Bondy's notes from Wimbledon

You can tell a lot about a person’s character, not by the mistakes he/she has made, by how he/she has handled those mistakes – Lou Holtz

I’ve been there before, as a coach at Walnut, California. You spend all week at soccer practice studying your opponents with classroom work and on the training ground, making sure every bit of information and preparation is used to give your side the best possible chance of success on game day.

Come gameday you go through all the key elements, you say your last few words. What could possibly go wrong? Thirty seconds into the game, you’re 1-0 down from your own kick-off.  One of my favourite philosophies is that players are people before they are players and we make mistakes. The players proved their character on Sunday.

Character
To go a goal behind so early on can really damage a team’s confidence, but NOT OUR GIRLS. They knew they had done wrong conceding a goal so soon after we spoke about how not to concede a goal with shots from long range with the quality that AFC Wimbledon can produce.

Displaying character we started to play football Boz breezing pass the left-back getting to the byline and putting excellent balls into the box. We were looking good and creating chance after chance, and if anything could have gone 2-1 up – but after all that we find ourselves 2-0 down. Our character showed again: we went back at our opponents creating more chances. We went into half time 4-1 down, but on chances it could have been 4-4.

Second half
We know we had a huge task if we were going to get anything out of the game. The first goal was important: if we could score first and make it 4-2 it was game on. We didn’t, and two minutes after the restart we conceded.

But once again that BIG CHARACTER our girls have was tested. Most teams would have given in and the score then gets embarrassing. We upped the tempo and started to press, making runs in behind – Doddsy and Ale getting on the ball; Bash, Emily, Boz getting their second wind and taking on players; Carla and Liz linking up with Guilia; Hannah, Amy, Millie T and Anna winning big tackles; Sas and Millie Mac getting forward from full-back; Ruby making brilliant saves.

We were playing some of the best football we've played this season and our reward we won a penalty that Liz brilliantly said ‘I’m taking it'. In my opinion, you chose players who want to take a pen, regardless of their position: from 12 yards out it’s all about holding your nerves. If a player is willing to step up and wants to take a pen, fantastic.

Game of two halves
The first half was 4-1, the second half 1-1. That goes to show the willingness to keep going, keep strong, keep playing hard. Not once in that game did we give in. We might not have been at our best in parts but we never gave in: we were relentless.

Maidenhead
Sunday is another hard game – our opponents are a good team with quality. We have extremely talented quality players in our team, 16 girls who will not give in and can play in many positions. We put Sunday behind us, learn and show this week that we are as good as I know we are. I have every confidence our players.

– Bondy