16 BC Teams Off to Super Y Finals

A record 16 British Columbia-based Pacific Northwest Division teams are headed to Florida to compete in the USL Super Y-League North American Finals in November.There will be a distinct BC flavour to this year's Super Y Finals, as each of the seven clubs in the Pacific Northwest Division are sending at least one team to the North American championships.

Read the rest here...
http://www.whitecapsfc.com/youth/generalinfo/news/youthnews07270901.aspx

Final Standings GU14 NW Division

The final games have been played and all the standings are in. We finished in 2nd place easily ahead of the 3rd place teams and not too far from Coastal WFC.

Good job ladies!

Click on the photo to take you to the final league standings / statistics.

Thanks From Nigel (and Brad)

Ladies,
To all the players I would like to thank you for your hard work and dedication to our U-14 Super Y team. To all the families of our players I would like to thank you for your sacrifices to allow the girls to fully participate in our program. To Brad and Gillian I thank you for the many hours of support you have given to this team.

The North American Championship Tournament in Tampa Bay Florida is set to take place at the end of November, I believe we will have the details on travel dates etc in the next couple of weeks. The team will get together several times before we leave for fundraising, all players will be released back to the Super Y team for training some time in November. I will e-mail details as soon as I have them, all fundraising ideas are welcome and can be forwarded to me.

So, our playing season has not ended, we are just taking a few months off before we wrap things up in sunny Florida!!!

Good luck with your fall programs.
Nigel


Now Brad's thanks ...
First, thanks to Nigel ... for his dedication to the girls and doing his "job" and doing it well!!!! :-)
You have taken a group of dedicated girls with technical soccer skills; heart; a love of the game and a love of each other and formed them into a team that now has a greater understanding of tactical soccer. The hours of background preparation put in for each practise and game are probably not understood by many. Thank you!

I think this quote from Sun Tzu's Art of War best sums up Nigel's contribution ...
"The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand. "

I also want to thank all the supporting cast of "hundreds" ...
- Nigel's family and the players' parents/siblings for their support of the girls ... they have given up many things for the past few months so the girls can play in the Super Y League
- thanks and three cheers for Gillian for keepng us organized
- support at games from many family members and relatives
- many coaches the girls have had the past few years ... they helped lay the foundation for Nigel to build on (and some foundations he had to "mend" :-) )
- LISA Head Coach Andrew Latham for his support and making some organizational decisions that helped the team in the long run
- Sharon, Lori & other LISA staff for support
- Gillian, Stu & Lee for the great pictures and videos to support the girls' website and memories

Girls, consider this last quote from Sun Tzu - perhaps the best is yet to come ...
"Opportunities multiply as they are seized. "

Staying Alive, Staying Alive

For our second game vs Thompson-Okanagan, we saw a slightly different "style of soccer" from T-OK ... essentially they were out take take blood from us, not points. I am sure one of their players has a large amount of Capitals skin under her nails from all of the clawing she did on a number of the girls.

Also, we were a different team today ... I think the previous days excitement and festivities sapped our strength and we did not have the same energy or intensity as we normally do. We had some help today from some players from the GU13 team: Sydney Green and Rachel Wams. Thanks girls ... you worked hard and did well without having played with us before.

In the end ... we tied 0 - 0 and kept T-OK off of the board to record V's second shut-out in a row. Our chances on their net were much more dangerous than any shots/chances we gave them.

I only took a small number of pictures (possibly some more to come) - posted here.

Also of note is that the GU14 Girls will have travelling companions to Florida as the GU15 and GU16 West Coast Capitals also secured spots in the North American finals. Way to go girls!

See announcement on ... http://www.lowerislandsoccer.com/

Getting It Done on Day One!

The girls knew what they had to do this weekend to make it to the NA Finals and did it on day one of our two game road trip vs Thompson-Okanagan. Destiny was in their own hands and they had to put up some points up on the board to keep both Surrey and T-OK from overtaking them in the standings.
The Capitals came out hard and quickly put up two goals: the first goal a lovely placed shot by Elise from the top of the 18 and the second goal on a corner kick. Moira sent a rocket of a corner into the 6 yard box and Kathy put it away with a header. Probably the goal of the season (see it below on video).
For the second half, we kept T-OK off of the board by our stalwart defending ... any shots were far out and Veronica was not really tested today.
At the closing whistle the girls knew they were off to F-L-O-R-I-D-A and celebrated by cheering, dousing and shaving a refreshing dip in the nearby water park. See pictures at ... http://picasaweb.google.ca/WestCoastCapitals/CapitalsVsTOKJuly222009#
Thanks to Sydney Green's dad, Lee, who captured some good action on his video camera (see full video (18 minutes) at link below. He quickly edited this and posted it before heading off on holidays. Thanks Lee!
http://gallery.me.com/torosashimi/100142

Of special note is the lovely Moira/Kathy goal at the 4:30 minute mark.

Vizualization Exercise For Final 2 Games

Question: What do these picture have in common?!
- Clearwater Beach
- Busch Gardens
- Busch Gardens
- Deep Sea Fishing (ask Erin about the Squid bait and the bet I made with her :-) )
- Professional Sports Team (NFL Bucs)
- Ybor City (Old Town)

Answer: They are all in/around the Tampa Bay area.

Highlanders Win One For the Capitals

Some fun times at the Highlanders game yesterday for Super Y Appreciation Day:

- Highlanders commanding win 4-0 over the Whitecaps Reserves. Some fantastic goals scored. I think 3 of the 4 were by headers and 2 of the 4 were from set-plays.
- free tickets for the players/coaches
- the sun (it was hot!)
- team time (i.e. bonding)
- the Bravehearts
- fan appreciation for the Super Y players
- autograph time & mingling with the players after the game
... and for Brad, a nice pale ale :-)

More pictures from the game here.

See also Highlanders photographer's website here, starting at page 105.

Championship Character

Great game yesterday.....the team showed championship character to be down a goal and then calmly strike 3 times to regain control of the game. Your goals were all quality goals girls ... all results of well executued passes and play off the the ball.

The referees have been challenging to say the least, someone from Surrey WFC even agreed that yesterday's officials were not up to our league standard. But our teams strength has also grown in our mental approach to our play, a bad referee is not enough to throw you off your game.

During the post-game hand shakes the Surrey coaches said to Nigel & I "Great game by your team, they deserved to win".

The team is doing well at game preparation, hydration is the key to performance during warm weather games. Even if players are performing well in a match under hot conditions they must remember to take the time to rest on the days we do not play. Stay out of the sun as much as possible on Monday and Tuesday, find activities that are non competitive and very low impact, stretch 2-3 times a day, eat healthy and again....hydrate!!

Training is cancelled this Monday, an added rest day.

PS. I did not take pictures at the game, but I have the pre-game pictures on the ferry to share!

Week At a Glance

What does the GU14 Capitals next week look like?

July 16 (Thursday) - Impromptu movie night. Contact Erin for details.

July 17 (Friday) - Rest & Relaxation (R&R). For Friday, avoid the sun tomorrow, drink water all day, all night and have a high-carb dinner (pasta is a good choice) and be ready to keep our team in second place on Saturday.

July 18 (Saturday) - Road game vs Surrey WFC. 12:00 ferry over, be at the terminal at 11:20. We are returning on the 9pm boat home (yuk). Upper Islanders you are on the 10:15am ferry from Duke point. You will be wearing your all-red uniforms.

July 19 (Sunday) - Super Y appreciation night at the Highlanders game, be at the Glen Lake entrance at 3:15pm. We are no longer the ball retrievers for this game ... so we get in free and get to enjoy the game.

July 20 (Monday) - Training at PISE 5-6:30pm.

July 21 (Tuesday) - Beep / Yo-Yo test! Just kidding ladies. Another day of R & R preparing for your final two games. Again, avoid the sun, drink water all day, all night and have a high-carb dinner.

July 22 & 23 (Wednesday/Thursday) - Road games vs Thompson/Okanagan. Back-to-back games with an overnight stay in Langley. See Gillian's separate email for details.

Did I forget anything?

Veni, Vidi, Vici

I think Julius Caesar's famous quote would be a good summary for the game summary: Veni, Vidi, Vici ... is Latin for "We came, we saw, we conquered".

What can we say ... within 13 minutes it was 2-0 for us and we took that score to the half-time break. Although our game started to come down to their level for the part of the game you were able to sustain the pressure coming out of the second half and scored your third goal within 5 minutes. We did not allow one direct shot on net by closing down Coquitlams' attack far up the field ... our midfielders really took away their attack many times.

Some good things we saw...

- we were aggressive & first to the ball

- we played a very good, high pressure game forcing many errors

- we took away their options

- we played a high tempo game

- we attacked and defended well most of the time ... good 2-way soccer

- we did not allow a shot on goal ... OK, let's forget about that PK they got

Good game ladies, let's carry this momentum into our next match where you will have to raise your level of play.

Last word is from a Sun Tzu playing card deck I found on line :-) This is something you did well today.

Some Days You Can't Buy A Goal

Although I wasn't at the game, reports were that you girls played a very good game - especially in the second half. You allowed Mountain only a couple of chances/shots and you had many (many) chances on their net but could not capitalize. You ran into a hot keeper and bad luck. The "back-breaker" reported to me was the free kick by Moira, who sent the ball to the top corner of the net only to have the keeper come from no where and make a "miraculous" save. Katie Hanson tells me she was sure it was in and started celebrating!

Pictures (loaded on our photo site) are courtesy of Sydney Green's dad, Lee. Thanks Lee!

Nigel's report follows...
Did anyone else notice the looks on the faces of the Mountain players, staff, parents and even the game officials after the game? They were all amazed that we did not walk away with a huge win. Mountain knew they stole points from a very good team. It was one of those days that no matter what we did that darn ball was not going in the net.

Oh well, you did show them a thing or two on how to play the game...well done. Set plays (even our throw in) looked good.

Wednesday we are on the 7am ferry, be there no later than 6:30am. We kick off at 11am in a very big game against Coquitlam. You will be very sore tomorrow, a nice swim would be good and lots of stretching tonight and tomorrow. Again I ask that you do not participate in any other competitive activities until we finish our schedule.


This is how their team/staff saw the game...
Mountain WFC - 0
West Coast Capitals - 0
A very scrappy game with a lot of battles in the midfield area. Both teams defended very well but neither really took their chances when they presented themselves. A very determined Victoria team made it difficult for Mountain to move the ball. Great defending through midfield, the defenders and the goalkeeper for Mountain meant that Victoria was unable to really create anything either until the last 10 minutes of the game. The 0-0 draw was a fair result although both teams will probably be disappointed and feel they had opportunity to get something from it.

No question the outstanding performance of the day came from our goalkeeper Sophie Pohanka who had another strong game. Three great saves, one of them quite simply outstanding, were the difference as Victoria came on strong in the last 10 minutes of play. A very good game by all the defenders, in particular Christine Mulligan (center back) and Jessie Blanshard (sweeper) whose partnership continues to grow. Special mention to the outsides backs Maddie Ballantyne, Sarah Town, Gemma Fox and Megan Wong who all played well and were instrumental in keeping the tie.

Sun Tzu's Quote of the Week

The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

This quote was selected by Garnet. She must like this quote being primarily a defender.