>> [r4sc] [...] lex let 3 easy in against dorman & couldnt stop 1 forward formation or corners [...] <<
Dorman came into Lexington with a very smart strategy: they played a 4-5-1 for much of the game [I even thought it morphed into a 3-6-1 at some points] and due to some lapses they scored again and again on a flat Lexington team. Lexington held their shape fairly well but were not able to do much on the outside -- and Dorman had the middle crowded intentionally. Lexington did try to feed the ball outside but our execution broke down with respect to receiving, passing, and seeing the field. Not making excuses, but of the three midfielders who made the all-region team, only two played at any one time due to injuries -- so that and Dorman's strategy of overloading the middle and our weak outside play and Dorman's excellent undermanned offensive play coupled with Lexington's defensive lapses all meant Lexington exited in the first round.
In previous games, I'm told, Lexington's coach would shift one of these three midfielders to wing or forward to give Lexington more ball handling capability at breadth; however, due to the injuries this wasn't a viable strategy. Dorman's coach was pretty darned smart to overload the middle to such a degree against Lexington.
The future should be pretty bright for Lexington; they're only losing one senior so if all of the girls come back it will form a pretty good core. The massive terratoriality between the Lexington club and high school teams is also said to be at an end so some of the players from the 2003 challenge cup championship team might add depth to the team as first-year sophomores in 2006. In my opinion, Lexington needs three things to move from a top #10 team to a top #5 team [in no particular order]: more/better passing/receiving, more defensive discipline, and more depth.
Congratulations to Lexington on going from an unranked team at the end of 2004 and entering 2005 as an unranked team to currently being ranked #9.
[P.S. As "deahler" said, none of this really matters to the all-region team since they were chosen before this; I just thought this was a more enjoyable topic than the other.]
