In a close fought game filled with last-minute shots and pounding rain, the Palo Alto High School girls’ soccer team (0-1-1) tied with the Menlo-Atherton Bears (1-2-1), 2-2, in Thursday’s game at home.
According to Vikings’ head coach Jeremy Romero, a focused mentality was the most important ahead of the match against the Bears.
“Our mindset going into the game was, ‘Take care of your job and your position,’ and good things will happen if we do that,” Romero said.
Viking Senior midfielder Ella Hwang shared this sentiment, emphasizing the team’s determination to bounce back after a tough first game loss against Aragon High School on Dec 3.
“Our mindset coming into this game was just to come back stronger than the last game,” Hwang said. “Even though we were feeling down, we definitely wanted to come back stronger and change our mentality at practice by becoming more intense on the field.”
According to Bear’s head coach Jason Luce, the strategy was to work as a team and build trust.
“We’re just trying to build good chemistry on the field,” Luce said. “We aren’t too worried about the result.”
The first half of the match was largely a defensive deadlock, but with four minutes left, Vikings’ junior Cassie Gracon scored off an assist from sophomore Ella Quinlan. The Vikings led at halftime, 1-0.
According to Bears’ junior Mar Kunihiro, their defensive playstyle in the first half is what led to the Bears giving up the goal to the Vikings.
“In the second half, we changed the formation,” Kunihiro said. “I think we did a really good job marking everybody in the middle, and that kind of just kept it steady in the second half.”
According to Romero, the Vikings needed to play more aggressively.
“One thing we could have done better is balls out of the air,” Romero said. “I think when it comes to balls out of the air, it just comes down to who wants the ball more and who wants to retain possession more.”
The second half brought out energy in both teams, the Bears came out and scored two goals to take a 2-1 lead. But late in the match, to avoid the loss, Gracon scored a second time tying it at 2-2. The match ended in a tie 2-2, the first tie of the early season for either team.
According to Romero, the Vikings’ s shift in strategy at halftime created better defensive opportunities.
“One thing I think they did really well was finding their forwards feet and making through runs off of their forwards,” Romero said. “And I think at halftime, we were able to cut off some of their through passes that they were able to get on us in the first half.”
“I think the star player for today’s game was Mabel,” Romero said. “I think she was flying up and down the field, making runs offensively, andrecovery runs defensively.
According to Kunihiro, to accomplish the goals that the Bears hope to achieve, chemistry will be the most important factor.
“We want to win League, and we have a pretty young team,” Kunihiro said. “So I think first off, we’re trying to get close to each other, and bond a lot. Then we can, build a good connection.”
The Vikings (0-1-1) will face the Mountain View Spartans (4-1) in their next match on January 8, at Mountain View at 6 P.M.
