First tournament game a win!

We played well with no substitutes. The game was played almost entirely in the other team's half of the field. Jarib sent a beautiful cross on the corner kick, right onto Jack's forehead for the first goal. What was Jack doing playing up? Alex turned out to be a terrific defender so the two of them took turns playing up. We were able to play with just Sebastian and Liam as defenders, Jack played more of a center mid and Alex more of a forward and then they'd switch off. The few times the other team played offense, one or the other came back to defend.

Roberto had a great shot that was saved by their terrific goalie who ended up being their MVP due to his many excellent saves. Ned and Nayef got lots of playing time on the right side switching from midfield to forward. Their positioning was excellent, they just need more practice kicking the ball.

The other team surprised us with a quick goal of their own to tie it up at the half. With a rare defensive mistake, we let a player through to Joel who chose to kick the ball straight ahead rather than picking it up or kicking it to the side. It bounced off their charging forward and he was able to dribble it in unmolested. A good lesson for Joel to learn in a game where it didn't end up mattering.

David drove hard against one of their defenders and then put the ball in the net for the go-ahead goal. Then Jarib had an impressive drive of his own and slipped one past their goalie. Roberto slammed in a nice left footer and finally Jack bounced one off their goalie, fought for the rebound and walked it into the net.

The other team had high praise for the way we played, thought about giving Jack MVP but gave it to Alex for the way he stymied every drive they had. Congratulations to you all. See you at 3PM for game two.