Goals completely against the run of play! Shot after shot that wont go in! Foul play not getting called! A game that kept building and building in intensity until the final whistle – the fans sure got their money’s worth!

The Cougars opened strongly, dominating possession and quickly probing the King City defense with attempts on goal in the 5th and 6th minute. It was quite clear that King City was very quick to get numbers back behind the ball, denying passing angles and decent shots. Their goalie was remarkably sharp and extremely quick off her line – the hard fast field had the through balls running beyond the Cougar attackers into the goalie’s hands. Once in possession, the counter attack was fast and furious, though well contained by the Cougar back four of Isabelle, Ashley, Mary and Seaira.

Early on Jackie took a hard fall, hurting her knee, and was substituted at the 14th minute. Undeterred, the Cougars were at the King City goal with Daniela’s shot coming off the post 2 minutes later. Again she shot and was denied, then Kate’s free-kick also denied in the 22nd minute.

The Cougars seemed in control and were pushing up aggressively, but King City took quick advantage of a counter attack in the 31st minute. Driving deep into the right corner, they sent a strong cross to an unmarked player on the far post – one touch and in the net!

In the remaining 8 minutes of the first half, King City was under heavy pressure from the Cougars. Shots from Daniela, Kate and April were yet again denied. The Cougars were getting frustrated from not finding the target, as well as the shirt-pulling and heavy tackles not called by the officials. Comparisons of previous games at King City, where we were clearly the dominant team, yet unable to translate it into goals, were unavoidable at the half-time break.

The start of the second half had the Cougars at the King City goal. After icing her knee for 30 minutes, Jackie demonstrated her fitness by sprinting back and forth. She was back in, and quickly started linking up with Kate, April and Daniela. Kate was brought down inside the penalty area in the 42nd minute! She nailed the PK, but the King City goalie pulled off yet another key save! As the Cougars put their heads down in disbelief, King City countered – a long delivery from the goalie gave their forward a straight run at the Cougars’ goal to make it 2 – 0 for King City!

Right back the Cougars came: Two minutes later Daniela was through – only the goalie to beat! She cut left, was past and about to shoot, when the goalie reached out and tripped her! In my book, that’s “denying an obvious goal scoring opportunity” and should have been an automatic red card. Even if the ref wanted to believe that a defender was tracking back to goal, then at least a yellow – but no booking was given to the goalie! The frustrations with the officials went a notch higher!

Daniela set up for her PK. This time it hit the back of the net, and the Cougars felt vindicated.

The game intensity was now at maximum – the Cougars had 80% possession and King City was doing everything they could to break up the Cougar attacks. Isabelle was winning almost every ball that came into the Cougar half, and initiating powerful and penetrating attacks. The King City goalie was on fire – constantly off her line and fearlessly dealing with any ball in her area. The King City backs had Daniela double-teamed on every run! Showing her skills and vision, Kate repeatedly found space, getting off 5 great shots in the last 30 minutes, but this game was her ultimate frustration! April had two free kicks – King City was doing EVERYTHING to stop the Cougars - but nothing seemed to break our way!

In the 75th minute, Isabelle sent the perfectly paced through ball for Jackie to run on to – she kept her cool as the King City backs tried to chase her down. Their goalie set up to deal with the 1 v 1. Perfectly timed and executed, the ball found the back of the net. Then the ball went through a hole in the net, and the assistant ref was suggesting that it had actually missed and that Jackie had also been offside! Confusion reigned for a minute until the center ref made it clear that it was a valid goal!

The cougars sensed that this game could yet be won, and dug deep to fight to the final whistle. A few minutes more on the clock would probably have seen the decisive Cougar goal, but overall, the Cougars could come away with knowledge that had actually played some fantastic soccer, and that more goals would be forthcoming in the next game!

Go Cougars!