2010 State Soccer Tournament Girls Class AA State Quarterfinal Action
Park H.S. – Girls Class AA
Eden Prairie 3-0 Lakeville South
The first game in the Class AA State Quarterfinal double header at Park High School featured the Girl’s Champion of Section 1AA the Lakeville South Cougars (9-8-3) and the 2AA Girl’s Champion the Eden Prairie Eagles (17-0-1). Eden Prairie dominated the possession throughout the game, but were unable to capitalize during the first half. After half time the Eagles made some tactical changes and were able to break through Lakeville South’s defense to take the lead and then kept the pressure up to win the game 3-0.
Lakeville South played a very defensive first half and held off Eden Prairie’s attacking play through the middle and the flanks. “We kept sending in crossing balls, but couldn’t get a head on them,” said Eagles coach Anthony Bidwell, “They did a great job clearing the ball out.” When the Cougars won possession they looked to send the ball forward to their attacking players for a counter attack, but their attempts were well met by the central defensive pairing of Eden Prairie.
The second half started much like the first did. Eden Prairie continued to push forward against the stubborn Lakeville South defense, but once the Eagles were able to break the scoreless stalemate, there was little to be done to keep the Eden Prairie attack from adding to the score line.
Eden Prairie’s first goal came in the 15th minute from Katie Thykien, who was involved in all of the Eagles’ eventual three goals. The senior defender collected a pass from senior attacker Taylor Uhl and took a shot towards the far post from 20 yards out, beating the keeper.
The Eagles’ lead was doubled four minutes later. While going after a loose ball in Lakeville South’s penalty box, Thykien was taken down from behind by a Cougar defender and PK was awarded. It was the Girls Class AA Ms. Soccer, Taylor Uhl, that stepped up to take the shot. Uhl calmly converted the PK, sending the ball into the lower right corner of the goal, giving Eden Prairie a 2-0 lead.
The final goal for the Eagles came once again from Thykien. With just over 15 minutes left on the clock, Thykien stood over the ball for a free kick from 25 yards out. Thykien went for goal and buried the shot in the upper 90, sealing the win for Eden Prairie.
Mounds View 1-0 Eagan
The Section 3AA Girls’ Champion, the Eagan Wildcats (16-1-4) faced off against the champion of the Girls’ Section 5AA, the Mounds View Mustangs (13-5-2), in the second match of the evening at Park High School.
Despite a hard fought and very physical first half, neither team was able to pull ahead going into the second half. Eagan retained most of the possession and nearly took the lead when sophomore attacker Kayleigh Solheim found herself a few feet from the goal, but senior Mustang keeper Natalie Stoltz was first to react, smothering the ball before Solheim could get a solid shot off.
The intensity of the play dropped a bit in the second half, but there were still a number of strong tackles from both teams as they tried to build their attacks and pull into the lead. Mounds View created the first chance of the second half when freshmen attacker Bella Sutton forced a diving save from Eagan’s junior keeper Kristen Knutson. Sutton’s shot came from outside the 18 yard box and forced Knutson to dive low to her right and push the ball just past the far post.
As the flow of the game continued to favor the Mustangs, Mounds View pulled ahead in the 4th minute of the second half. After Eagan keeper Knutson knocked away a long distance shot, the ball landed at the feet of junior attacker Jenny Mullin, who calmly passed the ball back to fellow junior attacker Kristen Rasmussen. Rasmussen wasted no time and slammed the ball into the back of the net.
Finding themselves a goal down, Eagan committed more players to the attack, even keeping four players up field while Mounds View possessed the ball in the Wildcat’s defending third. The offensive pressure almost paid off when Eagan won a free kick 23 yards from goal. Senior attacker Molly Sparks stepped up to take the kick and saw her chance at tying the game clang off of the crossbar.
In the last few minutes of the game, Eagan’s pressure continued and caused a couple of hectic plays in Mounds View’s defensive third, but the Wildcats were unable to capitalize on their attacking runs.
Comments are closed.
Does anyone know if the officials assigned to the State Tournament games are supposed to be rated as the best during the year?
They allowed the MV goal vs Eagan when there were three players several YARDS offside. The AR said there were 3 girls in offside position, but said they weren’t involved in the play.
A review of the game video shows one of the three standing on the six in direct line with the shooter, another 2-3 feet away diving out of the way as the shot misses her by inches, and a third standing nearly on top of the keeper as she makes the save initial save. Eagan’s defense had pushed up as a unit as the corner kick was initially cleared, with the back line 10 yards from goal. It should have been an easy, obvious call for either the AR or the referee, who was not screened. All three MV players in offside position were clearly involved in the play.
MV played their defensive style well (I mean that sincerely). Congratulations to them for getting to the Dome. The two teams played with energy and emotion befitting a State Tourney game. It is too bad the officiating did not befit a State Tourney game, and directly affected the outcome.
That new offside law is always full of controversy. My Prem team Fulham had a controversial goal allowed against them a couple of weeks ago where when the shot came in the ref said the oposing player was offside which the AR raised his flag for but was not inovlved with the play. Yet he was clearly screening the goalkeeper. The rule is ripe for controversy.
Yes, the MSHSL tries to pull in the better referee’s for these games and for the most part, the game I’ve seen (6 now) they have done a very good job. There is a senior referee assessor in each press box who speaks to them at half and at the end of the game as well.
Thanks for the update on the ref assigning procedure. I have one more question on the offside rule. After the Eagan GK makes the initial save, one the players in offside position retrieves the ball at the goal line, passes to another player in offside position, and she scores. Are either of those two players allowed to play the ball without getting back to onside position?
Video of goal: http://gallery.me.com/wardk/100012/Bad%20no%20call
Count the players in an offside position recognizing that each one of them were involved in the play by the very simplest definitions of the rule.
The AR after the game explained to Eagan GK that he saw three players in offside postion but did not raise his flag because “they were not involved in the play.” He could not possibly have been paying any attention to the play to make that statement. The number of mistakes by the officiating crew in this brief segment of play are not befitting “very good job”
Looks offside to me. First the two in the center jump out of the way of the ball which means they were screening the keeper. Secondly, because the third forward on the outside post gained an advantage by collecting the rebound, she therefore should be called offside. It’s the AR’s job to raise the flag and center refs job to make a judgement call if they were involved with the play.
That is one of the worst no calls I have ever seen! That could have been used as an educational video for referees explaining what the offsides rule is it is so blatant on that play. Hopefully there will be some ramifications from the MSHSL for those refs.