An astounding number of brave souls who love soccer more than staying warm and dry came out to Hackett Park on Sunday, Nov. 20 to see what is clearly becoming a serious local phenomenon, the Sunshine Coast U14 Storm girls’ soccer team.
The Storm hosted the Surrey United Fierce on this particularly windy, wet, nasty day with huge smiles and high energy.
As the fans desperately tried to hold their umbrellas, the Storm girls jumped out of the gate with a cheer that rocked the slumbering Sechelt and announced their home field confidence. The Fierce began with a caution that seemed to give the Storm permission for a full-blown attack. With an early passing game they have been working hard on in practice, today was the Storm’s day for executing coach Trina’s wisdom.
As the rain came and the wind howled, the Storm met the Fierce on all counts – usually resulting in a serious amount of pressure on the Fierce’s goalie. Some great shots were made – a few missed the mark – but all led to more confident play from the team.
The Fierce made some great pushes into the Storm’s end, and showed speed and toughness down the right wing, which gave our fantastic goal tending and wall of ominous defenders a workout, to be sure.
The whisper of a goal rode in on the wind – it was inevitable with all this high-energy play and increasing confidence in each other as a team – but as the whistle blew, there was only hard tough coastal play to report at the half, 0-0.
Riding the adrenaline off the first half, pushing hard to stay warm and continue this beautiful game, the Storm looked ready to make this one an unforgettable game.
As coach Trina fine-tuned the team from the sidelines, the girls played their positions skillfully. Midfield control, one touch passing, blistering runs, and they continued to carefully breakup any hopes the Fierce had with their powerful defence.
When a team passes like the Storm did this day it is inevitable for goals to follow, and they did – a variety of them in fact – a high arcing sweet shot placed perfectly behind the overextended keeper, a one touch side foot in the net after a sequence of perfect fast passes and powerful charging through the defence leading to a third and final for the board. When all was said and done, the score was 3-0 and the Storm was still on top of their division.
The Storm are playing together more, unifying as a team and making them a thrilling group to watch. So bring on the wildness of this winter weather, come out see these girls play – you will definitely go home better off, and warm inside.
