Prep Impressions: Feb. 1, 2012
I covered the Riverside King-Riverside Poly boys varsity soccer game for The Press-Enterprise on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012, and came away thinking I wasn’t sure if Poly was lucky, or King just unlucky.
The bounces certainly went the Bears’ way on Wednesday, with Yordy Garcia finding himself in the right place at the right time, and Steve Elizondo reaping the rewards of a mis-timed clearance.
King had a few clear opportunities, including a perfectly-timed diagonal cross into the penalty area by Cobi Hopkins that was untouched until it went over the goal line, and Christian Buysse’s free kick that went inches over the bar from approximately 22 yards.
Those narrow misses, combined with Poly’s ability to maintain possession and promote build-up, were the difference between the two teams.
The Bears’ fantastic luck, or the Wolves’ lack thereof, is what economists call the unintended consequence, or the unpredictable outcome that stems from any given effort.
Poly gave themselves better odds of scoring by out-shooting King 10-2. And with effort producing odds like that, the Bears could not help but be lucky, and vice versa.
Riverside King coach Todd Mapes:
“You can always says it’s unlucky but defensively they closed in on us very quickly, and we had a hard time getting shots off, I mean quality shots off. I give them credit. Their defense really played well. They swarmed on us, and we got down early but you can blame it on this and that we didn’t score. You can’t win if you don’t score. I think, again, defensively, they did a very good job of marking, and shutting down our team.”
Riverside Poly coach Alex Figueroa:
“Definitely, the second goal was luck. That was off the corner and the keeper deflected it into his own net. Again, highly unlucky (for King). They had a shot that was deflected and we were able to make the save. We had the identical play, our’s went in. The teams are very evenly matched, and those couple plays decided it. Then it’s about keeping it simple, marking up and making sure we keep a donut on their side of the scoreboard. (Defense) was the key. If a team gets an advantage then it boils down to locking it down on defense and countering. That’s what most of the good teams do, and what we were able to do. We had saveral clear chances, I mean this game could’ve gotten out of hand. There was a post, there was two great saves… it could’ve been 5-oh. On that side of it that’s when they push up and have to risk, it puts them in a very vulnerable position, and their keeper made some great saves in the second half. Overall, we did what we wanted to do. If you can finish, that’s going to be the difference.”
Riverside Poly senior Yordy Garcia:
“Respect, you know? You gotta respect (King) because the respect us. That’s all I have to say. We played good, do what we had to do. (On making a deep playoff run:) It’s gonna be hard. It’s not gonna be easy. Working hard, try hard, play hard every day.”
INLAND FIELDHOUSE 