The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Confusion on offense proves troublesome
The hope was that by the end of the spring season, the Crested Butte U-18 club soccer team would have gathered some steam as they prepared for the league tournament May 11.
Based upon their results this past weekend, that may have been a lofty ambition for the squad.
The team appeared on track with back-to-back wins two weeks ago in Glenwood Springs and then splitting their double-header last weekend in Gunnison.
But it has become painfully obvious that the team continues to struggle in the offensive third as they scored just one goal over two games on Saturday, to come away with a draw and a loss.
“They had a tough go of it on Saturday,” says coach Drew Canale.
They opened the league double header against Gunnison on Saturday. While Gunnison was winless and sitting in last place in the regular season standings, they always rally for their games against Crested Butte.
Crested Butte’s back four were strong as always, shutting down Gunnison’s strikers throughout the first half while the Crested Butte midfield managed to control play, but Crested Butte ran into a brick wall on offense.
Every time Crested Butte looked to mount a counterattack, Gunnison would get seven, sometimes eight, players back on defense to clog the middle and handcuff the Crested Butte attack. The few times Crested Butte did mange to push through for shots, their attempts either flew wide of the frame or were turned away by the outstanding play of the Gunnison net minder.
Gunnison’s effort eventually paid off when they pressed Crested Butte into their defensive third. When Crested Butte played the ball back to their keeper to build some space, Gunnison attacked and a miscue on the clearing kick turned into an easy goal for Gunnison and a 1-0 lead.
Down a goal with time dwindling, Crested Butte pulled out all of the stops as their back four pushed forward to get as many numbers on attack as possible.
The attack came to fruition with less than a minute left in regulation. As Gunnison struggled to clear the ball, Crested Butte crashed the net and Cal Fenerty managed to punch it through, tying the game just seconds before the final whistle.
“As a coach I thought we could have won that game,” says Canale.
Crested Butte then came apart at the seams in their second game of the day when they faced Glenwood Springs. An early foul gave up a penalty shot goal for Glenwood in the first three minutes of play. Glenwood then tacked on three more goals over the course of the game to hand Crested Butte a 4-0 shutout.
“We got outplayed,” says Canale. “Part of that was due to some injuries, wear and tear from the first game. The midfield was putting together some nice passes and creating opportunities and we had some crazy hustle up front from Pal Kollar, but there is a lack of finishing.”
The team heads to Glenwood Springs on Saturday, May 11 for the end of season tournament and a shot at the Bronze Boot trophy.
“Despite a poor showing this past weekend, my expectations are high,” says Canale. “If they play up to their potential, there’s no reason why they can’t win it and bring home the bronze boot.”
