It was a beautiful, albeit hot and muggy day on the river bottoms otherwise known as 63 Soccer Park today. The State Cup is well under way and I found the time to attend four matches. The final match of the day included Sophie Cox, Southwest Region MVP, who plays for U17 St. Louis Soccer Club (McDoniel) who opened their Cup effort today with a match against JB Marine. It was a tight game with the best mannered crowd I’ve experienced in quite awhile, no screaming parents, only enthusiastic applause for the girls play. The game, which had several college coaches in attendance, was scoreless until late in the game. There wer not many true chances as both teams worked to keep a clean sheet. Sophie had one of the best opportunities about th 60th minute when after having moved to left midfielder (I saw her in three different positions during her field time) she received a crossing pass in the box that got past a diving goalkeeper. Sophie settled well but the defender was tenancious and was in position to deflect her shot at the final moment. It was about the 75th minute when STL SC finally broke through with #2 getting past the final defender and lofting a shot over the onrushing goalkeeper to get the gamewinner. She’s featured in the photo above. As always, clicking on the photo will take you to the Flickr site where you can view all the photos I took of the match and can download any of them for your personal use.
The JB Marine (Paulsell) U13 team from Springfield played today as well and although they lost to a St. Louis SC team 0-4 I was impressed with the girls and the coach. It was 0-1 when I arrived from an earlier match and by the end of the first half it was 0-4. Coach Paulsell got through to her team during the halftime discussion and it was a new team that stepped out for the second half. It was 0-0 tie in the second half and the JB Marine girls had as many if not more chances then STL SC. I had the opportunity to talk to the girls afterwards and when I get return (to my Mac in my production offices) I’ll share the video of the discussion as well as some highlights with you.
The Mamba 92 Boys have played two matches with a tie and a loss this weekend. Their final match tomorrow against Wolfpack probably requires a win in order to move onto the quarterfinals. The Rolla Knights U15 team have a better opportunity having won one and lost one. With 3 wild card teams from 5 groups moving onto the quarterfinals on Tuesday, their final match of the opening round on Monday gives them the opportunity to control their own destiny. Their match against Metro74 will be tight, Metro74 having tied STL SC (Gentile) while the Knights lost that match up 1-2 while their win against the Pride was by a 6-1 score compared to Metro74’s 3-1 margin.
The Springfield Soccer Club brought eight teams and high hopes. As the final round of opening play concludes tomorrow, four of those teams are in position to control their destiny and move on. The U-14 teams ended up in the same opening group during the blind draw and Red take on Sysmex Monday for the group championship. The winner is guaranteed to go through, the loser is in good position to move on as a wild card with two wins in three games. The U-15 boys split their opening two matches and face a Lou Fusz (Miller) team that has lost two. The key to their opportunity is to win and position themselves to earn one of the three wild card slots available from the five groups. That is the same situation for the two U-16 teams in their matches at 8am tomorrow. The U-17 boys ended up in a small group with only three teams and after tieing the first match, face a MidRiver team that won their first match over the common opponent. A win will be necessary to move on after Monday.
I’ll be attending all four of the key matches and will have either video or photos to share with you. For more details, dive into the details as provided by the Missouri Youth Soccer Association on their website.
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