hey- it's a little past the 70th minute, and the brasilians have exploded in the 2nd half for us! we're up 3-0 on the courage as pretinha, katia and sissi scored our goals. looking forward to hearing in-person accounts of this one, as it seems the 2nd half is quite exciting! elaine
So happy....but not about giving up a goal with a minute left in the game. Gives me flashbacks to last year.....
It's just like watching Brazil ... Pretinha in the 53rd minute Katia in the 65th minute Sissi in the 67th minute Venus James wrecks LaKeyisa Beene's clean sheet in the third minute of stoppage time 3-1 final. Third in the standings. Not a bad night. What's Portugese for "YAHOOOOOOOO!!!!"?
Just got back from the game. Awesome, awesome, awesome. You will never see three better goals. Sissi came in at halftime, and Katia was subbed out with 10 or 15 minutes to go after the Rays took their collective foot off the gas pedal, but that intervening time when all three Brazilians were in there was some of the most glorious attacking soccer I have ever seen. I'll post more later, but first a quick word about the formation. It was a textbook diamond 4-4-2. Beene Alagich-Bryan-Cromwell-Chastain Barr Sanchez-French Tisha Katia-Pretinha Sissi in for Tisha at halftime.
What a game to miss! It's great when all the pieces click together and team works as an attacking unit. More details! Do another post. And remember that Brazilian magic in our scrimmage tomorrow.
OK, OK I was going to watch my tape of the Earthquakes game -- please, no one tell me who won! -- but I'll post more details first. First of all, someone please tell me that game was on TV in Carolina, because I'd pay big bucks to get my hands on a tape of the game. Or, failing that, just seeing the goals would be nice. Ok, the first half was pretty well-played by both teams. Courage came out strong and had most of the possession at first but the Rays gradually gained the upper hand and probably just barely had the better of the first half. Slaton did a great job of stopping Katia one-on-one, probably the best job I've ever seen anyone do shutting her down. But enough about the first half, what about the second half? Sissi came in at halftime, and things just suddenly clicked for the Rays' offense. Katia stopped trying to do it all herself. Pretinha continued to dazzle with her skill and energy. Michelle French was declared an honorary Brazilian for the day. Brandi was back to her 2001 form as she attacked relentlessly up the left flank. Everything was just perfect. The combination play was exquisite -- it was probably the most sophisticated offense I have ever seen in WUSA play. Acutally Pichon and Smith for Philly can put together combinations like that, but there are just two of them, whereas tonight for the Rays there were five players in on the soccer telepathy -- Sissi, Katia, Pretinha, French, and Chastain. The best bit of skill in the game -- it had me laughing out loud -- wasn't part of any goal. It's also kind of hard to describe. It happened when Beene sent a long punt down field to Pretinha, and Pretinha stuck out her foot and flicked the ball behind the back of the defender (with her first touch) and simultaneously spun the other way and raced onto the ball. It was amazing. Now, the goals. Unfortunately some of the specific details are now blurred. There was so much great play, and so many scoring chances that I may have have a few things mixed up, but here is my best recollection. 1. Pretinha dribbles in from right, parallel to the goal line, about ten yards out. She lays it off to Katia, but Katia has a defender draped all over her and can't turn. Instead she backheels the ball straight into Pretinha's path, and Pretinha finishes. 2. Sissi sticks up her leg and intercepts an attempted clearance. The ball had been really moving, but Sissi's excellent skill took all the energy out and dropped it effortlessly into her control spot. Under pressure, she sees Michelle French running down the left flank. And floats a perfect, curled pass right into her stride. French fakes a looping cross with her left foot, pulls it back, and sends in a low, driven cross with her right foot. Katia acts like she's going to volley in the cross, and the keeper buys it and commits. Katia then traps the ball with her first touch, watches the keeper dive out of the way, then slots it into the net. 3. I wish I could remember more of this buildup, but what I do remember are Frenchie's inch-perfect cross, and Sissi's leaping, acrobatic volley as she blasted the cross into the net. Stunning. Every goal was a thing of beauty. It wasn't a case of defensive mistakes or missed marking assignments, it was just an offense firing on all cylinders. Gee whiz, I don't mean to keep going on about it -- I guess I'm still on a high from the game.
It was not on TV here. Too bad, my profit on the tape would have been at least something positive for this Courage fan.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/05/11/SP115317.DTL Nice article on the game. Looking forward to more commentary from those who went! Attendance continued to stay in the 6,000's, better than last year. Anyone want to speculate on why Tish was subbed out? How did the other listed injured players play (obviously Sissi did pretty good!)?
YEAH, 'RAYS! Since DS already did us the favor of some nice recaps of the goals, I'll mostly try and fill in some of the other stuff. My impressions of the game: * We won!! And we didn't win because Carolina looked bad--we won because we looked good and finished our chances. * I agree with Ian Sawyers that we looked a little sluggish in the first half, but we made up for it int he second. * Pretinha's workrate. Wow! Is this the same player that looked so sluggish for the Freedom? I thought she'd stepped it up a notch for us last year, but she's kicked it to a whole new level this year. She's winning almost all the 50/50 balls, even against much bigger/stronger players, and she's carving up defenses with her skill and speed with the ball. Last night she combined better with her teammates than I've seen from her this season (she's been trying to take on everyone all by herself), which was awesome. She's clearly rising to the challenge Ian Sawyers gave her * When Erin Baxter went to bed last night, she had nightmares about Betsy Barr. Those two kept colliding on 50/50 balls (and several resulted in fouls, and a yellow, for Betsy) and Baxter came away the worse for it every time. I know, I know, I'm evil. * What do I always say? "Give the ball to #12! Good things happen when French gets the ball on offense!" I've said that a million times, and last night she proved me right (again). Her accuracy on those crosses was awesome. She looked good in the midfield. She did have some trouble running down a couple of errant too-long passes from teammates, and she completely whiffed one ball and then fell down in the box trying to turn quickly to get to another...actually she fell down/got knocked down a lot in this game. I kept thinking "ouch" but then she'd pop right back up. As far as I'm concerned she can fall down as much as she wants as long as overall she plays as well as she did last nght. * Great to see Di back out there. I thought she looked very solid and sharp despite her limited play so far this season. She also looks faster to me than last season. I could be wrong, because I don't have any kind of objective point of reference. I wonder if she's finally 100% recovered from her ACL injury. It seems like it usually takes a year and a half or so for athletes to really get back to where they were pre-injury, and Di's right in that timeframe now. Everyone continues to get right past Sanchez, but having Sanchez in mid and Di back there on D makes that scene much less scary. * Amanda Cromwell is very solid at central D for us. I liked what I saw from her in the San Diego game, and I liked what I saw of her in this game. She is a good organizer, and covers well. I'd still rather have Lindsey out there, but I definitely like Cromwell being the organizer over Brandi. * BEENE!!!!! She is continuing to save games for us. I can't fault her on the one that got in--there were far too many people in her way for her to get to the ball. She had some really amazing saves in this game, and looked very confident coming out to the edges of the box to take care of balls with her feet. BTW, I must mention that I think 'Keysh's feet are MUCH improved this season--she's obviously been working hard on that aspect of her game! * You all know this: I wanted to see more of Danni Borgman! With 9 points, we're now tied for 3rd in the league standings!
Not sure on the Tish/Sissi sub. Maybe it was something that was decided before the game to keep both players fresh? I have no idea. It worked though. Sissi looked sharp when she was out there, and was really firey, too--she was giving the ref and the Courage players all kinds of trouble. Like I said in my other post I think the whole team looked a little sluggish in the first half, and Tisha was kind of invisible, at least to me--I don't have any recollections of her play at all, for good or bad. Thori, though on our injury list, appeared fine. Maybe not as speedy as usual? But overall, fine. She didn't have to work as hard as she has in other games this season because Di was there covering. As for the injured Courage players, I thought Luckenbill looked all right despite her long layoff. The goals we scored were not her fault--she would have had to be superhuman to save them. Overbeck also looked fine when she came in the game.
For those interested, here is another match report. http://quakemagic.matchnight.com/qmdefault.cfm?page=ARTICLE&show=201 Regards, Jefe
EXCELLENT write-up, everyone must read that! How funny is she? What a great quote! This was also very good to read: Did anyone here stick around for the ceremony? Thanks for all the commentary and answers, guys. Ya'll rock, as usual!
hey- the c'rays site has their own game report up as well as a few game pics...love to see smiling faces! elaine
Where are the pictures? I can't find any. It kills me that this match wasn't televised. How can one of our Brazilians get goal of the week if nobody sees it? I think what's encouraging is that Coach Sawyers made halftime suggestions that players capitalized on. Sissi coming in sure helped, but everyone was pushing forward more agressively after the break. I like this line up and formation. I still hope to see Sissi and Venturini playing together at full capacity, but for now the subbing system is working. Frenchie seemed more productive on the wing than Sanchez. I agree that Frenchie was terrific! I like Di at right back though, so I'd give Keri more time to adjust to midfield. I agree that Cromwell will do fine in central defense until Kelly's better. I hope Katie Barnes doesn't get squeezed out entirely. I think she needs and deserves regular playing time. That was the most fun I've had at Spartan in a long time.
They're on the CyberRays page, in the upper left corner (kinda) underneath the game result....or you can just go here: http://www.sjcyberrays.com/team/actionshot_photoframe.html?id=39
Relief seems to be the main feeling coming from the players and coaches after last weekend. All of the goals sound beautiful with some flare in there, too. It's nice to read that James got a nice welcome. Courage fans are wondering why she hasn't gotten more playing time since she headed over there. It's good to know that we can get points while still missing some key players. Hopefully the return of everyone won't create any chemistry problems. Time will tell, but for now, we're doing pretty dang good.