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.