The first two fixtures of the ‘23 season left LREI with a sense that the new season had promise, but certainly that they had yet to find their feet as a team. In the positive column the team saw in action the anticipated talent and depth in all three lines, and could point to the attitude and fight it showed in the comeback against Trevor. But the unexpected leaking of goals, as well as the way in which those goals came in clusters, showed that there was work to be done. And there were several positions on the field that the team was looking to figure out. The game against Hewitt was looked at as the next opportunity to take forward steps into the season. And the Knights were also fully aware of the fact that Brooklyn Friends loomed next as the first league opponent of the year. 

Hewitt started off much faster than the Knights were seemingly ready for. From the first minutes the central midfield area was dominated by the opposition. Specifically on the dribble Hewitt was able to find space by drawing the LREI midfielders out of their team shape and then exploiting gaps. The partnerships in the Knights lineup seemed unsettled, and Hewitt was not shy about coming straight up the middle. The first goal came with the game just a few minutes old. 

To LREI’s credit they immediately equalized. When they kicked off after conceding they pressed up the field, including regaining possession more than once. With the ball right on the top of the box attacking midfielder Alexa Leitner managed to poke the ball to forward Sookie Lee, who had drifted to the right. Lee took a shot from a sharp angle that found the far corner. It was a moment of belief that the game was still in the balance even despite the fact that they had given up a score already. 

That feeling was dissipated some when they found themselves down two more by the 20 minute mark. The game state created by falling behind in such succession seemed to exacerbate the areas of struggle that the Knights had been working to overcome from previous games: rushing into tackles, overcompensating for spacing decisions and increasingly vertical and direct attacking play. It was a result of the team working hard to get back into a game that they felt was slipping away, but it handed momentum back to Hewitt. 

The second half was better, with the team showing more poise overall, though they still struggled to connect passes going forward. Defensively they managed to limit the opposition to mostly longer chances, but the need to stretch themselves as they looked to generate offense meant that those chances came from more open space than the team would have preferred. Two more goals came in second period, and the Knights never seemed to have an answer for Hewitt’s work on the dribble.

LREI falls to 0-2-1 on the young season, though all of this self reflection and tune up work is coming in games outside of league play, and against teams that have historically been strong. These games are proving to be good tests, even if they’re exposing growing pains for the defending ISAL champs as they look to find themselves in 2023. There are questions to answer regarding how the team wants to play, and how to tap into a deeply talented and experienced roster. The Knights will hope that the answers to these questions can be found quickly as the runway is ending. They’ll be hoping to take flight against Brooklyn Friends in their next matchup, the first in the league, on Thursday, September 21st right back in Red Hook.