Ladies Rovers’ unbeaten run comes to an end - By Nicolas

A hard fought, very high level game saw Rovers 1 go down 2 goals in
the last minutes of their game against the New York Magic Reserve.

With 15 players on the roster, the ladies of Rovers 1 had answered
present for their challenge against the (until then) 2d team of the
league and always impressively solid NY Magic reserve. Being 2 points
off the Magics in the league, the pressure was on the Rovers to
defend their first place. And the spectator that I was would be lying
if he didn't say that you could see our ladies feeling that pressure
on the field every now and then.

On the whole, the game proved a classic between 2 schools of soccer.
The Magic Rovers had opted for a boring if terribly efficient
defensive game in the catenaccio style, combined with long deep balls
to its point striker and the counters that went with it (or basic old
school kick and run as I like to call it). On the Rovers side, the
emphasis was on style and building up the game through the midfield
with a fluid and flexible 3-5-2 and connecting passing game. The
result on the field was one where the Rovers controlled the ball most
of the time but couldn't get through/ Brynne, Kaitlinn, Abby, Shelly,
Kelli and Laura in particular were moving the ball smoothly
alternating efficiently long and short passes to move up the field
but the forwards, be it Courtney, Pam of Jennifer were rarely in a
position to do something else than play anchor. Getting through was
proving in credibly hard. As soon as they recovered the ball, the
Magics where similarly efficient in going for the long pass and
countering in fast if not classy way, ending up, on average, more
often in dangerous offensive positions. At the back, Natalie, Katie,
Bryant, Susan and Mary, in turn were holding the fort and working
hard to recover every ball. Jessie wasn't left to her own and timed a
couple of perfect runs in the first half, combined a good dive to the
right to keep her goal clean for the first 45 minutes.

The second half started like the first one with both teams pretty
much canceling each others for 10 minutes with the Rovers maintaining
their control of the ball. That was until the referee decided that
the Magics needed a boost up the field. Now, like many of us, I have
had my rants against referees. Still, I cannot help being terribly
dismayed when a referee entrusted with a game of such high quality
and high stakes falls for the oldest tricks in the book, or worse,
shows plain partiality for the "better known" team and the obnoxious
noisy crowd of soccer parents (note: apparently it is ok to still be
a soccer mom and dad when you kids have left college, who would have
known. I wonder if they get chocolate milk after the game too…). All
the sudden, the referee started calling foul after foul against the
Rovers for every single Magic player tripping on their own feet or on
the ball, while the Magics' systematic holding of shirts, pulling and
pushing was not ever sanctioned. As usually happens when a referee
cannot keep control of the game, the Magics got the message quickly
and got more aggressive while the Rovers grew nervous and lost their
composure and their touch. 15 minutes and 5 dangerous and undeserved
free kicks later, Abby rebelled against a few too many elbow kicks in
the face and impatiently pushed back her thuggish opponent. While the
ensuing yellow card was understandable, one still wonders why the
Magic player who slide tackled Kaitlinn from behind, both feet
forward 2 minutes later only got a verbal warning from the ref, or
why the player who pulled Susan back by her shirt while she was
alone, on her way to the goal, just after that was never even called
for it. 30 minutes in the second half, a counter that didn't look
that threatening saw the ball crossed from the far left side of the
field and a Magic player squeeze in between 2 defenders to slide the
ball just past Jessie. Rovers 0 - Magic reserve 1. The goal acted
like a wake up call for the Rovers who recovered their focus and
besieged the Magic third, getting themselves 3 corner kicks in less
than 10 minutes. The Magics are not a team you want to be behind in a
game though. Nor one against which you can afford to blunder three
favorable corner kicks. Great defending from the Magics limited
furthermore the Rovers to strike from a distance and three great
kicks from Susan landed just wide of the Magic goal. As in those
games that make us hate soccer as much as we can love it, one single
counter was then enough for the Magics to end up in a perfect scoring
position and kill the game with less than 45 seconds to go. In the
old duel between efficiency and beauty, efficiency won on Sunday.
Final score: Rovers 0 – Magic reserve 2.

Rovers 1 are now 1 single point beyond the Magic reserve in the
league and the season will be all the more thrilling from the
challenger's position.