On a nasty wet Saturday, Dec. 2, the Storm U13 boys soccer team welcomed Coquitlam Ajax to Kinnikinnick for a game in front of the home-town crowd.
The Ajax passing game was powerful, accurate and controlling, challenging Storm through the entire game.
How do you win against a team that possesses the ball more than you do? For one, you force them to pass more than they want to, which inevitably will create opportunities to steal the ball.
And secondly, as Storm did this game, you make every possession count. They learned more about the Ajax defence, a surveillance of sorts which gave the coaches a chance to tune up the strategy and bring wisdom to the game. Between defensive teamwork and communication from a back line that proved to be very reliable and resilient against any of the Ajax penetrations, to mid-fielders who coordinated both defensive and offensive movements of the ball, it looked solid.
Storm let in only one goal in the entire game.
To end the game, with our Storm up 2-1, literally seconds to go in the game, an indescribable fight for the ball from the right winger through three defenders put the ball in the 18-yard box at the feet of our centre forward striker, who touched it to the other outside left winger perfectly positioned to chip it over the keeper to cap the game at 3-1. Whistle blows, game over – a stunning win in any league.
