Heading down to Hebron (IA) this weekend for the MRL First Division playoffs. Here's the scoop.
There are 4 divisions in the First Division, NW, NE, SW, and SE. The top three teams from each division are here to battle it out against three from another division, with the reward being the team that wins their group is automatically promoted to MRL Premier next season.
We are in the NW division and here is how things ended for us -
So New United, our White team, and us are the top three teams here this weekend.
In the NE division, here is where things stood when all was said and done -
Teams carry into this weekend their results against the other top teams in their division from the spring season, play the other three teams from the other division, and the winner is the team with the most points. Taking all 6 teams' results into consideration, here is where things are at heading into this weekend's competition -
We open up the weekend tomorrow morning against Internationals, the team we lost to two years ago in the U12 US Club Regional Championship, then beat last year at the U13 Midwest Regional Championships. It is sure to be a tough contest for us, especially since we're still missing our one and only GK and will be forced to use a field player in net.
We play Ohio Premier in the afternoon, so will likely have a good chance of knowing where we stand come tomorrow evening.
U15 MRL Premier would be nice, but it's not a huge deal to me if we don't qualify. It's a goal of ours, for sure, but ultimately we're looking at using this weekend as a final tweak for next weekend in Rockford at Regionals.
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Things didn't start off very well today. Due to torrential rains and flooding in Wisconsin, traffic was diverted to back roads in Mauston (WI), about 70 miles shy of Madison. No lie, we probably traveled 8 miles in 2 hours. The highway was a parking lot, with people leaving their cars to hang out on the side of the road.
At least we were in a bus; not stressed to be behind the wheel, able to watch movies, and able to use a bathroom. Could have been worse.
We eventually rolled into our hotel in Merriville (IA) around 8:30PM, nearly 11 hours after meeting the bus at the Home Depot in Woodbury this morning. Wow.
All in all I think the girls had a good time on the bus. We rode down with our Whtie team and they're staying across the highway from us in a different hotel.
We pre-ordered pizza for the girls, talked about the weekend while we ate, then hustled them off to bed for some needed rest.
Thunder Announce Revolutionary Youth Development System Minnesota Thunder joins forces with Bangu Tsunami FC and Wings SC, two of the state’s most successful clubs, to develop an international-style soccer academy
(June 12, 2008) The Minnesota Thunder Professional Soccer Team has taken a bold new step to help reshape the soccer landscape and make Minnesota a national innovator in soccer development. After seven months of extensive dialogue and collaborative research, the Thunder has combined two of the elite soccer clubs in Minnesota under the Thunder banner to add a new dimension to youth soccer in the state. With the inclusion of Bangu Tsunami FC and Wings SC, the Thunder Academy will begin with over 90 competitive teams forming one of the largest clubs in the Midwest. Together the two elite clubs have produced 39 State Cup Champions, 6 Regional Finalists, and 3 Regional Champions since 2002.
Coinciding with the inception of the Minnesota Thunder Academy (MTA), the Thunder will offer an Open Affiliate Program which is available to all soccer clubs. This program is designed to help Minnesota soccer youth organizations promote the sport in their community, by offering access to the Thunder’s growing network of resources, players, and coaches. “Since our inception in 1990 the Thunder has served as a soccer ambassador to the Minnesota community,” comments Thunder owner Dean Johnson, “This new program is an extension of our overall cooperative vision.”
The Minnesota Thunder Academy will be comprised of Regional Academies (North, South, East, West, and Urban) and the Minnesota Thunder Elite Academy.
Regional Academies are open to all interested players and will provide professional leadership for recreational and competitive players ages 4 to 19. “The great thing about this collaboration is that these Regional Academies will embrace the structure and programming of both Bangu Tsunami FC and Wings SC, in addition to the youth development philosophy of the Minnesota Thunder,” says team President Manny Lagos.
The Minnesota Thunder Elite Academy will be focused on the development of Minnesota’s top players. There will be two teams formed at each age group/gender from U13 to U19 with the goal of regional and national success. “Our philosophy is to bring together talented players under the guidance of top-level coaches in order to help the players reach their full potential,” states Thunder Technical Director Steve Bellis.
Including Thunder Regional Academies and the Thunder Elite Academy, over 1400 players will wear the Thunder badge beginning in the fall of 2008.
Modeling the structure on existing European and South American academies, the Minnesota Thunder Academy will provide a uniquely American path from youth to professional. “I’m committed to adding more Minnesota players to the Thunder roster,” states Thunder Head Coach Amos Magee, “This youth initiative will help us identify and develop future Thunder and Lightning first team prospects.”
The Minnesota Thunder Academy has hired the following Directors to oversee this progressive program:
Mark Cook - MTA Girls Elite Team Director Chad Moore - MTA Girls Elite Team Director Rob Zahl - MTA Boys Elite Team Director Tod Herskovitz - MTA Boys Elite Team Director Mark Abboud - MTA Technical Director Steve Bellis - MTA Technical Director
The Thunder Academy’s innovative youth to pro structure, along with its history of successful soccer in the Midwest, has already sparked dialogue and interest from potential European partners. These relationships are expected to include player and coach exchange as well as shared best practices.
The Thunder Academy will be a non-profit organization focused on providing soccer opportunities for all participants regardless of economic status. “In the United States, many high potential athletes are prohibited from taking advantage of professional-level training due to financial restraints. A goal of the Thunder Academy is to provide cost reduction and eventual program cost elimination for all players through Thunder partnerships and sponsorships,” adds Thunder Technical Director Mark Abboud.
The Thunder Academy is actively seeking out the most interested soccer players and coaches to participate in structured, year-round training within team contexts. Tryouts for U8-U11 players will be in July and for U12 and older players in August. Tryouts will be open to all interested players, regardless of previous club affiliation and led by Thunder Academy Directors, Thunder Academy professional staff members, and Thunder/Lightning players.
Full program details will be available by June 30, 2008, at the Thunder website, www.mnthunder.com
John Jerabek, Wings SC Board Member Wings SC is extremely excited about this opportunity. One of our main goals in structuring this arrangement was to provide opportunities for growth for all players within the organization, without requiring the children to leave their neighborhood teams at an early age or lose the community programming that both clubs have found successful. The combined programs will provide for the development of every player at every ability and level of interest by bringing together Minnesota's top youth and professional coaching staffs, providing additional training opportunities for all players and enhancing those programs that have a proven track record of success. This model provides the best of both worlds for the children in our community and provides a model organization for Minnesota youth soccer where the good of the players and families come first.
Rob Zahl, Bangu Tsunami FC Boys Coaching Director I have been with Bangu Tsunami FC as a player, coach and director for nearly 20 years and have seen us grow from a handful of teams to the most competitive club in the state. We began discussions with the Thunder late last year and the end result is an amazing collaboration for Minnesota soccer.
Along with the Wings SC and the Minnesota Thunder, we have created a unique development environment that will enable us to set the curve not only statewide but also nationally. I am thrilled to be involved with this group and very excited to see the quality opportunity we will provide for the soccer community.
Our second match up against our sister second team in 10 days. Fresh off a very good accounting by the White team in the State Cup final, I knew they'd be coming into the game full of confidence. BTW, I'm still working on that write up, in case you can't tell :)
Even after the State Cup final performance, I still believe we are 3 goals better than the Whites. However, we have yet to prove that. I understand I carry some bias with this thought, and I'm not trying to diminish the work the White coaches have done or the improvement this White group has shown in the last year.
We were slated to play tonight at the Rich Valley Athletic Complex in Inver Grove Heights - one of the hidden field gems of the Twin Cities. Not a lot of use by the small local club, immaculate fields that were flat and wide. Great for us.
However, we are pretty banged up. Nash out, casted and crutched, Maddie 50% at best with her back, Ripper and a broken wrist that she's been able to play with but not at 100%, Korky coming straight from a doctor's appointment for an ear infection, and Bidi out tonight with a school function. Again, Ripper was able to play and Maddie could give us a few minutes here and there, but realistically, we had a grand total of 11 fit players on the day.
Somehow, I had managed to double book myself for the evening with my U11s in the Apple Valley tournament with a 6PM game. Our 14 game was set to kickoff at 5:30PM. I couldn't find anyone to cover the 11s, so my plan was to get the 14s going and stay for the first 20 minutes of the first half. Then truck over to Apple Valley to take the 11s. Not ideal, but the 14s are in very capable hands without me.
We started again in our 3-5-2. The fantastic surface and large playing area saw us come out and press the attack. The Whites had one or two forays into our end, but nothing dangerous. The Blues were much sharper than they were in the State Cup final, knowing that they had something to prove.
I felt confident that I'd hear a favorable result when Cook called me an hour later. I didn't. We dropped the game 1-0 on a late goal that Cook said was a bit of a fluke. A free kick served in, redirected by our team, then spinning and slipping on the wet surface through Zazu's legs.
I bet the White team was ecstatic about the win. As they should be. For me, though I expected the Blues to finish their MRL season undefeated, in the large scheme of things this loss isn't a huge thing for us. We'll be able to use it to learn from and continue to motivate the kids as we work towards peaking later in June, and we still need to try and run the table at the mid-June MRL playoff weekend against the three teams from the Northeast Division. More about this later. It also will help the Whites qualify for the MRL playoffs, which I believe they would with a win in one of their last two games next weekend in Madison. Good for them, they've worked hard and are playing some good soccer.
So not a great result obviously for us, but not a tremendously negative end either.
Cook may have some tough decisions to make come tryouts for next year's U15 team though as there are at least a handful of current White team players who could make a serious run at next year's Blue team roster spots.
Day two brought us for first glimpse of the sun since arriving in Portland; did you know it rains a lot here? Today’s first game was against the Chicago Sockers, at team that I can honestly say that I did not know much about and really was not sure how good they were. Again I emphasized how important it is to win the 50/50 battle and to make sure that we look to play side to side as much as we can. I have to say this was not how we started the game; we got outplayed from the opening whistle. Our central players were working hard but seemed a step to slow, we just were not able to get a hold of the ball, nor were we winning any of the battles that we dominated the day before. We gave up a goal about ten minutes into the game and were fortunate not to give up another as the Sockers hit the cross bar a few minutes after their first goal. The half ended with the Sockers leading 1-0.
At halftime I had to reinforce to the girls that winning the 50/50 battle and getting our outside mids back on defense we be the key to getting back into this game. The second half was much better half for us, we created several good scoring chances and we able to keep possession of the ball for longer periods of time. Unfortunately, we had one major incident in the second half, Nash was closing down a defender and as she stepped to win the ball her ankle got caught in the turf and she rolled her ankle in the wrong direction. Immediately she was in a lot of pain and felt that she had broken her ankle. Play was stopped as a trainer was called to the field and Nash was carried off the field. I want to give special thanks to the Sockers coach, Greg Maim for coming on the field and helping get Nash to calm her breathing and relax as we waited for the trainer, a truly classy act from a great coach. After play resumed we were able to win a corner kick, on the ensuing kick BD played a ball into the box that was deflected off of Maddie's hip to Becca, who took a touch and volleyed the ball into the back of the net from 12 yard out, a great finish and just what we needed to get back into the game. The remainder of the game was pretty even, both teams had chances and we almost got the win in the final 30 seconds, Millie was slotted a ball between two defenders and was about to get off a shot as the goalkeeper came out to smother the ball. Final score 1-1, probably a fortunate result for us as we were not at our best.
Note on Nash’s injury, she was taken to the hospital for x-rays (thanks Carolyn Werth) and was diagnosed with a hairline fracture, done for the tournament but not as serious as first thought. Hopefully, she will be back for regional’s!!☺
Day 2, game 2 vs FC Portland (OR)
The final game of group play was against FC Portland it was our first chance to play at the Nike Headquarter on Ronaldo field. There was a lot riding on this game, we needed a tie to advance and a win would allow us to finish first in our group. FC Portland was 2-0 so they were through but we new that we should be in for a great game. I could tell in warm-ups that our energy was back and we would be a different team than we were in the morning game. Right from the opening whistle we took control of the game; we were controlling possession, playing side to side and dominating the 50/50 battle. (I was told by one of our parents that they overheard a couple of coaches asking “who are these guys, they’re pretty good”) Our opponent was playing a very aggressive offside trap, something we have seen before and once we realized what was happening, something we were able to exploit. Our fist goal game 10 minutes into the game. As FC Portland was stepping Chilly was played a long diagonal ball on the left flank (sorry can’t remember who played it). Chilly drove end line and then cut the ball back to beat her defender, she then played a low ball back into the slot that Millie ran onto and calmly finished from 12 yards out. Our second goal was déjà vu all over again, except on the other side of the field. The ball was played back to RVK at left back, she found KK in the central area of the field and as FC Portland was setting the trap KK played a great diagonal ball to BD on the right flank, BD was all alone on the right side with 50 yards of space in front of her. BD got end line and played a great ball back into the slot that Chilly ran onto and calmly one timed into the upper 90 from 14 yards out. The half ended 2-0 with us fully in control. At halftime I spoke with the girls on ways to exploit the trap and how we need to continue to string passes together and play side to side. Half number two was much like the first one, we dominated possession, did not give Portland any chances and we were unfortunate not to get a third goal as BD had a great volley off a cross only to hit the under side of the crossbar. The final score was 2-0, which meant we won the group and would be facing Sereno in the round of 16.
Day 3 vs Sereno (AZ) - round of 16
After a long morning of sitting around the hotel we arrived back at the Nike campus for our round of 16 game versus Sereno. I was able to watch Sereno in the finals of their event back in January and knew we were in for a battle. Right from the opening whistle Serono had us on our heals, they were winning every ball in the air; we were turning the ball over and were unable to get out of our end of the field. Player for player, Sereno was bigger, stronger and faster than we were, something I have not seen with this group. I will give our team some credit; we battled hard and defended well. Sereno has several good scoring chances, only to be denied by Tori’s brilliant goalkeeping, all I can say was wow!! Half time finished 0-0 and we were fortunate to be scoreless. All I could tell the team at the half was to continue to battle, get numbers behind the ball and the need to play quicker balls to feet not in the air.
The second half started well for us, we were able to string a few passes together and our intensity was good. That all changed about 7 minutes into the half, a Sereno forward was sent in behind our defense on a great through ball, Tori came out to smother the ball only to be beaten to it by the Sereno forward. The Sereno forward tried to dribble by Tori, only to be tripped by her, whistle PK. (the correct call in my opinion) This is where thing got really interesting, the referee ruled that Tori impeded a goal scoring opportunity, straight red. I could not believe what I was seeing, first off the ball was 30 yards onto the other field behind our goal, when the Sereno forward tried to dribble Tori, she kicked the ball way past her and out of bounds. She had no chance of catching up to the ball and even if you ruled that she had a chance to score her shot went wide and was only tripped after the shot. For the first time in a long time I went ballistic on a referee, this was one of the worst decisions I have seen in some time. (Well not worse than the call on the corner kick at state cup, but really bad) The fourth official took most of my rage as he tried to get me back in my technical area but my guess is everyone anywhere near the field knew how I felt about the red card, the call essentially ended any chance of us winning. Maddie was inserted in goal to face the PK and although Maddie served us well and in few games back in MN it was not the same as playing against a team as good as Sereno. (Special thanks for Maddie going in goal with no complaint and keeping a positive attitude) Needless to say we played the rest of the game with 10 players and lost 4-0. I do not want to take anything away from Sereno, I felt all along that they were the better team and deserved to advance, it was just too bad that the referees decision changed the whole dynamic of the game and really gave us little chance of winning.
Day 4 vs PDA (NJ)
Our final game was a friendly against PDA, ironically we joked with them before the Sereno game that maybe we would see them in a friendly as they had just lost to Crossfire before our game with Sereno. The only really eventful part of this game was getting Tori back on the field. Because of the red card she was supposed to sit out a game, however, this was a friendly and I felt it was not fair to play without our keeper and the coaches from PDA agreed. We got the tournament officials to allow Tori to play and the game went on as planned. The game itself was a rather dull affair, it ended 0-0 and Tori played a great game, PDA created the better scoring chances but for the most part a game played with no emotion and very little flow, typical friendly after a long weekend.
After the PDA game we went over the field 1 to watch the finals, Texans vs. Crossfire. Crossfire was in our hotel and we built a pretty good relationship with their parents and coaching staff. (Ironically one of their coaches used to live in MN and I knew his wife back in the day) So needless to say we were rooting for Crossfire. The game was a very entertaining game, played at a very high level. Crossfire had the better of the play and probably should have won the game, however it went to PK’s and the Texans won to advance to Sweden. (I believe the Texans won 3 knockout games in PK’s) All in all, the best event I have attended as a youth coach and can only hope that I can attend again with another team from our club.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Friday, June 13, 2008 at 11:08PM 
