I was at the game yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was quite impressed at the level of the game, as I've only ever seen a handful of girls games at the 3a level, and it's just much lower than yesterday's game was.
Mann definitely had more of the ball, but apart from corners, they really didn't fashion many clear cut opportunities. Lexington, while they defended for large parts of the game, always looked dangerous when #13 got on the ball and #10 or #12 ran off her. I was also extremely impressed with #14 for Lexington, who absolutely shut down Mann's fast right wing all game.
That being said, how anyone could say Lexington just got lucky is beyond me. You don't keep a team like Mann to one goal with luck. You do it with organization, work, heart, and hustle. And Lexington had the perfect attackers to just play counter-attacking soccer.
What I saw was 2 great teams with contrasting styles playing yesterday. And the more defensive-minded team won. And personally, I like that for the same reason I loved watching Simeone's Atletico Madrid beat Barca then Bayern in back to back UCL matchups: because there is an art to defending deep and countering quickly with pace, just as there is an art to keeping the ball and moving it around to open space to exploit.
Congrats to both teams and thanks for a great match for us spectators.
