BRFC Ladies 3 CPR Lady Red 2
After Rovers 2 great performance, it was time for Rovers 1 to shine. The news at kick-off was rather bad however. Vendaval was already 2 goals up in the first half of its game which meant we needed to win no matter what, and Shannon "The Shamrock", was stuck at work, which brought Rovers 1 down to 10 players. Against an excellent team like CPR Red (3rd in the league), being short is not exactly a coach's dream. Quickly though, Omar had the team warmed up and organized.
The referee whistle the kick-off 15 minutes late, Rovers recovered the ball, one, two, three, four first touch passes, Courtney Carter, flicks the ball cross the goal line and Rachel Sweeney finishes the movement neatly. 20 seconds and 1-0 for Rovers 1. From there on, you could have expected it to be a walk in the park. Well, it was … not. After 10 minutes during which Rovers dominated and toyed around with the ball, CPR got organized and started taking command of the game, forcing us to run frantically in all directions to try and make up for playing one short. As things had to happen, the pressure became slightly overbearing and they scored one then two before half time.
"Don't chase the ball, stay in formation, pass to feet, control the movement of the ball and use first touches to beat them" were in short the instructions given at half time. To avoid stress, Omar and I kept to ourselves the fact that Vendaval was already 4-0 in its game and that if we didn't come back they would win the regular season, not us. Slowly, little by little, the Rovers reversed the game and took possession of the ball. With one man down, there is no space for anything but perfectly accurate passing and 100% commitment and it is what Rovers 1 delivered. After 20 minutes, a great movement on the right side, then through the middle finished with a short pass to KG who slotted the ball in from 4 yards. Rovers 2 – CPR 2. Then, Lorena, our 19 year old rookie who is promised to a great future in college soccer, started playing her magic again and wreaked havoc with sheer speed and agility through CPR's defense. Twice she worked her way to a one on one with the goalie. The first went out just past the post, the second bounced off the post, back in the heels of the goalie who miraculously managed to get hold of it. When you are 1 player down, such opportunities don't come often and seeing them go is just a heartbreaker. On the other side, CPR stayed dangerous on counters and Annie "the X-factor" had to make a couple of brilliant dives straight in the feet of the strikers to protect her goal. With 10 minutes to go, news came that Vendaval had won 5-1. A tie was just not enough. And Vendaval, very much aware of it, was waiting on their field, hoping for a reason to celebrate. 2 minutes to go and on the side-line, we pretty much started thinking about what we'd say to Vendaval to congratulate them on their season. 60 seconds to go, Rovers 1 is still on the attack, still believing. A counter is quickly played from Susan (or was it Abbey) to the midfield, in two touches a through ball for Abby running wide on the right side in the back of the defense. She gets the ball, beats the defender, takes it straight towards the goalie and with incredible cool adjusts her foot and places the ball past the goalie. Let's just say that I screamed so loud I lost my voice. The last 60 seconds were heroic with both teams throwing everything in the game and Courtney beating the goalie who had come out of her goal and just not putting enough strength in her kick to score the 4th one in an open goal.
Final score: Rovers 1: 3 – CPR Red: 2.
Rovers 1 finished the regular season with 33 points (10 wins, 1 loss, 3 ties). With 44 goals scored and 11 goals conceded, Rovers has both the best offense and best defense of the League. And our own Jen North is golden boot.
We are tied with Vendaval for points but have a much better goal difference (33 v 22).
This makes Rovers 1 the official champion of the regular season, the first time ever in Rovers history. A great achievement for what undeniably is the best women's team to ever play under the Rovers banner and probably one of the best women's team to ever play in the League. Congrats to Omar and to all the players.
Rovers 1 now has a play-off game against Vendaval on June 6 to finish things off in beauty. We'll try to make sure we don't only win the regular season on goal difference but win it properly by kicking some Vendaval ass.
Roster of the day:
- "X-factor" Annie
- Susan "please don't make me play before 3 pm on a Sunday"
- Abbey "The tower"
- Rachel "I might be small but I do bite"
- Annie "the headhunter"
- Liz "Rovers 1 Ms. Congeniality"
- Abby "Enough with the twin fantasy, please"
- KG "Is that vodka I smell on your breath?"
- Lorena "the swirling rookie"
- Courtney "the locomotive"
And on the side-lines Jennifer aka "the nicest person on hearth".
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