MG: I broke down the line to defend a girl, and I thought I had cover on my back and I didn’t, and the girl ended up trying to get around me, and when I realized I didn’t have time on the ball, I kind of shoved her a little harder. Luckily, there wasn’t a foul that was called, but there could have been.
EE: Despite persisting through chilly weather and displaying strong defense, Varsity Girls Soccer fell to Saratoga High School 2-0 on Thursday, Jan. 9. The match brings the Matador’s overall season record to 3-7.
SHS scored a goal early on, leading to consecutive back-and-forth possessions in the remaining first half and the beginning of the second half. With 15 minutes remaining in the game, SHS scored its second and final goal after stealing the ball from MVHS.
Striker and junior Mia Wetlzer felt the team’s performance improved in the second half.
MW: Our defense was doing really well, but I think our second half was a lot better. I think we took a lot of note of what happened in the first half, and we used it to help us improve our second half.
EE: Co-captain and midfielder Maya Gallo agrees, noting the defensive changes the team made in blocking off players.
MG: We tried to improve on our communication and understanding that to block off a player, you can block off their passing lane, which we weren’t necessarily doing in the first half, and which led to the first goal being scored. We also worked on our offside trap, which allowed us to break off of our line and cause lots of offsides for the other team, which allowed us to stop their breakaways in a more convenient and less energy-using way.
EE: Wetzler had faith in the team’s defense, noting its strength and consistency this season. Still, Gallo anticipated a trickier matchup as SHS has dropped down from a higher division this year.
MG: We were expecting a tough match. So we stacked up our midfield and did a double six to allow us to have more people in our back line, basically and our back line really held strong today.
EE: Although the Matadors were successful in preventing SHS from scoring a goal for 30 minutes, they were unable to capitalize on offense, something Gallo attributes to lack of communication.
MG: The team needs to work on our communication. I feel like there’s a lack of understanding of where people are going to be and what people’s next moves are going to be. I also think that we need to work on checking back for one another and covering one another. That also seems to be one of our issues. We tend to lose the ball and then kind of just watch the other team break away or get the ball, and we need to step up into that role and take initiative and get the player back.
EE: Still, Gallo notes the team’s aggression led to strong endurance and will be needed for the team’s next SCVAL El Camino division matchup against Fremont High School.
MG: We’ve struggled with our aggression at the beginning of the season, like preseason specifically, but since our last game against Cupertino, we kind of got into this mindset that we need to play more aggressive, and we definitely showed out this game and we were playing a lot more aggressive than we normally do, which was definitely helping us in terms of keeping them out of our box and out of our defensive third.