September 14, 2009:

Today is Monday and a day after we won the Kyle Rote, Jr. Invitational Soccer Tournament at The University of the South in Sewanee, TN. We won the game and tournament by defeating Emory and Henry College by a score of 6:0! The score sounds good, but the storyline of the game was in two halves. The first half we played like we were sleep walking for 45 minutes. Finally, Tony Crocker scored our first goal with 8 minutes remaining in the first half. That seemed to energize us just a bit going in to halftime. At half, for the first time this season, they had a lesson in anger....my anger!!! We went over again what we discussed before the game about denial defense and high pressure. We also covered about concentrating more, especially as you become fatigued. Our passing was terrible, our touch was worse and our thought process and movement off the ball was non-existent! Our goal in every game is to play at our level and standard and not to drop down or play at our opponents level or standard. Unfortunately, in the first half that is all we did. We made a few defensive adjustments to our pressure and told then to play like they were capable of playing.

The second half began and we scored 4 minutes after the start. Nico Reitmeier scored on an assist from Garner Shivers. In the 57th minute Garner Shivers scored the 3rd goal on an assist from Nico Reitmeier. The 4th goal was also scored by Garner Shivers in the 58th minute on an assist from Tyler Evans. Garner Shivers completed his hat trick with his 3rd goal in the 64th minute on an assist from Andrew Shelton making the score 5:0. In the 75th minute Kyle Sherrin a freshman from Fairhope, Alabama scored our 6th and final goal on an assist from another freshman, Jonathan Alexander, from Birmingham, Alabama. We out shot them 19 to 3 with shots on goal. The final score again was BSC 6, Emory and Henry 0!

Needless to say, our halftime discussion made our players start "thinking" again. I am proud of how they recovered and got back on track. I must also admit, that the circumstances surrounding this tournament were very unique for us. First we had the 1 1/2 hour delay on Saturday and then had to turn around and play a second game in less than 24 hours, which made this game even more difficult. I also must mention that the field was very narrow. It was actually about 15 yards narrower than ours, so another adjustment had to be made. It is in these type of circumstances that we must compensate by concentrating even more. These type of games determines the character of a team and which direction they will choose to travel. I believe our team answered that in the second half of Sunday's game!

Another highlight to the week-end was the awards our players received. Tyler Evans was awarded the Offensive MVP while Andrew Stein was the Defensive MVP. making the All-Tournament team was Evans and Stein along with Garner Shivers and Nico Reitmeier. Congratulations to them all. I usually do not mention individual awards, as I believe that the "Team is the Superstar" and not the individual. But, because of last season, I felt this was necessary and warranted enough to mention.

I believe that champions are made out of difficult situations and how they adjust to them. I think we are on the right path at the moment. This coming week-end will be another difficult week-end for us. On Friday afternoon, we will play Washington University in St. Louis, on their artificial turf. Wash U is always a top 20 team and a virtual lock for the NCAA Tournament each and every year. Fontbonne University also is a tournament participant most years and both will be a great test for our young team. I believe we can win both of these games if we play like we are capable of playing. We can not have any lapses and must stay focused for 90 minutes and execute our game plans to perfection. This can be a memorable first three weeks to the season if we take care of business this week-end. It was 10 years ago that we had another great start to the season. In 1999, we started off with 7 straight victories and we can get to 6 in a row this week-end. I know we will do whatever is necessary to continue our winning formula.

So, until this week-end I will say take care and best regards,
Coach Goldfarb from Birmingham, Alabama