St Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri is vying to earn the ECNL North American League Championship in the U16 and U17 age group this week in Richmond, VA. Games begin Thursday with group play continuing through Sunday. Monday the champions will be crowned.
Kindra Lierz (Glendale, 3rd from right back row) and Nicole Ortega (Catholic, far left) are members of the U17 squad that began competition today.
There are 73 clubs that compete in the ECNL and the playoffs were split into three levels. The Champions League featured the Top 32 teams as determined by points earned within Conference play during the year. The next 32 teams advanced to compete in the North American League championship and both SLSG Missouri teams have advanced from that group. Playoffs in June in Colorado whittled it down to the final 8. Their games this week will determine a Champion as well as contributing to the Final Club Ranking that incorporates an individual clubs overall performance across all age groups.
PHOTO GALLERY – 15 ECNL Games from Oct 2011 to May 2013
As U16 Coach Ralph Richards noted in a conversation this week, the Midwest Conference the teams compete in has been extremely competitive with MN Thunder, Eclipse, MI Hawks, MI Vardar and Chicago Sockers all advancing to the Championship Playoff in the U16 age group. In U17 the list was Sporting BV, MI Hawks, Eclipse, MI Vardar and Chicago Sockers in that order. Of that group, Eclipse at U16 and Sporting BV have advanced to the Champions League finals. This weeks tournament will further test the squad and offer exposure to a broad range of college coaches.
I also had a chance to chat with U17 Coach Steve Pecher. You can hear that conversation below. I’ll be updating the results as they occur this week. Good luck ladies!
[table]
U17 SLSG Missouri
Day, Time, Foe, Result
Thur Jul 11, 10:30 am, Colorado Rush, win 7-1
Fri Jul 12, 10:30 am, Atlanta Fire, win 2-0
Sun Jul 14, 10:30 am, Solar Chelsea, win 5-2
Mon Jul 15, 10:30 am, Albertson Fury,
[/table]
Results – The girls went 3-0 and earned all 9 points to advance to the 1st Place game which should be against the Albertson Fury Monday. The Fury was 2-0-1 with wins on Thursday and Friday followed by Sunday’s 1-1 tie against McLean, who face a Goal Differential difference of +7 versus +3.
All teams will play four (4) games over five (5) days, the group games and then the championship / placement games.
In the North American League Division, the Group A winner and the Group B winner will advance to the North
American League Championship Game taking place July 15, 2013 in Richmond, VA. For the teams that do not
win their group, the points earned from these games will affect their final placement in the national standings (35-40).
