With seven league games to go, AV was in third place in the standings, just a point behind 2011 Champions, Roseland Prep, and a further two points behind Calistoga, both of whom still have to come to the Valley in the next couple of weeks, However, before then, there were other games to be played including the important road game at Rincon Valley Christian that was played last Wednesday afternoon. Without yours truly and co-captain Manny Almeida, who were both suspended following red cards in the previous game, the 16 players who had taken part in the excellent 1-0 victory over Fort Bragg made the journey with assistant coach Nikola Milojevich and second driver, Ben Anderson.
As I was not allowed to attend the match I was given reports by both Coach Milojevich and Co-Captain Christian Mendoza. They were equally depressing as I was informed of the litany of missed chances that played a major part in AV’s 0-1 defeat at the hands of the league’s bottom-placed team. I have been coaching here for ten seasons and this has to be the strangest, and perhaps most disappointing. We have given our best three performances by far against the best and most highly ranked three teams we have played — Roseland, Calistoga, and Fort Bragg. We have lost to two of the poorest teams we have faced.
The effort of the players cannot be questioned but if you do not score you cannot win. We have defended very well against the better teams, in games when we have not had the edge in terms of possession, and yet have played so poorly offensively in games in which we have dominated possession. We simply do not have consistently effective attacking players nor regular goal scorers on the team. There is little that can be done about that other than to keep trying and that is what we’ll do for the remaining six matches in the regular season
The first of those six, and arguably the most difficult, came on Friday against Roseland Prep for Homecoming. Following the defeat for the high school ‘American’ football team that preceded our game, the crowd were a little subdued to start the soccer match and with Roseland in the ascendancy in the early stages it took time for the Panther fans to get warmed up. There were very few chances for either side in the first half as both defenses dominated and, despite the high caliber of approach play at times from both teams, the score remained 0-0 as neither attack could make an impression.
The second half was very similar and it was obvious that one goal would probably decide the outcome. In the 58th minute, after AV had weakly lost possession in midfield, Roseland broke away and their dangerous striker wriggled his way past two Panther defenders on the edge of the penalty box before shooting low and hard past the dive of Mendoza in the Panther goal. 0-1 to Roseland. Try as they did, the AV team could not muster any consistent offense, although they did get the ball in the Roseland net, accompanied by roars of approval from the crowd, but it was correctly disallowed for offside. The game finished 0-1 to the visitors and while AV had certainly given their all, Roseland are the better team this year and will probably repeat as League Champions, while AV will have to settle for a third or fourth place and in the meantime pursue the goal of securing a spot in the small school play-offs.
This week sees the two longest road trips of the season, in the space of just three days. Today, Wednesday Oct 17, sees AV travel to Rohnert Part to play Tech High School and then, on Friday 19, they go even further in the same direction, to Petaluma, when St Vincent’s will be our hosts. These games will be followed by the re-arranged Mendocino road match on Monday, Oct 22, before we finish the regular season with two home games, both kicking off at 4.30pm, against Calistoga (Wed, Oct 24) and Upper Lake (Fri, Oct 26). Thanks for your continuing support and we look forward to seeing you on the sidelines soon. ‘Come on you, Panthers!’ ¥¥
Current record (won/lost/drawn): League 4-3-3; Overall 9-3-3.
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