3v3 soccer team qualifies for World tourney
3v3 team
The thrill of victory … and the agony of defeat.
Both aspects of athletic competition was experienced this weekend by the boys & girls soccer teams competing in the 3v3 National Tournament in Orlando at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex.
The U-13 Dynamite girls’ recreation level team, which has been together as a 3v3 team for only four months, tasted the thrill of victory. They came together to finish fourth in their division with a 2-3 record, falling to tougher teams in Sunday’s semifinals and third-place game. More importantly, they earned a berth in the Kickit World Championships in January back at Disney.
The U-15 Lady Cougars competitive level team got the agony of defeat. The Cougars won their first two games by comfortable margins before dropping two close games in pool play, but still advanced to the elimination round. Their tournament run ended with a loss in the quarterfinals and did not qualify for the Kickit World Championships.
Both teams earned their trip to Disney by winning one of several qualifying tournaments earlier this summer.
The 12 teen-aged girls agreed to share their thoughts and feelings by writing a daily diary about their experiences. All three parts can be viewed online at www.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com under the “local sports” link.
U13 Dynamite
Kaylee Herrera and Caitlin McGlynn: Our games today were challenging. Our first game we were playing a team (AI Surge) that has won the championships for three years in a row, and haven’t been scored on in five years. We scored the first goal in less than a second. We were really happy!
We were winning 2-0, but ended up losing 6-2. It was one of the best games we have ever played. They played a good game, too.
Our second game we were down 3-0 at halftime to the Huskies Red. They scored another one, to lead 4-0, but then we scored three. With 10 seconds left in the game we were really nervous, and trying our hardest, and we missed the (tying) goal by a foot to lose 4-3. So at the end of the day we were fourth at the Nationals!
We are so exited to get fourth! We all want to thank our amazing, awesome coaches – coach Brad Herrera (Kaylee’s dad), coach Ed McGlynn (Caitlin’s grandfather) and coach Chris Rogers (Ashley’s dad).
Thank you so much to the people who came to support us! WE MADE IT TO WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!!
Sarah Morin: Today was a very challenging, tiring day! We lost our first and second game, but they were both really good games.
Our first game, we played (AI Surge) that has been together for five years and in the past three years no one has ever scored on them, except for today. I was the first one who scored on them so I was pretty proud of myself for making that first goal. The final score was 6-2, but it was an awesome game.
Also the second game was a good game too, the score was 4-3 and was really close. It was also very, very hot which made it even harder to play. We played great as a team today even though we lost, but it’s okay because we had a lot of fun. The teams we played were hard, but we gave 150 percent of our effort into it.
Dynamite got fourth place, but I am still proud of that because we tried our very best, which is why we made it into World Cup that will occur in January, 2010. I am so excited for that. It’s going to be a blast just like this tournament was!
U15 Cougars
Payton Van Horn: Saturday was a whole different day. We struggled playing together as a team and defending all together. At the end of the first game one of our players got hurt and was out for the rest of the tournament. The score of this game was 4-1.
Game two we came out very strong attacking and defending as a team, but made a few major game changing errors and lost 5-4. Going into the quarterfinals we were in third place and we played the No. 1 seeded team from Pennsylvania, but unfortunately they got up a few goals early in the game and we got down on ourselves. The score of this game was 12-2.
For our first year going to nationals, we had a fun time playing soccer and definitely look forward to coming back next year. Thank you to our coaches Joe Cento and Donna Agostinelli for organizing and keeping us focused.
Other 3v3 results
U16 Boys’ Hickory Smoke Beef: This competitive level team from Cape Coral Soccer Association went 4-0-2 this weekend at the Challenge 3v3 National tournament at Disney to win the division championship with a victory over Rampage in Sunday’s final.
The team – coached by Bob Agostinelli and assistants Richard Barnhouse and Brandon Barnhouse and sponsored by Cape Shore Realty – played their way to Nationals as champions in two other qualifying tournaments (the Norm Rosen Classic in Cape Coral and the Naples Summer Tournament).
The U16 Hickory Smoke Beef team: Eric Agostinelli, Michael Marzella, Jed Cicoria, Caleb Barnhouse, Yury Bykau, Shane Jones.
U13 Girls’ Cape Tornadoes: This recreation level team from Cape Coral played in the same division with the Dynamite, going 2-2 overall and taking down the Valdosta Soccer Group 4-0 in a consolation match.