Most of the LISC players on a tour of the old fort.
The old fort was part of the sightseeing tour for the team. 
(yes, the fort.)Friday, July 17, 2009
Nya Älvsborgs fästning - Old Fort
Most of the LISC players on a tour of the old fort. The old fort was part of the sightseeing tour for the team. (yes, the fort.)
Coach's Corner VI - Game 4
The confidence that we carried from the Kungsbacka game was more substantial, more resilient than that which we had gained from our 5-0 debut. This had been a severe test, and we had passed in all respects but for the final score. Our impression of the magnitue of our achievement was confirmed by several of the Swedish spectators, who by now had sufficiently adopted our cause so as to be fairly called our fans. None of them had expected a smaller, younger American team to contend with one of the strongest teams in the region, and they were sincere in offering us their heartiest congratulations.
Our reward for this achievement was to play the other "titan" among southern Swedish clubs: Onsala BK. Onsala has a tradition of dominating the regional leagues at the youth level, frequently 'feeding' its best players to the larger metropolitan clubs. It currently boasts two players on the Swedish Under-16 national team. This was a formidable foe indeed.
We returned to our school after the morning game against Kungsbacka, ate lunch, and rested for nearly two hours before riding the train back to Inlag. Spirits were high. We seemed to have adopted the right approach. This was a challenge to be welcomed, not feared. These were the games in which we could gain the very best assessment of our real improvement. This would be a competition in the truest sense of the word - two teams striving together to bring out the very best in one another.
The script by now must seem wearisome to you readers. As we lined up for the pre-game handshake, our players were on average half a foot shorter than their internationally experienced opponents. We could be very thankful that it was a soccer match, and not a tug-of-war that we had agreed to contend.
We opted for the same line-up as the morning's game, counting especially again on the strength of our back four to gain us a legitimate foothold in the game. They did not let us down. George and Patrick proved the equals of any of the battering rams thrown against us centrally. But Onsala were more varied in their approach than Kungsbacka had been. Once they saw that things would not be as simple knocking our front wall down, they entertained a second option. With tricky wingers on both flanks, they began to isolate and attack our outside backs. Brennen was not flustered, and his assured defending increasingly forced Onsala to try our right side. Malik held the fort until receiving a knock on his hand that required Freddie to enter as a sub. John was put in at that side of the midfield to help as well, and did a great job both cutting off entry into the Onsala wingers, as well as calmly distributing the ball out of trouble from that side when it was won by us.
This game was also not the hesitant tactical affair of the earlier match in the day. Both teams were committing players forward in hopes of getting that all important first goal. Dennis found space along our right flank and beat his defender several times to deliver dangerous crosses that were just cut out by the Onsala goalkeeper. Tarik managed to knock down a few aerial services; one of these was strongly met by Mac, whose shot was accurate but saved. Tarik then showed the other side of his skills, using turns on his defender and well-timed runs into spaces to gain us more chances. A deflected shot from one of those chances fell to Joey, but would not sit up enough for Joey to meet as brightly as he normally does. At the other end, Andy was twice forced to bravely intercept a through ball before it could be met by a sprinting Onsala forward. Neither collision diminished his resolve to continue. Later he fisted out a dangerous low cross that was headed for an unmarked attacker at his far post. We held firm. The game was completely level. There was nothing to choose from between the two teams.
The scoreless draw meant we headed directly into a penalty shootout. This, of course, is soccer's perverse version of a lottery, where neither victor nor loser ever feel quite deserving of the title. My distaste for these arbitrary skill contests is such that I will not comment much upon the details, other than to say that the moment proved too great for our nerves, and we could not overcome our two misses. Onsala advanced 4-3 in the shootout.
The Onsala coach was both reluctant in accepting congratulations for winning in this manner, and effusive in his praise of our spirit and skill. Tears were promptly shed.
It seems a pervasive rule of life that we are most passionate about those things which carry the most risk of devastating us. Or, perhaps more precisely, our greatest passions carry with them the risk of bringing us our greatest disappointments. Soccer was the conduit through which we were reminded of that lesson today.
We had finished the tournament both undefeated, and unscored upon. Maybe unfair, perhaps even tragic, but also strangely uplifting and definitely galvanizing. For this is the other side of passion: when you choose to approach something you love with the desire this team now approaches its soccer, and when together you give everything you've got not for your own aggrandizement, but for the sake of the other 17 warriors at your side, when you have become a part of something bigger than you could ever become yourself, then you have achieved real satisfaction, a lasting fulfillment.
The boys recognized this quickly. We spent the best night yet together at the school. In between games of hangman and trivia, we spoke about the meaning of our achievement. We had advanced farther than any other U.S. team in our age group. We had played on even terms with the best Europe had to offer. We had reached a critical moment: would we allow this to be the culmination of all we had first embarked upon last summer? No, we decided instead that we were only now beginning to understand and feel what it meant to be a real team, and we were eager to see how much farther that might take us. On to Denmark ......
LISC 0 Onsala BK 0
Shots (on goal): LISC 11 (6) Onsala BK 11 (6)
Onsala BK advance 4-3 on penalty kicks
Our reward for this achievement was to play the other "titan" among southern Swedish clubs: Onsala BK. Onsala has a tradition of dominating the regional leagues at the youth level, frequently 'feeding' its best players to the larger metropolitan clubs. It currently boasts two players on the Swedish Under-16 national team. This was a formidable foe indeed.
We returned to our school after the morning game against Kungsbacka, ate lunch, and rested for nearly two hours before riding the train back to Inlag. Spirits were high. We seemed to have adopted the right approach. This was a challenge to be welcomed, not feared. These were the games in which we could gain the very best assessment of our real improvement. This would be a competition in the truest sense of the word - two teams striving together to bring out the very best in one another.
The script by now must seem wearisome to you readers. As we lined up for the pre-game handshake, our players were on average half a foot shorter than their internationally experienced opponents. We could be very thankful that it was a soccer match, and not a tug-of-war that we had agreed to contend.
We opted for the same line-up as the morning's game, counting especially again on the strength of our back four to gain us a legitimate foothold in the game. They did not let us down. George and Patrick proved the equals of any of the battering rams thrown against us centrally. But Onsala were more varied in their approach than Kungsbacka had been. Once they saw that things would not be as simple knocking our front wall down, they entertained a second option. With tricky wingers on both flanks, they began to isolate and attack our outside backs. Brennen was not flustered, and his assured defending increasingly forced Onsala to try our right side. Malik held the fort until receiving a knock on his hand that required Freddie to enter as a sub. John was put in at that side of the midfield to help as well, and did a great job both cutting off entry into the Onsala wingers, as well as calmly distributing the ball out of trouble from that side when it was won by us.
This game was also not the hesitant tactical affair of the earlier match in the day. Both teams were committing players forward in hopes of getting that all important first goal. Dennis found space along our right flank and beat his defender several times to deliver dangerous crosses that were just cut out by the Onsala goalkeeper. Tarik managed to knock down a few aerial services; one of these was strongly met by Mac, whose shot was accurate but saved. Tarik then showed the other side of his skills, using turns on his defender and well-timed runs into spaces to gain us more chances. A deflected shot from one of those chances fell to Joey, but would not sit up enough for Joey to meet as brightly as he normally does. At the other end, Andy was twice forced to bravely intercept a through ball before it could be met by a sprinting Onsala forward. Neither collision diminished his resolve to continue. Later he fisted out a dangerous low cross that was headed for an unmarked attacker at his far post. We held firm. The game was completely level. There was nothing to choose from between the two teams.
The scoreless draw meant we headed directly into a penalty shootout. This, of course, is soccer's perverse version of a lottery, where neither victor nor loser ever feel quite deserving of the title. My distaste for these arbitrary skill contests is such that I will not comment much upon the details, other than to say that the moment proved too great for our nerves, and we could not overcome our two misses. Onsala advanced 4-3 in the shootout.
The Onsala coach was both reluctant in accepting congratulations for winning in this manner, and effusive in his praise of our spirit and skill. Tears were promptly shed.
It seems a pervasive rule of life that we are most passionate about those things which carry the most risk of devastating us. Or, perhaps more precisely, our greatest passions carry with them the risk of bringing us our greatest disappointments. Soccer was the conduit through which we were reminded of that lesson today.
We had finished the tournament both undefeated, and unscored upon. Maybe unfair, perhaps even tragic, but also strangely uplifting and definitely galvanizing. For this is the other side of passion: when you choose to approach something you love with the desire this team now approaches its soccer, and when together you give everything you've got not for your own aggrandizement, but for the sake of the other 17 warriors at your side, when you have become a part of something bigger than you could ever become yourself, then you have achieved real satisfaction, a lasting fulfillment.
The boys recognized this quickly. We spent the best night yet together at the school. In between games of hangman and trivia, we spoke about the meaning of our achievement. We had advanced farther than any other U.S. team in our age group. We had played on even terms with the best Europe had to offer. We had reached a critical moment: would we allow this to be the culmination of all we had first embarked upon last summer? No, we decided instead that we were only now beginning to understand and feel what it meant to be a real team, and we were eager to see how much farther that might take us. On to Denmark ......
LISC 0 Onsala BK 0
Shots (on goal): LISC 11 (6) Onsala BK 11 (6)
Onsala BK advance 4-3 on penalty kicks
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