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.