P-18 Championship Game

We as you can see from the pictures we won.

Just as we thought Bollstanas won their semi final game big. The game prior to us had gone into PK's so it really drug out our preperation.

During warm ups we talked how hard we had worked, how much our game has improved and how we were representing everone back home. We were known by two names here, Lightning and the Americans. The girls had as much fire and intensity as we ever had.

We had a huge crowd on hand and it was amazing how many people were wearing Lightning apparel. I dont think we were coming home with very much yellow. As we took the field we got as big an ovation as the other team.

Tayler took the opening kick off and dribbled right through the defenders and took a shot from about 20 yards out. The goalie made a diving save but it set the tone for the game.

A few minutes later TW hit a long outside shot for the first goal of the half. However, Bollstanas put up a great pressure play of their own and forced an error that ended in a goal. Not many teams have scored on us here and the crowd went nuts. You could see Bollstanas was in a position to get a lot of momentum.

Tayler found and opening, made a fake pass that a defender bit on which left the middle wide open. She took the ball right down the middle and scored our second goal to give us a 2-1 lead. It was all us from their on out.

TW and Tayler then ran our new corner play. TW passed into Tayler and made a wide run, the defender bit on Tayler who dished it out to TW who hit the ball and scored. 3-1.

With about 5 minutes left in the half Paige fought off the goalie on a through pass to score the fourth goal of the half. The goalie got injured on the play and the ref ended the half early. 4-1.

In the second half we worked the ball around very well. TW got her third goal for a hat trick midway through to give us a 5-1 lead. That pretty well sealed the game but we were not done.

Meagan over lapped AD took the ball straight to the goal and hit a tremendous shot for a 6-1 lead.

With about 8 minutes left in the half Paige made a great flick pass to Tayler running through the middle to get our final goal 7-1.

The tournament officials selected Tayler as MVP of the game and you see the trophy were bringing home.

Our defense played probably one of the most complete games that we have. Meagan, Donut, Kate, Julie, Mango and Lauren just stopped every push the other team tried to mount.

Our forwards and mids controlled the field, the girls had a lot of fans cheering them on and had one team bring the a bottle of sparkling juice at the end. It was quite a celebration.

We will spend tomorrow touring the Island then catch the ferry back to Stockholm on Monday with our return flight coming home on Tuesday evening around 6.

Doug