2007 MN State Cup Brackets Set

The mandatory State Cup meeting was this past Saturday.  My wonderful team manager extraordinaire, Wendy Nelson, attended the meeting in my place as I was busy with my girls in the beautiful Virginia countryside.  Brackets played out as follows.

Group A

• A1 - St Croix
• A2 - NSSA
• A3 - Wings
• A4 - Maplebrook

Group B

• B1 - Play in winner Tonka United or Blaine
• B2 - Bangu Tsunami Green
• B3 - Cottage Grove
• B4 - Eden Prairie

Group C

• C1 - Dakota Rev
• C2 - TC Fire
• C3 - Bangu Tsunami Blue (you're on our site!)
• C4 - Wayzata

Group D

• D1 - Bangu Tsunami White
• D2 - Bangu Tsunami Academy 95
• D3 - Centennial
• D4 - Lakeville

The Group A and Group C (our group) winners will meet in one semifinal, with the Group B and Group D winners meeting in the other. 

Download 2007 MN State Cup Brackets

Group A is the wildcard group for me.  NSSA is the defending state champion at this age group from the summer of 2006.  The question will be whether or not they were able to pick up additional talent when they moved to the larger 11v11 roster.  Same goes for Maplebrook.  I saw St Croix play last fall against our U12s and they didn't have much.  No idea about the Wings team.  Luckily, all Group A games are at different times from our Group C games, so I'll get a good chance to watch all four of these teams in action.

Group B is tough for me to predict as well.  EP was our toughest competition the fall of 2004, but I haven't seen them at all since then.  Cottage Grove will be athletic and work hard and will probably give the opposition trouble just based on those qualities. Tonka was one of two clubs who advertised and recruited last fall with the hopes of forming a "superteam".  Lakeville did the same.  I know Tonka had some good talent last summer and mixed with Edina this past fall, and I think they will likely make it in after their play in game.  This is probably the toughest group on paper with any of the four teams able to advance.

Though our 3-year State Cup goal has a possibility of ending with a loss in our first game, I like our draw.  I'm not overlooking TC Fire or Dakota Rev, but I think we can get away with favorable results against those teams with a decent game on our part.  I think Wayzata will be one of the top teams in the event, and I'm sure they're not too thrilled to draw us in their pool group.  We are scheduled to come up against them on Monday, April 30, for our first game.  If we can get by them, I believe we stand a good chance of getting out of our group.  Wayzata will be nervous as we're the team to beat, no question about it.  I don't think they can stick with us if we come to play, and it will be my job to make sure the girls do just that.  We've opted out of traveling to the Arsenal Elite Invitational in order to be best prepared for this first game.  More on this later.

I think our White team has a good shot at making it out of Group D, though Centennial and Lakeville should offer up tough competition for them.  Our U12 Academy team is also in that group and will get some valuable experience playing up this year. 

The field is set, we know what we are up against.  People will be gunning for us for sure and I know our girls are up for the challenge.  As always, there are many surprises each year at State Cup and I'm sure this year will be no different.  Just hope we're not on the "bad" end of any of them!