2008 Midwest Regionals: Day 2

Because of the flooding down in Rockford the tournament had to reorganize the schedules and our U15's and U18's would be playing at the same time today and Monday.  This meant that Eric would be with the 18's and I would be with the 15's.  The 15's game was at 8:00am at the main complex and they got off to a good start winning 4-0 over Arsenal from Nebraska.  I left that game with about 10 minutes left and flew over to the other complex where the 12's were warming up and getting ready for their 10:00am game.

Our manager Pete got the girls started on their warm up and I got there about 15 minutes before the game started.

The game started and our girls were scared.  They kept commenting on how much bigger CASA was than us.  This was not a good sign and it was the first time all year I had heard comments like that from the girls. 

Despite a the tenitive start by the girls Blitz almost put in the opening goal 5 minutes in when she hammered a ball from about 40 yards out that almost went over the goalies head because she was off her line.  I'm sure she was asking how somebody that small can generate that much power on a shot.

11 minutes in CASA scored a great goal on us with a girl making a nice cross from the right side and CASA's super dangerous forward volleying it one touch out of the air.

Last night we had talked with the girls about not caving in if we got scored on.  We didn't want to have the game get out of hand because we gave up one goal and quickly concede a second and third goal.  After CASA scored I was very curious to see how we would react.

We reacted well and actually started to battle pretty hard.

Sprout had a break away but she shot too early so we went into half time only down 0-1 despite CASA's dominance.  At half time we talked about how important it was that the girls did not put their heads down after the first goal.  Because of that we were still in the game and we would have the wind in the second half.

The second half was a little more of a back and forth affair . . . a little.  As the wind helped us to get out of our end more frequently but we were still under a lot of pressure.  The girls held strong and with ten minutes left we were still down by only 1 goal.  I had told the girls before the tournament and all year long that if we are down a goal with 10 minutes left we will always push for the tying goal instead of being happy losing by just one goal.

We went with 3 defenders and we tried to take the attack to CASA.  We had 2 corners but we were unable to really threaten their goal and with 3 minutes left CASA's top forward made a great dribbling run, beating 3 of our girls, and she calmly slotted the ball into the goal for the final goal of the game.

Going into the game I would have gladly taken being down 1 goal with 10 minutes left so I was really happy with how hard the girls worked to keep in the game.  Pushing for the tying goal was also good for the girls to develop that mindset for next year if we find ourselves in a similar situation.  We need everyone on board with the idea that we are going to push for the tying goal.

On a side note this was the best refereed game that I have seen this year.  There was not a single call or non call that I would have changed.  They officials did a great job.  It was the same way with the U15 game earlier this morning.
Chicago Skyline

After the game we had a picnic at the fields and the rest of the day was to be spent at the Shed Aquarium and Navy Pier.  All of our older teams don't really do anything besides rest at the hotel and see movies during Regionals but I wanted these girls to see parts of Chicago that many of them have never seen and they can create good memories from the trip.  Maybe they would learn something today as well:)
Outside the Shed Aquarium.

I was unable to go on the trip since I had to step in to help the U14's at the last minute which was disappointing.  The 14's did win 2-0 over WDM so that was good.
At Navy Pier

The girls were able to take almost every form of transportation available (bus, train, taxi, and water taxi) on their trip into Chicago and they came back with lots of fun stories about their day.
On the train.
Waiting for the water taxi.
Navy Pier from the water taxi.

2008 Midwest Regionals: Day 1

Day 1: Opening Ceremonies

Since this is the first time that all of these girls will be at Regionals, we wanted them to experience the opening ceremonies so they could understand what a big event that they are taking part in.

A bunch of us had met up early at a local restaurant and we watched the Turkey vs Croatia Euro game before heading over to the ceremonies.

Unfortunately the Opening Ceremonies were an absolute joke.  The first 30 minutes were spent hearing all the local mayors tell us to spend lots of money in their cities.  Then they had the various organizers give a little speal to everyone, which was fine.  The last time Regionals were in Rockford they had Jonathan Spector from West Ham Utd, not Westum like the DJ said, talk to everyone and he gave a really good speech.  I was looking forward to having the girls hear him talk, but he is away with the National Team so they just played a video speech from him.  Decent talk, but no where near as good as having someone in person.

Then it was time to recognize all the teams who were participating.  But the DJ had no clue how to pronounce over half of the team names including Bangu and Edina.  For the last bit the DJ kept pumping up the special ending they had in store.  They brought in fog machines and it looked like something really cool was going to happen.  Then they started playing Jock Jams and they had a 1980's laser show to the lyrics up on the big screen.  It had nothing to do with soccer and after 3 songs everyone in the Metro Center got up and left.  It was so bad that everyone will always remember it and looking back on it.  It was pretty hilarious.

The girls were able to laugh about it and we left to make our way to our hotel where we had dinner with the U15's from a local pasta place.  We then had our team talk and sent the girls off to bed anxious for tomorrow.