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.