AYSO NATIONAL TOURNAMENT IN HAWAII

July 6th-13th 2008

Congratulations to the U-12 Girls Team United who took second place in the AYSO National Games tournament and won the overall sportsmanship award.

United’s only loss came in the Championship match which was the 10th game the girls played in five days. Even with the 90+ degree heat and extremely tough competition from the 24 teams in our U-12 Girls division, the players had a fantastic showing that started on Thursday morning at 8:00am with a resounding win against East Wichita, Kansas (5-0).

The Thursday afternoon game against a strong Hawaiian team ended in a tie (2-2) (but we had them until the very end!). Friday morning we were back in winning form with an exciting last minute goal to win 3-2 against St. Joseph, Michigan. A 2-0 win over Syracuse, Utah rounded out Friday (and then to the beach!).

Saturday morning started with a win-or-go-home game against Bakersfield and the girls really showed their stuff with a 5-1 victory against a team that was much better than this score would indicate. Of course, scoring three goals on set plays meant all that practice time was worth it. (The short corner play actually worked! Mike was ecstatic.)

With the win on Saturday morning, United made the cut (top 8 teams out of the 24) but had to face top-ranked Peterson Park, Illinois who were favored to win the tournament. It was a true defensive struggle and Illinois’ expectations came to a stop with our 1-0 victory. Plus, pictures of United were featured on the front sports page of the local newspaper the next day! (The parents were ecstatic!)

The victory in Saturday afternoon’s quarter-finals put us in Sunday’s semi-finals with a guaranteed spot in the final four. But why settle for final four when you can be in the final two? Sunday morning started off beautifully with a 1-0 victory over Saugus, California.

United entered the Championship game as the only un-defeated team left of the 24 teams in the division. That streak proved too tough to maintain, especially against a really, really good local Hawaiian team. (Sleeping in your own bed, five minutes from the soccer complex certainly has its advantages!) Not to take anything away from Mililani, Hawaii, who played an excellent game against United but we simply ran out of gas at that point.

(Keep in mind that the day before pool play started, the girls participated in two friendly Soccerfest matches in which they were assigned random teams with other players from the across the nation. While it was great to meet other players and it led to friendly waves and smiles all week, it was two additional games in hot weather.)

The second-place finish was a proud moment for the players, coaches, families and friends of Team United. The players had done what they needed to do all week and executed some very good game plans beautifully. A pleasant ending came after the award of the second-place finish when United was called back up on stage to receive the Overall Good Sportsmanship Award for the play-offs. In true AYSO fashion, the Good Sportsmanship medals are larger than the Championship medals!

This finish was a great conclusion to United’s season which was a unique and wonderful experience! The extra tournaments, endless hours of fund-raising, extra practices, all the scouting and preparation really came together at the right time.

Special thanks to Assistant Coaches Gina Paff and Ricardo Canueto (who also served as Head Scouter) and to Dave Vassar and Todd Schoenfeld for their ongoing help and support. We want to give a big thank you to all of our sponsors and supporters from the PHMSA community and to the parents for your commitment to the team. Finally, we want to give a BIG thank you to Head Coach Mike Constantine whose dedication and efforts for this team were a large part of our success. We would also like PHMSA referees Acadia and Paul Larsen for traveling to Hawaii and supporting the AYSO National Games.

Go United!