The riders arrived on a stormy night in Urbandale for our first game on turf of the season. Urbandale started strongly with a flurry of attacks from their new contingent of select players, however each one was comfortably dealt with by the fantastic composure of the Roosevelt back 4 and goal keeper. The riders continued commitment to playing out the back and building through the thirds was evident as center backs Celia Delury and E Saunders consistently demanded the ball under pressure and made quality effective decisions with possession. Despite most of the first half being played in Roosevelt's half, the Riders had the majority of the ball and connected many passes moving the ball from left to right very well. However, Roosevelt struggled to find an effective final ball or create any real scoring opportunities. Emma Lin completely shutdown Urbandale's most dangerous players at the 9 and 10 and the back 4 were outstanding. Urbandale, with the wind, scored from an in swinging corner that bounced around in the box before deflecting off an Urbandale players shins and slowly rolling into the near post. 1-0 Urbandale.
At half time, the Riders were encouraged to play forward sooner to exploit the pace of Anna Gilbreath after Grace Robinson had sucked the Urbandale defenders in tight by receiving the ball to feet a few times early in the first half. At the start of the second half, e Riders were still unable to find a threatening final ball and seemed nervous to play forward sooner. The game was brought to an end 13 minutes into the second half and could not be restarted. The Riders were disappointed with the result as they played the better brand of soccer in their defensive and middle third but goals win games, time to work on creating and finishing at practice
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