Brandeis Tournament

The Brandeis Tournament has been a spring highlight for over a decade -- the competition is high-quality mostly varsity teams and a reliable turf surface outside Boston in Waltham, MA. We were assigned three 30-minute games with Emmanuel College, Azzurri club team (of mostly graduated former varsity players) and our host Brandeis University.

Blue sky, 10+C/50+F -- perfect weather! Our first game was at 10:10am, so we planned to leave at 7am. We needed to wake up a couple players in order to have 11! We have suffered so many injuries! We were very fortunate to be able to include/recruit senior varsity player Zainab Bakrin '18 ('Z') as our 11th player -- she added so much!

We arrived with about 20 minutes to warm up. Many of our eleven graciously took positions they don't usually play. We weren't sure how it would go, but we just wanted to enjoy the game we love!

Emmanuel looked sharper than in the past, and they got off the first shot, saved by Bri. Meredith took a free kick that had a good chance of scoring but was saved before her shot in the run of play was also saved. 

Claire's breakaway looked menacing but went just barely wide left of the goal. Katie's free kicks and goal kicks were powerful and well lofted, and almost always they found our team. 

Emmanuel had a shot go over the cross-bar just before Jenna, with her extraordinary energy and skill set up Z for a shot from the left that she slotted into the far left side of the Emmanuel goal for the game-winner.

Claire had a shot go wide and a shot saved before Bri came up big with saving a very firm Emmanuel rocket-shot in the 24th minute.

After the game we spoke about all moving up and back as a group -- all attacking and all defending -- in addition to playing to feet (rather than sending long, high passes), making more diagonal passes and switching the ball to the other side of the field more often rather than always going forward.

G: Bri
CD: Julia F-O'L+Katie
OD: Sarah A+Jenny
CM: Meredith+Namya
OM: Sarah J+Jenna
F: Claire+Z

Emmanuel 

Shots 6:3  Saves 2:3

3 Emmanuel shot saved
6 Meredith free kick saved
7 Katie free kick 
10 Meredith shot saved
11 Claire breakaway shot wide
12 Katie free kick
13 Emmanuel shot over
17 Jenna set up Z with a low shot left --> 1:0
20 Claire shot wide
22 Claire shot saved for a corner
24 Emmanuel firm shot saved for a corner
29 Claire corner kick

Azzurri

Azzurri's players are always skillful and organized, most of them having played in college years earlier. They are a good team for us to play because they provide great competition. We came out strong after waiting over an hour enjoying the nice weather, earning a corner kick in the 2nd minute. Sarah A's corner kicks during all three games were spot-on.

Sarah J ('SJ') had two shots saved before Azzurri got off one that went wide. Bri saved an Azzurri shot in the 14th minute before Jenna's shot was saved in the 18th minute. Seconds later Meredith set up Z for her shot in the lower left side of the Azzurri net. Z had another shot saved immediately after that.

Meredith seemed to beat a half-dozen defenders on her way to the net for our second goal in the 22nd minute. Later, Azzurri had a shot wide followed by two that Bri saved by bravely coming out to grab the ball from them. Then SJ had another of her shots saved in the last minute of play.

Their coach, Dick Fishman, complimented our team for their quality. He was pleased to see how well his team played relative to their previous efforts, but he was impressed by how well we converted against them.

Julia Fissore-O'Leary's dad also complimented the team, defending impressively and being able to score so nicely.

Shots 7:4  Saves 3:5

2 Sarah A corner
4 SJ shot saved
5 SJ shot saved
7 Azzurri shot wide
10 Azzurri corner kick
14 Azzurri shot saved
18 Jenna shot saved
18 Meredith to Z shot lower left --> 1:0
19 Z shot saved
22 Meredith amazing dribbling and shot --> 2:0
25 Sarah A free kick
26 Azzurri shot wide
28 Azzurri shot saved for a corner
29 Azzurri corner kick, shot saved
30 SJ shot saved 

Brandeis

Brandeis historically is our toughest competitor at this tournament, so we spoke briefly about keeping the ball moving in order to keep the ball as much as possible. The game statistics show that neither team could get many shots off, having immense pressure by both teams. 

Katie got off a free kick early in the game before Brandeis got three corner kicks in a row that we defended brilliantly. In the middle of the game, Claire beat her defenders to get a cross off to a perfect location for Z to put her foot on it, but her shot was tipped over the cross-bar by the Brandeis keeper for a corner.

Brandeis sent a shot over before Jenny's on-target free kick was saved. Bri saved us again in the 22nd minute before another Brandeis shot just barely went wide, hitting the side netting. 

They might have been tired and maybe shocked not to able to score on us as they usually are able to do! Denise Dallamora, their coach, was impressed that we could play with no subs!

We could not have been happier to come away undefeated and playing so well!

Shots 2:3  Saves 1:2

5 Katie free kick
7 Brandeis corner kick
8 Brandeis corner kick
12 Brandeis corner kick
15 Claire cross to Z shot saved for a corner
17 Brandeis shot over
21 Jenny free kick saved
22 Brandeis shot saved
28 Brandeis shot wide into side netting

at Harvard 14apr2018

Overcast and windy 5-10C/40-50F but dry, our 2pm game on Harvard's Jordan Field was our first since Regionals in October! Suffering many injuries, we had only two subs until Liz Niehaus '14 and Shelby Schrier '15 joined us. Molly Grimes '14 (nursing an ankle injury) brought brownies! It was great to see them!

Izzy kindly offered to play in our goal since she's had some trouble with her foot. She saved four shots in the first 12 minutes! Elise and Meredith had shots go wide before Harvard's shot in the 19th minute hit the cross-bar. Liz had her shot go wide and Izzy saved two more Harvard shots before the half. 

Neither team could muster very much possession and both demonstrated high energy and pressure on the ball. Harvard looked stronger than they had in the recent past.

During the break we spoke about better marking, passing back to the goalkeeper, more communication and using the sides more. 

Katie got off a free kick early in the second half just before Harvard got off a shot from the far right side of the field that hit the left side netting of our goal. 

Dani had a shot go wide and Jenna had her shot saved before Meredith broke loose of her defender with a swift turn and calmly slotted the ball into the left side of the Harvard goal to level the score in the 60th minute.

Harvard's free kick in the 62nd minute made its way into our goal but was ruled out due to a Harvard player involved in the play being in an offside position.

Namya had her shot go wide just before Meredith sailed the ball over the Harvard goalkeeper from 30yd out for the game-wining goal in the last minute of the game!

Harvard must have been stunned by the outcome because during most of the game it looked like either team might prevail. We were delighted by the late goals and our improvement as the game progressed.

G: Izzy!
CD: Julia F-O'L+Meredith, 
OD: Katie+Elise, Julia C, Liz N
CM: Maria+Namya, Jenny, Shelby S
OM: Sarah A+Jenna, Julia C
F: Sarah J+Dani, Meredith

Shots 7:11  Saves 6:1

1 Harvard shot saved
3 Harvard shot saved
5 Sarah A corner
   Elise shot wide
6 Harvard shot saved
12 Harvard shot saved
19 Harvard free kick hit cross-bar!
23 Liz N shot wide
26 Harvard shot wide
31 Harvard shot saved for a corner
35 Harvard shot saved
----------------
38 Katie free kick
39 Harvard shot from far right hit left side-netting --> 0:1
43 Harvard corner
46 Dani shot wide
59 Jenna shot saved
60 Meredith G turned and shot from about 6yd --> 1:1
61 Harvard shot wide
62 Harvard free kick goal ruled offside
68 Namya shot wide
70 Meredith from 30yd --> 2:1