The Game

I guess now is as good of time as ever to blog about the game today.....the pictures are down below, I posted them a little while ago, but I'm sure you want a story to go with them.

Melanee's team was ranked #1 in the seedings for the USCAA National Championship for womens soccer. They weren't ranked #1 on the final week of the season's standings though...and I don't know how accurate the ranking system is because many of the other teams had better records than SVU.

I'll start this off by telling about the weather and the fields. The weather was in the low 40's, which is cold, but NOT as cold as last year and there was no wind. The opening round games were played at a soccer complex like 20th street park or Cherry Hill (or Island, I never remember). The fields were real grass, not turf. The fields were surrounded by evergreen trees. Kind of cool.

Melanee's team played a school called Saint Marys of the Woods from Indiana. They are a women's catholic college and this is their first year with a soccer program.

It was a great game. Very exciting from start to finish. Melanee's team played hard, they passed well, and looked to me like they fought hard. They took a lot of shots from far out that went over the top of the goal or to the side. They also had 3 clear break aways that were stopped by the goalie.

Melanee started the game as the sweeper. She did wonderfully back there and there was no way any one could have gotten past her and Tamara. They are just that good! Seriously!!! But at half time, it was clear that Melanee needed to go up, and she did every now and then, but never got a great shot off, she worked the ball well, and found some openings but her shots went to the goalie or over. Not in the back of the net where they needed to be. So the game ended in a 0-0 tie. They played the first 10 minutes and then almost all of the second 10 minutes at 0-0, but the other team go the ball way out far to their left wing, she took the ball up the sideline, past the full back and got a cross/shot off, the goalie tried to get it and Tamara tried to get it, but the ball rolled off of the goalies hands right next to the post, INTO the goal. Golden Goal. Game OVER. SVU out of the National Championship, just like that.

SVU took 45 shots, Saint Marys of the Woods only 9.... but it only takes 1 to win, so SVU stood stunned, St Marys celebrated, and just like that all the SVU dreams of defending their title are GONE.

They play the loser's bracket game tomorrow then head back to Virginia. Kind of a dissapointing ending to a pretty dissapointing season. All the talent was there, it just didn't happen this year.