Weeeellllll, what a bizarre season. La Roca began with a young but talented team and a young coach new to the highest level competition in U19 in Barcelona. As we would all soon learn with a new season came a new even higher level of football, taking the standard of football in the Barcelona top division from extraordinary to an even more extraordinary level.
The pre-season looked good as La Roca were undefeated in 8 games, however there were clearly some issues that needed to be addressed as the bar would raise as the season began. As it happened those issues became cracks and the lack of experience at the highest level from a young team resulted in the team having a terrible first half of the season. The losses were not big losses, nearly always by only one goal but they still count as losses.
The second half of the season was looking similar and then the coach made a genius move. He move Natasha further up the field and with that she got the attack working more cohesively. Then he moved her to attacking midfield and the wins began coming more consistently when the coronavirus scare shutdown the football season which was eventually cancelled.
While Natasha had offers to play in several other teams at the beginning of the season and even an open 2nd division team this season really allowed her to complete her junior development as she played a great season and struck fear into every opposition team. She embedded her skills and developed a strong confidence that allowed her to play at this very high level with ease and comfort. When the coach moved Natasha to attacking midfield the impact was immediate and it was obvious to everyone that this was clearly her position. She scored 4 goals, 1 assist and 14 final key passes in 5 games and that wasnt 5 full games in the attacking midfield as when he wanted to secure a lead he would return Natasha to the defensive midfield so it was equivalent to about 3 games in the attacking midfield role.
While the results weren’t as everybody had hoped La Roca showed that they are producing alot of talent for the future and Natasha embedded her football skillset with the perfect traineeship to make a successful progression to the professional leagues.