Follow us on Twitter

search for TopGun97G and stay up to date with the Bay Area's #1 team

Toe pokes are cool

Its a quiet couple of weeks for TopGun with only some slide tackles in the mud to keep us entertained. So I though I'd continue to comment on a theme I've mentioned many times.

Toe pokes are persecuted unfairly in this state. I'm not advocating that we abandon knuckle kicks, lace kicks, and side passes.... but the kids should not have this useful technique beaten out of them.... and in California, it really is being beaten out of them. Here are some examples from a league that many consider to be the best in the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwS8alc_jHQ

taking on the class 1 teams

TopGun went to Coppa D'Oro and played in the silver bracket with class 1B teams including the other SASC U12G team, United97. We played 3 games and could have won them all so are totally ready for class 1B. In fact we finished above United in the standings and with a slight change in luck would have made the consolation game. That luck was needed in game 2 against Woodland where we battered away at their goal, dominated possession 65:35, but couldn't put the ball in the net, and they sneaked a couple of goals against us at the end, by which time we should have been leading 5-0. TG got a dominant win against Xplosion who had tied Woodland 0-0, so we have a good gauge that this is the standard where we belong ( for the next 12 months until we are ready for 1A ). I missed the game against Peninsula, who finished second in 1B, and won this tournament against Juventus who won 1B. My spies tell me we pushed Peninsula all the way and got edged out by a dubious PK.

TG won big time in other areas :

1) some skills we've been working on at practice were used to great effect on the field. Two players produced perfect stop-go's, one in full flight, the other when receiving a pass. And Yoshi left 2 Woodland players standing still after performing one of our favorite moves

2) we know what to work on for specific players : delay drill ( again !!!, what is it with this technique that is so hard to remember ), heading, intensity. These items are not required to be performed with such precision in class 3.

3) what was number 3 again ?


anyway, TG excelled as usual and we are ready for the next challenge

D2 Cup Winners

we went into the D2 cup as bottom seeds. There were 2 other "3B" teams in the silver1 bracket : MP Strikers (redwood 3B champions), and LG Lynx (Delgado 3B 2nd place).

so who do we get in the 1st game. The number 1 seeds of course - our friends at MXG who we know from indoor and scrimmages. They finished 2nd in Delgado 3A, 1 point behind the winners.
Thus, our opinion was that game 1 was probably going to be our toughest, and would likely decide whether we progressed in this tournament. Turns out that this was very true. It was an open game but all the chances were falling to TopGun as Ysa and Olivia made breaks down the flanks, supported by a 4 player midfield that kept the ball high in the MXG half. The ball was not entering the TG penalty box very often. Ysa made the first break with a close range effort that she passed into the corner. Olivia made it 2-0 with a stonking left foot shot which flashed over the keeper into the far side of the net. Lots of midfield play followed, with a couple of panics in our goal area, but a dominant first half for TG.

MXG scored early in the second half, their right winger forcing her way past Tess and hitting a good cross to the far post and a short period of pressure from MXG followed - but then Ysa got a break away and rolled the into the net for 3-1.... something similar followed, 4-1 and then MXG scored a goal just like their first one ( see how we fixed that later ) in the final minute for 4-2. I spoke to the coaches of MXG before the game and they though it sucked that we met in group play as they figured this game should have been the final..... its not irony, but follow the story for later.


Game 2 : 1-1 tie with San Carlos Tsunami

What the ?.... they scored on us before we scored. I don't think that has happened since the scrimmage in Manteca. Admittedly we had missed three one on one chances by this point but still, this ain't the TopGun way - going behind in a game. Tsunami are actually a decent team with good skills throughout and their goal was a good one. Following Tsunami taking the lead, TG battered away at their goal for the remaining 45 minutes. Two more one on one chances followed and we hit the post twice and the side netting twice. Tsunami defenders were scattered all around the penalty box and our shots were taking unlucky rebounds. Eventually with about 2 minutes remaining, Cali hit a strong shot from way outside the box which fell to Ysa and she tucked it into the net to get the tie - this was a massively important goal and kept TG in the running with one game to play on the sunday.

The Tsunami coach came to see me before the game - they had done their homework on us and were planning to defend - I need to think about how to deal with such teams. At the end he said we deserved to win..... no kidding, what was it ? like 100 shots to 1.


Game 3 : 1-0 win v. MP Strikers

From the kick off we were camped in their half, but just like at soccer by the bay, we only managed 1 goal, and that from a rather dubiously given penalty kick. For the second half we played 3-3-4 with the goalkeeper at the half way line but another packed defence kept our shots out with rebounds that just wouldn't fall to TG players. It wasn't a fun game to watch, but we got the goal that ensured at least a consolation game......

.... we waited and waited for results to come in. Fred stayed to watch MTH tie and SCC lose.... so TG makes the championship game, but who against. MXG had rattled in some goals against the Strikers and Tsunami and actually ended up tied on points with TG ( 21 points ). LG Lynx needed 9 points to make the final and were playing against the weakest team in their draw - on past experience we would have preferred to play Lynx in the final as we beat them twice and easily in the Fall league. No results came in so we showed up at Hall Park and saw that MXG were there. Here's what happened : Lynx won 2-1 = 8 points. So 3 teams have 21 points. The tie breaker logic was :

1) head to head record - thats TG over MXG
2) goal difference - thats MXG over Lynx and TG
3) goals scored - thats TG over Lynx


So... massive amounts of irony, the important game #1 was hugely important for TG, and MXG did remarkably well to recover from that and make it to the final. Remember the 2 goals that MXG scored in the first game. Amani was given the job of keeping the right winger quiet - and what a job she did. The instructions were : "don't choose a side when tackling from behind, and stand tall and let the ball hit you" - and they were carried out to perfection. The frustration was visible and audible from the MXG girl. She fouled Amani countless times and our left defender stood up to it all, won the ball many many times and sent the play back into the MXG half. TG won 3-0 without a serious chance on our goal - thanks to Tess for lots of goalie time ( and to Carrie for the first MXG game). Ysa scored 2 tap ins, one the result of a flicked header from Olivia, and Lulu scored with a rocket from the edge of the box.

Massive Kudos to the team - they were pushed up a bracket at the insistence of coach Jon and manager Sally, and still triumphed.

Next up - some class 1 teams at a tournament in Redwood City, dec 12/13

D2 cup preparation

TopGun took on the U11 class 1A champions on sunday afternoon. Sporting 98 Green know how to pass the ball and took the 1A championship by 8 points. They gave TG a thorough examination for the 1st 20 minutes of the game with the ball being maneuvered across the field and down the flanks. The girls may be a year younger than TG but they can kick it just as hard so crosses were flying into our penalty box. That was the point of this scrimmage - TG's defence hasn't been tested all season and they were on sunday. But they stood strong, moving aggressively to any threats and clearing with confidence. Carrie had to make 2 good saves and Sporting hit the post with one shot from the edge of the box, Yoshi was chasing shadows as the blond pony tails passed the ball around her.... but as I said, that was the point - for the girls and the coaches.

For the second half we re-united Jeska and Carrie in center defence and added Alexia to center midfield. That pretty much stopped any action occurring in our penalty box



So what did we learn :

1) our defence will work even harder against good opposition
2) fill the midfield ( 4-4-2 ) to get Yoshi some help
3) the whole team plays better against good teams - very positive for when we move up to the next level
4) we can score against anyone - did I mention that during conversations on the sideline where we were discussing how good Sporting looked - that TG scored 4 goals and missed 3 other quite scoreable chances, and won the game 4-0

championship celebration

with the championship secured, TG set out to celebrate in style listing a bunch of placement changes in the starting line up for a dead rubber game against SCC Jaws. Tess went in goal for the 1st time since breaking her arm, Carrie started in Midfield, Jeska at center forward, and Hannah and KK in defence.

Despite the changes and starting the game with a bare 11, the game followed the pattern we are familiar with for TG this season. The ball was in the Jaws half for nearly the whole game and TG won 5-0. Goals came from Jeska, Gabby, Carrie, Ysa, and Yovanna.

The final record for the season is 10-0-0-43-2

D2 cup next week and we are missing Carly (foot injury) and Addie (vacation I think ).

Fall League Champions ( 4-0 win over LG Lynx )

with one game left to play, TopGun now have and unassailable lead at the top of the league and will be crowned Champions at the home game next saturday against the SCC Jaws.

Their position comes courtesy of a dominant 4-0 victory over the LG Lynx, who were the only team capable of catching TopGun before today's game. Lynx did manage some breakaways on us resulting in some awesome goalkeeping from Carrie but the game was played 80% in the Lynx half, with their only chances the result of a really rather bad field ( the italicised text is a not what I really said ), which caused the ball to skip passed our defence on a few occassions.

TopGun had 3 chances on goal before coach Ron even got to his assigned area. Ysa, Lulu and Gabby had chances to put TopGun ahead before the 5 minute mark. The game then settled down and was more even, but then a ball rolling through to the Lynx keeper was left to run by the defence and Ysa stole in to poke the ball home. Shortly after Ysa scored a second with a solo effort down the right, a cut back, and a perfect left foot shot into the corner. 2-0 at half time... but no messing today, we wanted to make sure of a comfortable victory.... so Carrie stayed in goal for the second half ( and ended up with nothing to do ). As with the 1st game against the Lynx, the extra work that the TG players put into practice showed itself as we dominated the game even more. Ysa scored shortly after the kick off, sliding home from a perfect pass from Cali. The 4th goal came from Tess who cut back with her left, then shot with her right; following precisely the instructions she received before the game; the ball kind of went through their keeper off a bad skip off the surface.... the field sucked !! That was it, Carrie came out of goal and KK went in to see out the game. Oh, nearly forgot a nearly awesome goal. Lulu made a great run down the right, got to the by-line, got around the ball and clipped it back to the penalty spot, Ysa struck a volley which hit the cross bar - the ball came back to Ysa who headed towards the corner of the goal but a defender was there to scuff the ball to safety


By the way "crowned as champions" will probably involve ice cream.

1-0 win v Almaden

TG were missing Lulu and Ysa for this game.

BUT... Tess is back !!

Word has clearly got out that TopGun are a good attacking team and Almaden laid out a 15 player defence for us to break down. Having said that, Almaden had the first attack of the game, straight from the kick off as Amani and Jes got caught out by the ball moving fast on the wet surface. Following this though, the ball spent the rest of the game in the Almaden half.

The midfield and attacking quarters were totally clogged up with Almaden players and in the first half TG could not play their usual game as the ball was snaffled in the busy middle. However, TG stll created many chance with Olivia and Gabby providing an abundance of crosses from both sides of the field. But we couldn't get that final shot. So we changed things for the 2nd half. Two touches on the ball and then get it forward wide or down the middle. Switched from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2 : this sounds like going more defensive, but it gave Yoshi someone for close passes and drew Almaden forward a little. And it seemed to be working - shots were raining on the Almaden keeper who did some fine work to keep TG out. One particular save from Gabby involved a dive and push to the left and the ball dribbled past the post to safety. But the shots kept coming and eventually Olivia broke free and stroked the ball wide of the keeper into the corner of the net. 1-0 - there was little danger of Almaden scoring after the 1st minute of the game so TG continued to push for another goal, but that is how the game finished

Now we are 8-0-0. Thats usually enough points to win these leagues but we need a tie or win next week against Lynx and to secure the title.

Lightning strikes (twice) - 7-2 win over Hollister

OMG, 2 goals scored on us in one game. OK, it was coach Jon's fault for messing with the line up, but we were 4-0 up after about 6 minutes.

It was about the most fun game in ages, as parents from both sides cheered some end to end soccer (helped by the small field) which produced hundreds of scoring opportunities.

The score finished 7-2. Hat-tricks for Ysa and Lulu and another goal for Yoshi who, during this game, dribbled the ball about the equivalent of 8 miles.

6-0 win ( again ) v. OV Heat

with the squad depleted through Diwali, AYSO, forgotten cleats and trips to see Wicked, TG turned up at the Morgan Hill Soccer Complex with just 11 players. KK started for the 1st time in ages but had to sub out quickly. Fortunately the girl who forgot her cleats had just arrived.

Before the game started, the girls found JJ who had just played on the same field. There were hugs and possibly some tears

Coach Jon had just watched the Lynx win 5-0 so the pressure at the top of the table was back on.

TG started at high speed. Crosses and shots were flying aound the OV box within minutes, but it took until about the 10 minute mark to break the deadlock. Ysa broke down the right and clipped a nice right foot shot into the far corner of the net. Alexia followed with a carbon copy goal a few minutes later. The OV goalkeeper was not retreating quickly after making punts. This turned out to be a bad strategy when one of her kicks went to Cali who sent the ball straight back over her head for another goal. There was a 4th goal in the 1st half.... can't remember who got it. Oh, and the TACO corner worked great with Addie getting a perfect cross in front of the goals

Second Half - the wind got up a bit and was against TG. However, the ball stayed almost entirely in the OV half of the field. Two more goals followed. One from Jes, her first for TG and what a sweet way to start with a stonking left foot drive high into the net. Hannah finished the scoring with a right foot volley into the right of the net from a corner kick.

3-0 win v. Santa Cruz Jaws

I wasn't there due to a clash with the Sporting 98 game, but I hear we dominated and won 3-0 and that Ysa scored a hat-trick and that there weren't any shots on our goal, and that KK's knees held up....cool !!

Back to the League

3-0 victory over LG Lynx.

Following the distraction of winning a tournament and then a week with no game, TG returned to Fall league duty with a game worthy of top billing this weekend. TG and the Lynx both had 100% records going into this game so something had to give. Certainly this was TG's toughest challenge of the season so far and the first half finished goaless despite Lulu smashing a shot against the crossbar. And for the first time this Fall, our goalkeepers had some work to do... there were actually shots on our goal today. But still no goals against. And, TG really took control in the second half with Ysa, Lulu, and Cali firing crosses into the Lynx penalty box - eventually Alexia was in the right place and despite only being 2 feet out, she smashed the ball high into the Lynx net. Soon it was 2-0 as Ysa picked up a loose ball and sent it over the Lynx keeper. TG then had to put in some strong defence as the Lynx sent most of their team forward, but the girls stood strong and forced the ball away each time. TG then made it 3-0 with another sustained period of attacking... again the ball flew across the Lynx goal and Carrie put it in with her left foot at the 2nd attempt.

The table looks good tonight

Palo Alto Tall Trees - CHAMPIONS

http://www.pasoccerclub.org/page.php?page_id=998

Game 1. 2-0 win over Palo Alto

The theme for the weekend was set in the first game. TG dominated from the kick off, rained hundreds of shots on the opposition goal and the score was kept respectable by some awesome goalkeeping. I counted at least eight one on one chances versus the Palo Alto GK - some resulted in great saves, some resulted in poor shots wide of the goal. Eventually the deadlock was broken when Ysa stole the ball in the Palo Alto box, swivelled, and smashed a right footer high into the net. Lulu sneaked in the 2nd goal with a left foot dribbler which the keeper failed to get down for. TG spent the entire game in the opposition half of the field. Our sweeper was positioned on the edge of the center circle in the Palo Alto half. Must also mention the girls pulled off one of the new set corner moves which resulted in Cali flashing a shot across the goal

Game 2. 3-0 win over Stanford Firestorm

Firestorm had a very successful time at Soccer By the Bay. They tied the Cobras and finished 3rd by beating the rather aggressive Santa Rosa team. The Firestorm must have wondered what was going on as they were beaten back into their own half from the kick off. Expertly placed through passes had our forwards bearing down on the Firestorm goal within 5 minutes and unlike the 1st game, TG found the net quickly. We were leading 2-0 after less than 15 minutes ( I know Ysa got one, maybe both ). As with game 1, TG attacked from all angles : straight through the middle to beat the offside trap, and wonderful moves out wide with crosses flying across the goal. I think we need to work on diving headers at TG practices. The 2nd half followed the same pattern. Ysa missed a PK but made amends within 3 minutes by dribbling past about 15 Firestorm players before expertly placing the ball in the net. We did suffer a shot on us in this game which went wide of the keepers left post.


Game 3. 4-0 win over SSJ Electric Blue Attitude

I thought these guys were going to test us : TG beat them 1-0 in the spring league in a very tight game and they have a great record so far this fall in 3C; TG only had 11 players for the game ( Lulu was unavailable and Cali was out for the day with a fever ). Well, it went the way of the first 2 games. SSJ were slightly less sophisticated with their defensive positioning, leaving 3 players on the edge of their penalty box. This resulted in those girls facing wave after wave of TG attacks. They stood strong for a while but then a cross from the right went across the GK leaving Alexia with a simple tap in. More TG attacking followed in the second half, Yoshi scored with a sweet left foot volley from the edge of the penalty box, Ysa broke through to make it 3-0, and then we mixed it up a bit. Jeska stole the ball from the SSJ defence, pulled it back from the by-line and Carrie swept the ball into the net. Job done, 4-0. Congrats to our 11 players on this one, SSJ had like 20 subs and our 11 girls had to play the whole game. We checked the scores of the other games at this point and it seemed unlikely that any other teams could catch TG after only 3 games played.


Game 4. 0-0 v. Eureka

We had Lulu back for this game.... so one sub available. Needing only one point to be sure of the Championship, TG went for max points as would be expected but despite 57 corner kicks and hundreds of shots, Eureka managed to keep the score to 0-0 and did even manage 1 corner and 1 shot into our box which Addie collected easily. I spoke to their coach after the game. They had looked at our record and decided to pack their defence. It worked in that we didn't score, but more by luck than design. Within minutes of the kick-off we were taking shots on their goal with the ball rebounding dangerously off the eight green shirts in the penalty box. It may not have been 57 corner kicks, but it was many.... I know because I changed the kicker 3 times as they were all getting fatigue on their corner kicking feet. TG put together one very nice move from a corner. Jeska's fake run to the corner left Hannah in tons of space at the corner of the penalty box, she cut in with her left and shot with her right but the ball didn't get past the 15 green shirts in the area. The game finished 0-0 and Eureka cheered their achievement.

TG finished with 33 points, 2nd place had 23 points.... I think we deserved this Championship !!


Other notes - I heard many compliments from the coaches of the other teams. They were friendly with us and appreciated the skill and commitment of TopGun. It is not usual for a team that is so dominant in a tournament to be respected in such a way. There was no resentment, no crying, no complaining. TopGun played great soccer and played the game fairly with no cheating and no disrespect shown to other teams... this is how we will continue to develop the team.

OMG !! 5-0 win v. Almaden

TopGun turned in an awesome performance against Almaden Quicksilver. Anything that was wrong in the game against Hollister was fixed by the girls which allowed Coaches Jon and Fred to concentrate on shouting at the referees.... another OMG. I have never seen so many wrong decisions, but at least they weren't biased, both teams suffered.

Anyway, did I mention that the girls were awesome. They exuded confidence, passed the ball beautifully and didn't give Quicksilver any time on the ball. I still believe there has not been a serious shot on our goal this season. Carrie and Hannah again took turns in goal, but once the score reached 4-0 the coaches decided to let the players try new positions. Lulu went in goal, Yovanna tried center forward and Cali went to sweeper. In between all this, Ysa scored 4 goals ( 2 PKs ) and either Lulu or Alexia finished off a wonderful move by tapping in a cross from the right.

Need to mention Jeska's shot as well which smashed against the post and shook the whole goal frame.


Goooooooooooooooo TopGun

3-0 win over Hollister

A rather frustrating game to watch but still a good win and zero shots on our goal. The first half was played almost entirely in the Hollister penalty box but shot after shot just rebounded to safety off the Hollister defenders. Eventually the deadlock was broken with a left foot high shot from Hannah. A second soon followed as Carly persistently battered the ball against the defence until finally a shot went through and into the net.

The second half was rather similar... I have no idea how TG didn't score more goals. Hollister did venture over the half way line in the second half but the defence mopped things up before Hannah would have been troubled in the goal. Yoshi then put away a fine goal, dribbling past 2 Hollister players and passing the ball into the right side of the net away from the keeper. TG had more chances but some fine work from their GK and some weak shooting kept the score to 3-0.

Soccer By The Bay

In a huge miscarriage of justice, TopGun were cheated out of 1st place at the soccer by the bay tournament despite having the best record. In a tightly contested championship game against MVLA, TopGun were robbed of victory by the ref who disallowed a clear goalscoring chance because Ysa use her toe to kick the ball. Apparently MVLA policy does not allow for toe kicks.

Anyway we were awesome and clearly the best team at the tournament and took 2nd place

Stunning opening to 09 Fall season

6-0 victory v. OV Heat

playing against one of the stronger teams from the Spring season TopGun turned in an exhibition of power, skill, and lethal finishing to score maximum points in this season opener. The pressure told just after kick off when Ysa tapped in from a Cali power corner. Minutes later Olivia burst clean through and made it 2-0. Despite many more chances, the score stayed at 2-0 until half time. Sensing that we could release more players forward in the 2nd half the coaches changed the line up from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3. Four goals followed in about 12 minutes.... GOOD GOALS ! Crosses flew in from the left and from the right and it could have easily have been more than 4 goals ( BTW... if a team wins by more that 7 goals, that team is deducted 2 points ). I recall that Ysa got another goal and Alexia got 2... so that's 5 in total... please write a comment regarding who scored the other goal.

Our injured players Tess and KK watched from the bench as did some other girl in a green and white soccer jersey... and they must have been impressed by TopGun, I know I was

4-0 Cruise over Sporting 98

TopGun strolled to victory over Sporting 98 white. The opening 10 minutes were quite even with the ball staying in midfield. But the TG took control, the ball staying in the offensive 1/3 of the field for the rest of the half. Shots flew by the posts and the Sporting keeper made a number of good saves. Eventually though resistance was broken and 3 goals went in before half time before 1 more just after the second half began. Emergency coach John Shapiro then rung the changes with almost every player out of position. This enabled Sporting to get some possession and move the ball into the TG half.... but every attack was snuffed out before the penalty box was reached.

Welcome to our Blog

The Fall 2009 season begins on september 12th with a home game versus OV Heat Red.

The team finished off a hardworking summer practice schedule by taking second place in the "Soccer by the Bay" tournament. We battered the MVLA Cobras in the final but couldn't get the ball in the net and ended up losing on PKs.

Our Fall plans have been scuppered somewhat by long term injuries to KK and Tess, but we hope to have both players back for the second half of the Fall season and for the D2 cup in November.

Check back here regularly for accurate and unbiased game reports.