(North Wales, PA) I wouldn’t use the word disappointing, but probably say frustrating. We knew West Chester would have a bulk of possession, so we decided to sit in a bit to help us stay organized and compact and to try and hit them on the counter. I think we had the right approach and the guys followed it perfectly. The goal in cups is to get the win and move on. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it. Jose Mourinho would have been proud of the plan and its execution.
WC pegged us back from the get-go and it took us a while to get into the game. We stuck to the game plan perfectly and we stayed organized, patient, and defended extremely well for 90. For all the possession they had, they created very little in actual chances. I can only think of 2 saves James had to make.
The referee was poor all day (as they usually are) and in a game like that you need some help from the ref and/or some luck to go your way and we didn’t get either. Around the 60th minute, they got a phantom PK which they hit over the bar. Around the 65th they should have had a PK…you won’t see many more obvious PK calls but the ref either missed it or swallowed his whistle. And then 5 minutes later they got another phantom PK which they converted to make it 1-0 WC. By the way, that’s not just our opinion on the PKs. WC’s team said the same after.
We did much better offensively in the 2nd half and really pushed for the last 15-20 after we went down 1-0. We had a couple chances but couldn’t capitalize. 1-0 win for West Chester and they move on. With all that being said, WC had about 70-80% of the possession and they looked the more likely to score for most of the game. When you’re defending as hard as we did it’s a tough way to give up a goal which in that game is the decider.
Sunday was the final. Nobody else remaining in cups can compete against them like we have proven we can. They will easily win the next 2 games to win the cup and move into regional play.
Tough way to get knocked out of cups. WC has now ended our last 6 EPSA Cups (maybe more actually and 4 of those 6 in the final). We could not be prouder of the effort and the performance this past Sunday. Good teams win in different ways, and I know that’s not how we want to play every week, but it was called for on Sunday. We now have to re-focus on league play and make a run there. We need to keep pushing ourselves because I still know we can get better as a group.
Jason Karasow
Match Notes
- WC has now ended our last 6 EPSA Cups (maybe more actually and 4 of those 6 in the final).
- Since the start of the season in September WC has played 13 games. They have 13 wins 0 losses and are a whopping +79 in GD.
- 2 of the 3 games we’ve played them it’s been 1-0 games. That means in the other 11 games they have won on average by 7 + goals.
West Chester moves on to play their reserve team in the Semi Finals. The Ukrainians face Alloy SC of Lancaster in the other semifinal.
