I knew that if we were ever going to have a chance at a run at state, this would be the year. I wasn't sure how my U15 C3 team would perform come game time. Our first game of the week was against Tonka United, a widely known formidable team. I was personally driven along with the five other players from last year's team, for it was Tonka who knocked us out of district playoffs. The ref whistle blew, and they attacked. Tonka took two shots on net, and both were skillfully blocked by Justin, our goalkeeper. I'd like to mention here that our season had just started that night, whereas all the other teams had had two or three games already. So with that on our minds, we began our attack. With the next 7 minutes we were up 2-0. Needless to say, Tonka was shocked. About ten minutes later, we had the opportunity for a PK. I was chosen to take it, and nailed the ball into the lower left hand corner with my right foot. 3-0. With about ten minutes left in the half, we were attacking again. I chipped the ball up to young striker Adam Doboszenski. He took a nice strike into the opposite corner of the net. At the end of the half, it was 4-0. However, Tonka knew that we had no subs. We started out the second half with the same amount of energy, but began to tire. Fifteen minutes later, they found a hole in our defense and shot the ball through Justin's hands. With little time left in the game, they scored again, but it would not prove to be enough. Wright County would go on to win 4-2. Our next game was against Plymouth. Our two biggest threats this season are Plymouth and Minneapolis, so we knew it would be a battle. Plymouth would be playing their fourth game of the season. In their previous three, they were undefeated and unscored on. We planned to give them a run, but saw a challenge ahead of us. Coach Zach Pecarina gave us one of famous "pep talks." He walks over and says, "I just walked by the team. I swear I must have looked up at all of them. And they're thick. Just... stand your ground. See what you can get away with, and please don't get killed." With that expert advice ringing in our ears, starters took the field. However, as I took my position at left mid, I noticed that a player from my team last year was lining up across from me. Simon left our team to play for a better team. Now we had even more motivation to win. For the first twenty minutes, we were forced to play an extremely defensive game. Luckily we beat them and were able to launch some sort of offensive. Unfortunately, all attemps were futile. However, it was obvious that we were in control of the game. We tried to carry that momentum into the second half, but it was Plymouth that came out firing. Eight minutes into the second half, Plymouth pounded a beautiful shot past Justin. The home crowd went crazy, and we were thrown off. However, there was plenty of time for us to make our move. Our opportunity arrose with twelve minutes left in the game. We were given a corner kick, and I was to take it. It was on the right side, so as is my custom, I took it left footed. I figured I'd bend it at the net and hope one of our tall forwards could get a head on it. Instead, I got an intersesting kick and without anyone touching the ball, it found it's way into the net. I couldn't believe it at first, but was snapped back to reality when our faithful parents started cheering. The battle continued, but the score remained 1-1. Simon was pretty mad that he couldn't beat the team that he left for somewhere better. Our next game is Wednesday against Minneapolis, so we're prepared for another fight. I'll have the update on that game sometime after Thursday morning.
