The Tale of Two Teams

Iowa Central easily won their last regular season game yesterday over Iowa Lakes in Spencer, Iowa by a 4-0 margin and finished second in their conference behind Iowa Western which is nationally ranked at #15.  Iowa Central will have an opportunity to play IW next weekend if they have a good result (win) over the winner of the #3 seed, Dakota County(12-6-1) and the #6 seed Iowa Lakes (1-15).  I am going out on a limb and state that Dakota County will win and then Iowa Central will play them on Saturday October 30 at 12:00 pm in Des Moines.  The winner of that game will play Iowa Western on Sunday for first place and the right to go on to Regionals.  IC has been playing pretty good soccer lately after the mid season slump and certainly has a good chance to move on.  Here is the latest status from the Iowa Central Facebook page.

"rounded out their regular season with a 9-5-3 record, 7-2-1 in conference play. A marked improvement from last year with very much the same teams on the schedule. We also tied up 2nd place in the ICCAC so receive a bye into Saturday's semi-finals. 4 more wins and we go to Nationals!! Prepare; Focus; Execute!"

Here is the Box Score and the Recap.

     Debra and I watched Central Methodist play Avila last night in Fayette to a 0-1 loss with the score coming in the 89th minute.  It was one of those games that both teams were playing not to lose as opposed to trying to win.  The lack of intensity and urgency on the field is almost more than the parents in the stands can handle.  One comment that I heard was " I wish they would hurry up and score the accidental goal" which pretty much sums up CMU's scoring attack.  CMU does not attempt to put numbers up on attacking runs and the midfielders do not hustle back for defense.  Their formation changed for last nights game to 3 defenders instead of the normal 4 and the 3 strong defensive players were able to hold off Avila anemic attacks but in the final minutes of the game Avila upped the intensity and we did not follow suit.  CMU has a pretty strong bench but the coach does not appear to recognize that as a tactical weapon.  The team appears to me as players that are trying to "pace themselves" to last the entire match when what we need is for them to leave it all on the field and be substituted when they are "gassed".  The general lack of a winning attitude is starting to be apparent throughout the entire team including the coaching staff and it appears that they are just passing time until the end of the season.
     The one bit of good news was that they took the stitches out of Meredith's lip Friday and it looks really good.  She hopes to start practicing Monday to get into game fitness for at least the last two games.