All Pictures	Hi all, Another Chicago Wind season. Another Photo album! Just click on any image on the left to see more pictures. Enjoy - Mark
Fri 8/25	Wind 3 - Wilmette Wings 0 The Chicago Wind beat the Wilmette Wings Red 3-0 in a weather-shortened game. This was the same opponent that was in the "A" with the Wind last spring, although Wilmette will be moving to the "AB" division this fall. The first half lasted all of four minutes. The two teams played three minutes, then lightning led to a stoppage of play. The two teams returned to play one more minute before a gigantic lightning bolt cause yet another delay. Nonetheless, the Wind had a 1-0 lead on a goal by Rachel that was set up by a fantastic pass by Marley. When the two teams returned, the referee decided that the rest of the first half was called off and only the second half would be played in order to keep the tournament on schedule. Nicki scored a goal to put the Wind up 2-0 (assist: Rachel). Rachel and Nicki then reversed roles as Rachel scored a goal with Nicki getting the assist to put the Wind up 3-0. The Wind played a 2-5-3 formation in their first game on the bigger field. Nicki and Rachel played two attacking forward positions. Jessica, Katherine, Courtney and Hayley manned the outside midfield spots. Marley, Sia and Stephanie played the three inside midfield spots designed to be a triangle in which Marley played the attacking spot of the triangle with Stephanie and Sia playing back just a bit in more of defensive midfield component of the back end of the triangle. Claire played sweeper in a return to the role she played two seasons ago. Olivia, Cara and Lauren rotated between the two outside defender positions. Amanda had a quiet evening as the Wind defense prevented Wilmette from getting any shots on goal. Montana sat out the game with an injury. The girls did very well moving the ball around, probing the Wilmette defense with forward passes when there were openings and dropping the ball back to a teammate when there was nothing available, especially considering Tony was not at the game because one of his other teams had a game at the same time.
Sat 8/26	Wind 7 - Darien Dynamos 0 The Chicago Wind beat the Darien Dynamo Black, an "AB" division team, by the score of 7-0 in a game in which the Wind dominated in terms of aggression and winning 50-50 balls. Rachel exploded for five goals. Amanda scored the other two goals. Marley and Nicki each had two assists. Jessica, Hayley and Rachel each had one assist. The Wind's best goal of the day was their third goal which started when Amanda made her lone save of the first half, punted the ball to Hayley who passed it to Marley who passed it to Rachel, and Rachel then finished the play with the goal. Katherine played goalie in the second half and had two saves. Noteworthy efforts were also turned in by Stephanie, Claire, Olivia, Cara and Courtney. After the game, several of the girls marveled at how powerful Lauren's throw-ins are. The girls passing was once again significantly more advanced than it was at the end of last season.
Sun 8/27 (1)	Wind 2 - Dactyls 1. The Chicago Wind beat the Rockford Dactyls 2-1. The Dactyls are currently ranked #10 in the state of Illinois and are the type of big and physical team that has tended to give the Wind trouble in the past. After a scoreless first half, the Wind took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Katherine (assist: Stephanie). The Dactyls then turned up the pressure and were controlling the flow of the game in the middle of the second half, finally scoring a game-tying goal. The Wind responded with the game-winning goal when Sia passed the ball to Rachel who drove toward the net and did a remarkable job of turning on the ball and putting a shot over the Dactyls goalie into the net. Claire had a very strong game at sweeper. Cara also had numerous strong plays on defense, especially in the first half. Olivia made a critical hustle play when a Dactyl player had a breakaway and Olivia ran half the field to catch her and clear the ball just before the Dactyl player would have gotten off a shot. Montana returned from injury and joined the center midfield rotation. Katherine and Amanda each had three saves in goal.
Sun 8/27 (2)	Wind 3 - Galaxy 0. The Wind won the Danny Cunniff Tournament for the second year in a row with a decisive 3-0 victory over the Naperville Galaxy. Nicki gave the Wind a 1-0 lead on a shot from such a wide angle that the parents on the sideline didn't realize for several seconds that a goal had been scored. Rachel showcased what a great finisher she is, putting the Wind up 2-0, when she received a ball in the box in an awkward position, settled the ball to a spot that was still not ideal to get off a shot and somehow managed to take the shot with the outside of her right foot and score the goal (assist: Stephanie). The Wind's final goal came when a Galaxy goal kick was stolen and Nicki put it in the back of the net. Katherine had one save in goal. Amanda had two saves. Claire was rock steady at sweeper. Olivia and Cara performed well from their outside defender spots. Lauren had her best game of the tournament, playing very well on defense in the second half. Once the Wind was ahead 3-0, Tony experimented with more different lineup combinations than usual.
8/27 Awards	Team Pictures and pictures with trophy!
Fri 9/1	Glenview Titans 3 - Wind 0. The Wind lost to the Glenview Titans, a fellow "A" division team, by the score of 3-0. The Wind actually played pretty well in the first half and had one great scoring chance on a breakaway but couldn't convert. The Wind went down 1-0 in the first half when Katherine made an excellent save but Glenview scored on the rebound. Whereas the Wind had good ball movement and time of possession in the first half, they did not play well in the second half. Glenview added two second-half goals. Amanda had two saves, and Katherine had one.
Sat 9/2	Lake Forest Scouts 1 - Wind 0 We played evenly but they scored on a penalty kick with 10 minutes remaining.
Sun 9/3	Trevians 2 - Wind 1 The Wind lost to Trevian 2-1. The Wind went up 1-0 in the first half when Nicki scored a goal (Stephanie assist). Trevian scored two second-half goals when the Wind turned the ball over twice, leading to two Trevian breakaways.
Sun 9/10	Strikers 4 - Wind 0 The Wind lost to the Strikers 4-0 in the first league game for each team. The Wind actually played the Strikers pretty evenly in the first half, trailing only 1-0 when a defensive miscue allowed for the only goal of the first half. Katherine made several strong saves to keep the Wind in the game in the first half. The Wind had a couple of decent scoring chances in the first half but were unable to score. The second half was an altogether different story as the Strikers dominated play and quickly put the game out of reach when a couple of more Wind defensive lapses led to Strikers goals. The Strikers were faster, stronger, more aggressive and pretty much better in every way imaginable in the second half. While it was not a memorable day team wise, Sia and Marley turned in strong individual performances.
Sun 9/17	Wind 0 - Plainfield 0 The Wind and Plainfield battled to a 0-0 tie. Plainfield was the more physical team and had numerous scoring opportunities on long balls toward the Wind goal. Plainfield hit the post on one of their shots. While the Wind did not have as many scoring opportunities, they did have several breakaways but the resulting shots were either lacking in ooomph or were off the mark. Katherine was very strong in goal, coming off the line at the right times and stopping a handful of challenging shots. Amanda did not play in goal because she hurt her hand on the last shot taken in warmups. Claire played a very good game from her sweeper spot, making good decisions and clearing the ball during dangerous situations.
Sun 9/24	Wind 1 - Hawks 1 The Chicago Wind and Hawks Green tied 1-1. The first half was a pretty evenly played scoreless tie. The Wind took a 1-0 lead on a goal scored by Katherine (Rachel assist). As time to start to run out, the Hawks Green coach pushed his outside fullbacks up the field in an aggressive attempt to tie the game. The Hawks were in fact able to score the equalizer on a well hit ball from the right side of the box. Amanda, who played very well in goal, made 11 saves.
Sun 10/1	NSA Naperville 3 - Wind 0 Thanks to Sam for pictures!
Sun 10/8	Libertyville 1 - Wind 0 The Wind failed to capitalize on the fact that Libertyville had played in three tournament games in the previous 30 hours. The Wind started out pretty well the first 10 or so minutes of the game, but after that their performance was pretty sleepy. Libertyville scored the only goal of the game when the Wind failed to clear a ball out of their end of the field which led to a rather nondescript cross -- a ground ball -- that evaded the Wind defenders and ended up on the foot of an unmarked forward who merely had to redirect the ball into the unattended weak side portion of the net. The Wind was unable to muster much offense all game long. The couple of scoring threats the Wind had were swept away by the extremely aggressive play of the Libertyville goalie who came way out of the net (to midfield on one occasion) to thwart through balls that would have resulted in quality scoring chances against a more passive keeper. Amanda kept the Wind in the game with a number of difficult saves in the first half. Amanda had five saves in the first half. Katherine had five saves in the second half.
Sun 10/15	ASC Eagles 3 - Wind 0 Thanks to Sam & Bruce for pictures.
Sun 10/22	Glenview 3 - Wind 0 The field was wet and swampy in places. Even in good conditions the Wind would have had a tough time with Glenview.
Sun 10/29	Lake Forest 1 - Wind 0 The girls put forward their hardest effort of the season and won most of the 50/50 balls. But Lake Forest scored on a direct free kick that was impossible to stop. And, the Wind was not able to even the score.
Sun 11/5	Eclipse 3 - Wind 0 The Eclipse showed why they dominate the state rankings in all girls' age brackets and are nationally ranked. The Wind team was not able to muster much offensive firepower and the defense allowed 3 goals.

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