Thursday, August 8, 2013

Day 6- Training, Relaxing, and Match Against RCD Espanyol

The Beach at Santa Susanna Beside Our Hotel
Wednesday was a very relaxed day in terms of scheduling, but exhausting on the soccer front.
After a breakfast and a light morning practice just to shake our legs out we had the remainder of the afternoon to relax around Santa Susanna. Some of the team shopped, had a good meal, or went to the beach or hotel pool until we needed to leave for our nighttime match against RCD Espanyol.

The Field in Espanyol's Professional Complex for Our Game













Though we anticipated an increase in the competition level for this game due to the increased prestige and funding of Espanyol, it actually was a little bit of a decrease compared to CE Sant Gabriel. Sant Gabriel was a much more athletic team, to go along with being very technically skilled. Where as Espanyol was mainly technical with only a few high-flying type players. This in combination with the playing surface at Espanyol's complex being far larger than that of Sant Gabriel's gave us more time on the ball, without quite the amount of pressure being applied in comparison to our first match.
After gaining pretty good control over the flow of the game in the first half, an Espanyol forward was played-in off-sides by at least 4 feet or so, and passed the ball into our goal with the the refs completely ignorant of the missed call.
This was a bit of a mental-shock after starting the game so well before this play, but junior Co-Captain Kirsten Schall tied the game back up at 1-1 within a few minutes of the blown call.
Unfortunately, Espanyol's attack grew into the game in the second half, and they soon scored a well developed goal by means of a direct run down the right wing, with a dangerous ball into the six, that their forward managed to run onto perfectly, making the game 2-1.
We continued to play well, and had some very dangerous opportunities, especially from a few strings of corners which we nearly managed to snag a goal or two with.
Unfortunately, again our momentum was foiled when more "play-acting" from Espanyol at the top of the box resulted in a free-kick, which was impressively, yet casually struck over our wall, into the lefts-side of the goal by one of Espanyol's center-midfielders.
The game ended 4-1. A scoreline which does no justice for how close the game was. The game had fairly equal possession, and a good number of scoring opportunities from each team.
All ended well however, the coaching staff was proud of improved performance, and the Espanyol players were very friendly after the match. They were extremely excited to receive our retired Moravian jerseys from our players.
Moravian with Espanyol After the Match
The Team with Coaching Staff, Our Tour Supervisor, Enrique, and Our Professional Guest-Coach, Raul.

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