Remember....

Remember the last game of the 2009 Lake Oswego Cup?

SUNDAY, JULY 26, 2009

Believe...

There are certain moments or events in every persons life that define who they are, and who they will become. Sunday was one of those moments for Sodium.
The 11 remaining Sodium players, battle-scarred and exhausted, took the field that morning to take on ESUFC Arsenal. Arsenal brought their 1-1-1 record to the field looking for a victory and a possible chance at the Flight A top spot. Sodium, with nothing to lose, was playing for pride and looking to be the spoiler.
The warm-up was lead by assistant coach Niki Brooks. We spoke personnel and positions. "How will we get the most out of every position?" We settled on what got Sodium to where they are today, the basics. We planned out the personnel on a 3-4-3 set. Niki told the girls she wanted them to come out fast and score within the first 5 minutes. If we get up by 3 then you can basically play where you want, was the promise. She fired them up but most importantly, she told them, was to have fun.
As the thermometer was climbing up, so was the determination on the faces of the Sodium players. They knew this was going to be a battle, they knew they didn't have any subs on the bench, they knew they were running on pure guts and determination and emotion. They knew what had to be done.
From the opening whistle the Arsenal squad had one directive, to wear down the lady warriors by whatever means possible. They tried boot-ball and that didn't work. They tried running the girls with breaks and long passes. Sodium shut them down. Finally, they resorted to playing a little dirtier than I have seen them play. Every time our forwards would get the ball, they went down, hard. Every ball in the air the Sodium mids had someone climbing their backs. Even our defenders were taking cheap shots. And even when they were down, most with tears in their eyes, they never stayed down. They are warriors. They got up, dusted themselves off and as if to say; "Is that all you got?" would nod to us on the sidelines, 'I'm OK.' and you can bet they were.
The first half ended a 0-0 deadlock. On the sidelines the girls laid down and re-hydrated with water and wet towels. Jesse James gave Sodium a much needed lesson on communication and pep talks were given to boost emotions. We noted that the Arsenal keeper likes to challenge and kept coming way out of the box to slide tackle. Keep that in the back of your minds forwards, it could come in handy.
As the whistle blew the Sodium team knew they had seen the best ESUFC had to dish out, and now the only thing left for them to do, was score.
The play again was hard fought. Both teams had had time to rest, but who would outlast who was the question. The Arsenal squad would sub at every opportunity to keep fresh legs in game. But, as with all great players, they listened at half. They applied what they had heard and slowed the play down with control, communication and solid passes. Play was winding down to the 15 minute mark and from the bench we could see that the lady warriors were now running on pure adrenalin and emotion. Something had to give. That was when KJ broke free down the left side. she was taking punishment from two defenders who she quickly beat and sure enough, the ESUFC keeper came charging out. As any great student of the game KJ applied what she had learned and chipped the ball. It deflected off the keepers shoulder and toward the goal. Mac Kearney had been in the keepers face all day and now she found herself again, deep in the box. But this time there was no keeper and she finished the ball into the net! The players were so exhausted there was barely any celebration. Methodically the made there way to the line. Niki had said in the pre-game that if we get up and are tired that players could swap a couple positions and center forward could drag back to help out the mids. And that is exactly what Sodium did and it paid off nicely as they shut the Arsenal down for the remaining 12 minutes. As the whistle blew and the tears welled up, you could see in the faces of the lady warriors that they had nothing left, the tanks were empty, they had left everything they had on the field.
What an absolute testament to the heart each and every one of these players possess and to the teams conditioning & training regiment. I challenge any other team to accomplish the things these athletes accomplished on the field today.

Congratulations Sodium on digging deeper than you thought you could, and finding what you didn't know you had.

You are true competitors, true champions.

Horsely I will continue to yell; GO SODIUM!


Lets do it again Saturday. Dig deep Sodium, and leave it all on the field.