Today we played Great Britain. We won 8 -1 but the score wasn't nearly as impressive as how our girls conducted themselves. From the beginning we knew we out matched them both in level of play and fitness. They were also without their starting goalkeeper who spent the night in the hospital for dehydration and their best player who was in a cast from their match with Canada the day before. At halftime with the match in hand at 5 - 1 we talked about playing good quality soccer rather than just pushing it forward for more goals. I told them that if we played the game the way we've been training that goals would take care of themselves. We also talked about our responsibility to promote women's soccer by being good ambassadors for the sport. We knocked the ball around with 1 & 2 touches and defended collectively with low pressure. As such, we still scored 3 more goals. During the match the coach from GB came over to me to tell me that a couple of his girls were so anxious about the match that they didnt sleep the night before. He told me they had seen part of our match against Israel and he also told me that his girls all have so much respect for US Womens Soccer that they thought they were playing 19 Mia Hamms today.
After the match our girls got together and did a cheer for GB to show our respect and appreciation for their efforts. After that the lovefest began. Both teams came together for a picture and the players started trading gear, trading email address and before you know it there was even dancing on the field. It was a true expression of what the Maccabiah is all about.
One of my girls said it felt like they were our little sisters.
Sometimes the best plays of game happen after the whistle blows. And sometimes EVERYBODY gets to win.
Congratulations Coach, it seems that your team is not only playing well but representing our country and the Maccabiah games very well. We wish them all good luck on Tuesday.
ReplyDelete