Boys soccer: Waves suffer disappointing loss against Newfield

“When you point a finger at someone, you have three pointing right back to you,” head soccer coach Lamine Traore said following the 2-0 loss against Newfield Thursday night.

The Blue Waves placed new expectations on themselves following their impressive stretch. Tying Smithtown West and then beating North Babylon may have made the Blue Waves think that Newfield would be an easier match.

No such luck.

Sometimes when you want to win so badly, you end up trying to be bigger than you actually are. And when you try to do too much, Traore said, nothing comes of it but blame and shame.

“Why are we blaming each other,” yelled Denis Escalante as the Blue Waves walked back to their sideline after shaking hands with the Wolverines. “We’re all brothers, man.”

As players came in and out throughout the game; frustration set in, questions were raised and fingers began to be pointed.

Coach Traore asked the team in the post game huddle:

“Did you give everything today?”

He was met with silence.

“Did we fight for every ball in the box?”

Again, silence.

Nobody thought the Blue Waves had a chance to make noise this year; they have. Nobody thought they could beat a top team; they did. But nothing can be accomplished if they don’t play like a team.

And a team fights for each other not with one another.

“For the first fifteen minutes, we had it,” Traore said. “We had control of the game. We moved the ball the way we’re supposed to. We played our game.”

But after Riverhead surrendered a goal, it all went down hill and they began to focus on Newfield’s star player Jake Barros losing sight of what they needed to do individually.

“He’s a very good player,” Traore said. “But he used us to his advantage.”

Though he didn’t score, Barros contributed the assist on both goals.

“I told them, you don’t need to focus in on him,” Traore said. “That’s what he wanted. Where was he in the first fifteen minutes? He was still playing, right? Did we see him?”

“No,” he answered quickly. “Because we were playing our game.”

Riverhead (3-6-1) has four games remaining on the schedule. They cannot lose another game if they want to make the playoffs. The Blue Waves host Smithtown East on Tuesday.