Bitter pill

We lost our first game back from Summer Break, 3-0. The opposition looked very hungry for win and they deserve the win. As I have mentioned before, our starting GK is in China getting ready for the Women's World Cup. So we brought in U-19 GK who is specially designated from JFA to play for our team. It's a bummer for our back up, but she doesn't have the trust of the team, so.... This team is playing for win and belong to the top division of Japanese Women's Football League. Win is priority.

I had one week in August to work with U-19 girl before, so the week's training leading up to the game went well. She needs to relax, but that will solve itself with time. It's a bummer for her to allow 3 balls pass by her. As a GK coach, I have to be objective and critique her, but if I were a fan, I'd say, she did well for her debut. 1st goal, if our defender's angle of pursuit was better, she wouldn't have been blown away and allowing her to penetrate into the box. 2nd goal, if our defender were alert and make sure you defend goal side, then they wouldn't get behind our defense line and again penetrate into box. both goal came after deflection (1st by GK, 2nd by DF) and if others did their job by tracking down or simply hustle back, goals could have, perhaps, saved. 3rd one was questionable call - offside, as the assistant ref all day did not look like she new what the hell she was doing. They beat the trap and 1 on 1 with GK and placed the ball calmly into the ol' onion bag.
We could have scored, too, but lost our nerve and hit the post. I don't quite understand one thing is that, our players train against Numero Una of Japanese GK, so they should able to think, " hey, it's not her, so I have better chance of scoring!" better confidence to attack. Oh well.....

So now we're are in a do or die situation. Must win situation and need others help. Should be interesting how we bounce back. At the moment, I don't think we have a leader.... I hope they prove me wrong.