Nike Mancester United Premier Cup - US Finals
Friday, May 23, 2008 at 09:07PM 
Note from MA - due to unforeseen family circumstances, I had to forego the trip this weekend to Portland for the Nike Manchester United Premier Cup. Needless to say, I was totally bummed. However, the girls are in very capable hands with Cook, and he has graciously decided to update us all with the happenings in Portland this weekend.
I'm also going to try and post some video as PVK has been able to email out some .avi files for us. Hopefully these post OK here!
Posted by Mark Cook.
Here it goes, I am going to try and give the readers some updates from the Manchester United Cup (Man Cup) in Portland, Oregon. First off this is not Mark (Abboud) writing this, it’s the other Mark (Cook) taking a shot at giving all of you the chance to hear what is happening in Oregon. You may be wondering why I am writing this and not the other Mark. Unfortunately, he had to stay at home with his wife and daughter because his wife was not feeling well, so you are going to have to deal with updates from me this weekend. I will say that I am by no means the writer that the other Mark is and could probably use an editor for this (Schaefer); what can I say, I was a public speaking major, good at talking but not so much with typing. So here it goes……Drum role please!
Arrival and opening ceremonies
Let me start by giving some background for those of you who don’t know what the Man Cup is. This event is hosted at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. It is a U14 boys and girls only event, it is the United States Finals – with the winning boys and girls team will advancing to the World Finals. The winning girls team will advance to the Gothia Cup in Sweden (I’m not sure where the Boys’ Finals are held), all expenses paid by Nike (not a bad little prize). There were hundreds of teams that applied to play in this event and only 32 teams were chosen to participate this year. Some teams qualified by winning certain tournaments (US Club Nationals, Jefferson Cup, Sockers Nike Cup, Sereno Classic, etc…), while the rest of the teams were excepted on merit. We were fortunate enough to get in as the defending Region 2 Champions and believe me when I say fortunate, this list of teams is very impressive.
As any tournament does, we started this tournament with team check-in. The unique thing with this event is that the girls were asked to come to check in to meet with a representative from Nike and the tournament organizers. At check-in we were given six boxes of Nike gear for the players and coaches…very cool! The players were given a new backpack with the tournament logo, shirts and a miniature Manchester United soccer ball, all of which the kids were pumped about. As for the coaches, we received the brand new Nike Manchester United jacket, which for me, this could not have been any cooler as I am a huge Manchester United fan. Oh, by the way did I mention that they had just won the Champions League the day before (glory, glory Man United!!!!).
From the team check in we went to the Nike World Headquarters and met at the Tiger Woods Event Center for the opening ceremonies.
Let me tell you, this was one very amazing event. Since becoming a Nike Premier Club I have been fortunate enough to attend a few events here at Nike and knew that the opening ceremonies was going to be first class. I can honestly say that it was better than that. As you walked into the Stanford Theater (yes, named after the college that Tiger attended) you were greeted with base-filled hip-hop music and a full-sized video screen slide show that showed the stars of Manchester United along with photos of them hoisting the Premier League and Champions League trophies this past season. I did not realize how popular Christiano Ronaldo was with 14 year old girls – Wow! Every time his photo came up you heard loud shrieks from hundreds of girls and I don’t think it was only because he is a great player!! Once all the teams were seated the lights went down and we watched a video with some of the worlds best players speaking in there own native language (yes, we did have subtitles to read), I wish I could give you the entire video run down but the general message was: “Are you willing to take the final kick in a shootout? Are you first to arrive to training? Are you the last to leave?” Essentially, “Do you have what it takes?” I think you get the message. After the video we were greeted by Allen Hopkins – soccer announcer from ESPN and Fox Soccer Channel. Allen spoke about the event and what it means to play in this event, as well as how Manchester United is committed to promoting the game worldwide for young players to enjoy. After Allen was done he introduced the guest of honor, none other than Brandi Chastain, hero of the 1999 World Cup. Brandi told the players her story of overcoming two ACL surgeries in college, having to adopt a new position for the Women’s National Team, missing an important PK against China preparing for the World Cup, and finally coming back and eventually scoring the winning PK in the 1999 World Cup. All in all it was a very inspirational speech from one of the greatest persons to ever don the American jersey.
Finally, the moment we all have been waiting for arrives… The Draw! On the stage there were two bowls with ping-pong balls in it. One bowl contained all of the Cal. South teams, and the other bowl contained the rest of the teams. First each team from Cal South was placed in one of the eight groups. They then pulled a ball from the other bowl to round out the 8 groups of four teams. Our draw ended up with the Irvine Strikers, FC Portland and Sockers FC, for the most part a good draw and teams we look forward to competing against. The opening ceremonies ended with the latest Nike marketing video, Take it to the Next Level. Now, we begin to prepare for our opponents and hope that we too can “take it to the next level.”
Game 1, Irvine Strikers
For our first game we were facing one of the Cal South teams, Irvine Strikers. For anyone that follows youth soccer you know you are in for a battle anytime you face a team from Southern California. (I think it has something to do with the weather). I spoke to each player before the game to prep them and build their confidence, as well as setting my expectations for their play. The general message was that we needed to do a better job of winning balls and competing the entire game. This was something that we did not do in our state cup final on Wednesday and it was a point of emphasis in last night’s team meeting. I can honestly say that we accomplished that goal. Right from the opening whistle we dominated the 50/50 battle and took control of the game. We created several good scoring chances, did a great job of getting our outside midfielders involved. Both B.D. and Sophie had great first halves, we got good service in the box and we were unfortunate not to finish the chances we created.
At halftime I made three changes and reinforced to the girls that we had to continue to change the point of attach and continue to get balls to our outside mids.
Our first goal came on a ball played form Chilly our left mid into KK, who then played a pass to Nash about 40 yards from goal. Nash’s fist look was to B.D. on the left flank. The option was not there so she played a long diagonal ball into the box that Mac was able to run down and finish past the keeper.
Irvine 1 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.
With about seven minutes left in the game I added Maddie to the game, this was her first action in over a month due to a back injury. Maddie made an immediate impact. She received a great pass from Chilly on the left flank just outside the box, Maddie was able to beat her defender only to be fouled from behind for a PK. Millie stepped up for the Pk and to all of our surprise, the keeper saved it. Two minutes after the miss, Maddie forced their defender into a mistake and she played the ball out of bounds. Maddie quickly put the ball back into play for Millie who beat their last defender and shot far post for goal number 2.
Irvine 2 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.
Two minutes after goal number two we were able to force a mistake in midfield, Millie won the ball and played a quick give and go with Mac on top of the box, the quick combination sent Millie in on goal for number 3.
Irvine 3 from Mark Abboud on Vimeo.
I have to give Millie lots of credit after the PK miss, she did slump her shoulders for a brief time but recovered mentally to put the game out of reach. I will say that I was very pleased with our performance today and can only hope that we continue to play this well throughout. I want to give special recognition to Nash, Maddie and Sophie for playing at “the next level” – just what we were hoping to see. Let’s hope we do it all again tomorrow as we have two very difficult games ahead.
08 MUPC
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