of momentum as the coaches realised with so many new players and very little time together that we didn't have corner takers identified. Katie K, playing at sweeper, was snuffing out any attacking threat from Juventus with calm interceptions and drag backs with the rest of the defence (Rebecca, Jennifer, and Lexie) working very aggressively to stop any progress towards our penalty box. As the half progressed, the girls started to gain in confidence with some sweeping moves through midfield from Marina H, Vaeda, Morgan and Kristen feeding the forward players of Sophie, Celine and Marina F. Coach George noted that the team looked very well balanced for positions and ability.

The second half followed a similar pattern with Sporting generating most of the scoring opportunities. Sophie moved to sweeper and played great there anticipating any breaks and sending the ball way back into the Juve half with well timed interceptions. Morgan, Katie K, and Rebecca all made long runs from the half-way line into the Juve box but the shots were being well saved by their keeper. Crosses flew across the Juve goal line, but Sporting couldn't get that final touch into the net. Eventually, Morgan picked up a loose ball between two defenders and outsprinted them towards the goal and fired a shot into the net off the keepers glove. This pushed Juventus into some action and they played the ball into the Sporting penalty box a few times but no clean shots on goal were made. Sporting locked up the 1-0 victory by playing the final 5 minutes very tightly..... an awesome start for the new look team. Not just the victory, but the manner of play and the way the girls grew during the game.