Last Sunday was opening day for our beloved Shirley Macey fields which saw the U15 Sunshine Coast Storm girls soccer team host the Chilliwack Strikers – a perfect day to see this amazing group of girls continue to gel as a team, learn from the mistakes of the previous weekend and see each other on the field.
As the tone was set right from the whistle, these girls are no longer letting the city teams push them off the ball or decide the fate of the game solely based on a physical style of play. It looked gritty and real finally. With a higher intensity of play and a talented roster of girls, Chilliwack really needed to scramble to stay afloat of this Storm troupe, which won the game 2-0.
It was good to see the Storm forcing another team to chase them down and be on the defensive most of the time. The wonderfully planned through balls leading to many, many shots on the Striker net will give the girls more fuel to practise power and accuracy in training.
Another truly great revelation arising from this game was how the Storm dug really deep time after time to hold on to the ball through tough runs, retrieve if it were lost to the Strikers and diligently keep it within their own team colours play after play. Coach Trina looked satisfied that maybe they have been listening to her recommendations after all.
Any time you watch a great sporting event where players give you your money’s worth, win or lose, play hard for the whole game and seem to enjoy themselves in the process, it feels great. Our Storm U15 girls seem to be balancing the joy of soccer wonderfully, rewarding their fans and continuing to make it a beautiful game.
