The Lab Museum United soccer team (LMU) is the soccer team that represents NYC Museum School and Lab High school. The team consists of players from Museum and Lab High School. They are led by Coach Ryan Bucci and Coach Angela Sagonas who guided them to the playoffs of the 2022 fall season. They also have a team manager from Museum school, a junior, Katlyn Martins. Their playoff run started off very well in the first game but in the next, the team unfortunately lost. 

The First Game

In the first game of the playoffs, the players were very excited and they had high hopes that they would get the win. Coach Bucci had gone with a 4-3-3 lineup (four defenders, three midfielders, and three attackers) and was aiming for an attacking mentality (where the players would be attacking and counter-attacking whenever they could). He also emphasized that communication was very important to the game plan. 

The game was against the Albert Tuitt school which is a school in the north part of The Bronx. The pitch seemed to be in good condition and it was sunny which set a good tone for the game. The game started at the scheduled time and at first, it was quite end to end and the team seemed to favor the right side of the field for their attacks. After the tenth minute, however, things started to pick up for the LMU players as they got many chances to score in quick succession. 

In the fourteenth minute, the first goal was scored for LMU, firing them ahead and setting the stage for the rest of the game. LMU kept their foot on the gas for the rest of the first half, and ended up bagging four more goals into the net before halftime. Although LMU was winning five-nil, the substitutes kept shouting “Nil-Nil!” to remind the players on the pitch of the mentality. 

The second half saw little action, with the Tuitt players actually managing to get a few chances,  but those chances amounted to nothing, and the LMU players found their form again as they fired two more goals into the net in quick succession late into the half sealing the final score at seven-nil.

 Overall, the players all played very well in this game and dominated the Tuitt players. One of the LMU players, Museum School Junior Elyes Bouchik said they were “happy to win, but they wanted to focus on the next game.”

The Second Game and Conclusion

The second game was a different story, as the team lost the game one-nil to Sunset Park High School. Despite this loss, Coach Bucci reports that the players played well, and based on rankings of the teams, they should have lost by a lot more. 

The goal that was scored by Sunset Park was off a very dodgy penalty kick in the first half which the players believed should not have been given. No disrespect to the Sunset Park players though, as Bucci said they also played well, with their quick passing play through the middle. 

However, the LMU defense was able to absorb the attacks and Bucci believed that the game could have ended up going to penalties had the penalty kick not been given and scored. 

Overall, The Gators were happy with how they played, but disappointed as they could not progress further into the playoffs. With the fall season over, we can only hope that the Gators redeem themselves next season and hopefully become champion; Based on how they played in these past two games, they could certainly do that.