Our first game this fall after four days of tryouts with five new amazingly talented players: Ellie Curley ‘30, Nele Janek ‘29, Lola Kinsella ‘30, Carson Kochansky ‘30 and Sophie Pomfret ‘30! It was a beautiful day in Cambridge where I did graduate studies in chemical engineering - blue sky and 60+F/16+C.
Molly’s parents and grandparents from Syracuse, Nele’s father and brother from Germany, Maddie’s cousin and Sophie’s friend from Berkeley, who attends MIT, were there! Captains Nicole Bogdanos and Carly Fleming introduced an effective set of warm-up routines, enabling us to be well-prepared for the noon kick-off.
MIT suggested that we play 35-minute halves. They had us on their turf field and it was a bit windy, so I recommended that we focus on connecting ground passes and make diagonal runs and passes. The captains urged us to play with intensity.
MIT got a few free kicks before Nele showed her high quality in preventing one of their crosses into our box in the 14th minute. Then Carson got off a shot that was blocked; she took the ensuing corner kick. A few minutes later she set up Ellie for our goal in the 17th minute.
Nicole had a shot go wide just before Carson won a free kick for us from about 20m that Carly placed expertly into the upper left corner of their net for our second goal.
During the break, we applauded the good work and noticed everyone’s happiness on the pitch. We suggested playing to feet, quicker passes in midfield, timing our runs, launching the ball sooner, playing more quickly, communicating more, passing on the ground and playing more diagonally.
MIT hit a shot that bounced off our crossbar; the rebound enabled another MIT shot, Nele stopped it. Ellie won a corner kick taken by Carson, who hd a shot go wide before Molly had the same outcome with her shot. After an MIT corner, Nele saved another shot in the 50th minute.
After MIT took a free kick from midfield, Maddie blocked one of their shots for their corner kick. Chloe did well to get forward for a shot that went wide, and Sage had a shot on target that was saved in the 56th minute.
Molly earned a corner kick taken by Carson before she had another shot saved. Then Carson had a shot saved for another corner kick. Lola did well to get forward enough for a shot that went wide before Ellie had the same outcome in the 66th minute. Neva had a shot whoosh over their crossbar in the last minute.
