Back from Richmond where we took a beating on Saturday, but rebounded to get a consolation win against a pretty good team from Minnesota on Sunday.
At the risk of sounding like I am whining......I'll firmly state that our draw was brutal. Having to play the Pennsylvania Strikers, right out of the box at 8 AM on Saturday morning, was not good. This is one of the finest teams I have ever seen, at any level or age group, in my life. Apparently they are ranked #3 in the country....I don't want to go to SoCal or Texas to see #1 and #2. I've seen enough.
Here is the PA Strikers website:
http://www.fcpennsylvania.com/index.htmBeing a native of that area, I struck up a pre-game conversation with one of their parents:
Hurst: Where is your team based out of?
PAS parent: Valley Forge.
Hurst: How many teams in your club?
PAS parent: Three, but one has aged out. I think they are U-20.
Hurst: Where do you draw your girls from?
PAS parent: Well, three of them played for the Baltimore Bays last year. The Bays won the Jefferson Cup as U-11's and U-12's. We also have players from Harrisburg, Philly and South Jersey.
Hurst: So this is a new team....what's the hook?
PAS parent: The hook is that everything is FREE. The coach pays for everything and his buddy over there in the gray sweatshirt is the trainer. He played on the Canadian National Team.
Hurst: (Holding up the U-13 Championship bracket & schedule) Any of these teams scare you?
PAS parent: (Without even looking) Nope.
We gave up 4 goals in the first 25 minutes, and to our credit, worked our rear ends off for the rest of the game in order to yield no more. We were spent. Had a one-game break before we came back at 11 AM to take on a Massachusettes team that were fresh as daisies. They went up 2-0 just before half and then punished our tired legs with three more goals to beat us 5-0. Had we been fresh, we could have taken this team.
Luck of the draw.
PA Strikers ended up winning the tournament, beating a Bethesda team (that beat CESA in the semi-finals) by a score of 4-0.
Congrats to CESA for making the semi-final. Unfortunately, I only got to see about 20 minutes of their first game against Chantilly, VA.
