The Lamorinda United 94 girls claimed the U16 vElite Schwan's Soccer Cup on Sunday July 17th, in Blaine, Minnesota, after a thrilling 3-2 overtime victory over the SoCal Blues at the National Sports Center (NCS) main stadium. LMSC scored the go ahead goal on a solo breakaway upfield just two minutes into the first overtime on a fine feed from the back. United held on from there despite another spirited comeback by the Blues who had tied the match with seconds to play in regulation time after being down 2-0.
The United girls choose pink tops in the championship game in support of tournament sponsor Puma’s Project Pink day later in the week for breast cancer awareness. Both teams started the match in their trademark styles with United building up the attack using a possession passing game and the Blues trying to dominate midfield and pushing it out to the wings for shots outside of the 18-yard box. The high level of aggressive play resulted in 5 offsides and 13 shots (9 on goal) for LMSC versus two off sides and 30 shots (17 on goal) by the Blues, with both teams tagged for 9 fouls. The championship game was the sixth game played by both teams under unusual weather conditions around the Twin Cities. Intense rain storms and heat indexes above 105 delayed or shortened many matches for the over 500 teams in the three day tournament.
In pool play, Lamorinda United finished first by defeating the nationally ranked Blues 1-0 in the first game, followed by wins over teams from Canada, Sweden and Texas, and squeezing around a 0-0 draw against a Wisconsin team. The outcome was a team effort as United 94 recorded four shutouts, scored 15 goals by seven different players and dominated possession while using the entire 20 women roster. “We strongly believe the team worked through the heat. It’s awesome. This is our second tournament for the summer and our girls’ played through,” said Lamorinda’s coach Mohamed Mohamed, as quoted by Tiffany Willits, Media Intern/USA CUP Reporter.
For winning the vElite Schwan’s Cup, the girls will travel to the WPS championship game in late august and train with the top professional women’s teams. Players on these teams consist of many of the world’s top women soccer players, including Marta, from Brazil, and several players from the USA World Cup team.
The championship game was shown live via WebCast on NCSGamecast.tv and is still available on demand at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/nsc.portal#.
A link to the National Sports Center Article about the team’s championship win can be found at http://nscsports.typepad.com/national_sports_center_bl/schwans_usa_cup/index.html