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.