The Wilson Youth Soccer Association Explosion U15 girls will play for the US Youth Soccer Directors Cup championship after defeating the Virginia Rush 2-0 on Saturday morning in Kirkwood, Del.
The Explosion will meet HBC Intense of New York at 8 a.m. Sunday in the final. The two teams square off Saturday at 3 p.m. in the final game of round-robin competition which amounts to nothing more than a scouting opportunity for each team.
Kelly Sigmon and Taylor Parrish each netted goals for the Explosion on Saturday morning. They have outscored their foes 6-1 in two matches but the Intense has run up a 14-0 aggregate score in their matches. So Sunday's final should be interesting for Explosion head coach Toni Varacchi and her girls.
I can't figure out why what amounts to a national championship is being played at 8 on a Sunday morning. That's the most bizarre starting time I've ever heard.
In case you didn't know, the Directors Cup isn't the highest level of championship bestowed by US Youth Soccer. Those will be decided in Little Rock, Ark., next week. The teams that competed in Wilson in the Region III championships in June will be in Little Rock.
The Directors Cup is an alternate tournament for lower-ranked Premier-level teams or, in the Explosion's case, a team on the cusp of the Premier level. US Youth Soccer doesn't officially call it a "B" Cup but it's sort of like that. However, it's still a national championship and if our girls win it, it's a very, very, very big deal for the WYSA and Wilson. So let's hope they pull it out.
In related US Youth Soccer news, Austen King and his Capital Area Soccer League '89 Elite teammates completed their run at the national Development Academy tournament on Friday afternoon. After losing all three round-robin games, CASL ended its run with a shootout loss to FC Westchester in the seventh-place game.
I didn't see the game on ESPNU (probably because I erred in reporting here the game was supposed to be Saturday at 12:30 p.m., when in fact it was on Friday at 12:30 PACIFIC TIME, meaning 3:30 p.m. here). But I was told that King didn't play because of an ankle injury but was interviewed on ESPNU, so that's cool.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment