You can do both.
The Jefferson City Jays wanted to win their pool this weekend in the Richard Wilson Classic at the 179 Soccer Park. But they also wanted to work on some leaks they've found recently in their game.
"We've been focusing on getting some stability in the midfield and we did that this weekend," Jays coach Scott Blake said after Jefferson City blanked Joplin 4-0 to wrap up play in the Classic.
"We may have taken some off some of the offensive pressure we've had this season to do that, but we had to get better in the midfield."
And in doing that, it may have had the added benefit of helping the defense as Jefferson City posted three shutouts in the Classic in outscoring its opponents 13-0.
"I think concentrating on the midfield has helped us defend better," Blake said.
Jefferson City now has eight shutouts this season.
Early in the season, the Jays were jumping out to quick leads with early goals.
"But those have fizzled out recently," Blake said. "We know we can't score early every game out."
Jefferson City got some of that back against Joplin. Darby Hall got the Jays on the board less than four minutes into the contest, then Bassil Ahmed scored off an assist by Hall to make it 2-0 with a little more than 27 minutes remaining in the first half.
"It's nice when we get them, but it's OK that we don't score all of our goals in the first half," Blake said.
Ahmed got his second goal of the game about 16 minutes into the second half. Jefferson City's final goal came from Breck McGrail off a free kick from just outside the box with three minutes to play.
"You never know what you're going to get in the third game of a tournament like this," Blake said. "But I think we closed it out strong today."
Toby Hughes played the first 70 minutes in net for Jefferson City before Parker Gourley closed out the game.
Earlier Saturday, Jefferson City blanked Lutheran: St. Charles 4-0 after defeating Battle 5-0 on Friday night.
The Classic has always been a defining weekend for the program.
"We can see where we're at against teams from outside the area," Blake said. "We're just happy we got to play, a month ago, we weren't sure we were going to get it in with teams coming from around the state."
Jefferson City (10-1) will play Tuesday in a Central Missouri Activities Conference contest against Smith-Cotton at Sedalia. The JV game will start at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity contest around 6:45 p.m.
Smith-Cotton finished 2-1 in the other pool at the Classic, defeating Helias and North County before falling to Carthage.