CU Women's Soccer: Game of Inches

CU shot on goal is inches away from crossing the line.

Al Pacino said it best in the movie Any Given Sunday....

You find out that life is just a game of inches.

So is soccer.
Because in either game
life or soccer

the margin for error is so small.
I mean
one half step too late or too early
and you don't quite make it.
One half second too slow or too fast
and you don't quite catch it.
The inches we need are everywhere around us.
They are in ever break of the game
every minute, every second.

We concluded our non-conference portion of our season a couple of weekends ago at the DU Invitational. We opened with #22 Auburn on Friday afternoon before taking on Cal State Bakersfield on Sunday afternoon.

At 2-4, it was a weekend that we needed to fight harder and dig more for every inch. And, 28 minutes into the first half, junior Amy Barczuk found her inches by spinning away from the defender and chipping the goalkeeper from outside the 18-yard box. However, the game was far from being over, and we couldn't stop battling. Auburn was able to put away a free kick before the end of the first half to begin the second half at 1-1. Moments into the second half, senior Caroline Danneberg scored off a free kick that bounced just inches over the Auburn goalkeeper's head. Auburn didn't let down, and once again, they tied it up to 2-2. After playing 2 overtimes and an unbelievable team effort, we finished the match tied at two.

Junior GK Annie Brunner punches the ball off her line.

On Sunday, our inches added up for our win over CSU Bakersfield. We scored early with a penalty kick by Amy Barczuk. As the first half continued, senior Kate Russell found herself in a position to shoot from distance or pass it into junior Shaye Marshall who was 8 yards away from goal. The decision was easy as the inches were closer for Shaye to put the ball in the back of the net. Although Bakersfield never let up and was able to get a goal before the half, we ended the match with a 2-1 win.