McLean’s JV boys soccer team is preparing for a game against South Lakes on March 18th. Despite early successes in unofficial scrimmages, the team came off a disappointing loss to Centreville in their opening game of the season. Nonetheless, they hope to bounce back and win against South Lakes.
“[Losing] the first game of the season is obviously no fun,” said freshman Josh Barnes, a left wing. “Especially since we lost to a penalty kick in a close match.”
In their match against Centreville, the team committed several errors, most notably failing to capitalize on the opportunity to score valuable free kicks.
“Last game, we had multiple opportunities to tie the game with free kicks and corners,” Barnes said. “But we failed to communicate and ended up losing because of it.”
Not planning on enduring another defeat, the team decided to radically shift to a more aggressive posture to put greater pressure on the opposing team. Specifically, the team focused on pressing, meaning to force the ball out of the opponent’s possession, to accommodate their new playstyle. They also practiced their set pieces, offensive plays in which the ball starts from a stopped or dead position, allowing for greater offensive openings.
“We have been practicing our pressing and set pieces lately,” Barnes said. “Besides that, our old strategies and positions still remain the same. We hope to use our newly improved tactics against South Lakes tomorrow.”
With these new tactics in their inventory, as well as their first defeat freshly implanted into their memories, the JV boys soccer team hopes to perform their best tomorrow.
“Tomorrow, we are expecting a very physical matchup and a competitive game,” Barnes said. “We obviously hope to win, but our main priority is to leave everything on the field so that we will have no regrets after the game.”