Silver Creek Endeth

and the SASC TopGun + young guests fusion team are champions of something else. What was cool this time was that as winners the girls got T shirts and they scored loads of goals. The two things that were cool was the T shirts, loads of goals, and the vast improvement in passing. Three, there are three things that were great about silver creek..... I'll come back.

The final against En Fuego epitomised why we played so much indoor soccer. TG has always been great on grass, but sometimes on turf the girls struggled to control the ball. We watched En Fuego beat OV Heat in the semi final in what can only be called "kick ball", with a bit of pushing. It was a very physical game but we were not worried as the TG girls can play like that if needed. Turns out that the experience of so much indoor soccer has changed how TG can play. From the moment of the kick off in the Final En Fuego were not going to be able to compete in the same way as they had in the semi final. TG stroked the ball around between themselves, across the field, down the sidelines, recycled back to the defence, forward again, GOAL ! Four more goals followed and TG won the championship game and went off to collect some neat Shirts.

Its always great to see En Fuego in the winter seasons, they play with great passion and the parents are really fun to be on the sidelines with.

In the photo above seems like Robbin may have been on the wine-gums when taking this.

indoor mania

2 futsal teams and 1 indoor turf team is how TopGun is staying in shape this winter. No outdoor practice until mid February. If you need to see us in action or are thinking of trying out, contact us at sasc.tg97@gmail.com

TopGun take 2nb at their home Medina Tournament

Following the thrills of Vegas, TopGun took it easy with a local tournament, playing at U14 for the Medina Classic at Jollyman Park in Cupertino... well, the girls took it easy, but the Site Directors and Marshals spent a lot of time on the field making the tournament work for SASC.

Game 1 was against Manteca Pumas. We have a great relationship with this team and this was the first time we would play them competitively. The Pumas play NorCal Premier and battered us 4-1 in a scrimmage last year. But both teams have changed a lot. Pumas played as we remembered, getting the ball wide and banging dangerous crosses into the box. However, the game was very even and with some better luck on offside calls, Ysa and Angelina would have had at least two 1v1s on the Manteca GK... he kept giving offside for what were perfectly valid plays. Manteca sneaked a lead on a defensive mix up where a back pass to Carrie would have been a simple solution. Through the rest of the game, the 50:50 nature was maintained and the Hannah missed a glorious chance to equalise, the ball rolling a few inches in front of goal, but somehow whe failed to kick it in and the ball rolled wide. Also nice to see JJ back in action about 4 months earlier than we thought.

Game 2 on saturday afternoon we mixed things up a bit and paid the price going down 4-0 to a good Castro Valley team who had 3 giants playing for them. I checked their driving licenses and they were legit to play.

So, come Sunday, we think we are out of it. Next game is against Ajax U14 from Modesto. They tied the Pumas and beat Storm easily on Saturday.... but on Sunday they faced a re-awakened TopGun. Angelina and Ysa were finding loads of space going forward and our defence and mids were owning the Pink shirts of Ajax. TopGun took the lead with a strong shot from Yoshi which escaped the grip of the GK and crept over the line. Ajax equalised with a break through the middle and a good shot into the corner evading Carrie's dive. TG got back in front with a great free-kick from Tess which went direct into the far left corner of the Ajax net. A note on size.. if the U14 girls are a fair representation of girls at this age, then the TG players will be much bigger next year - there were some rather scary encounters for our smallest players (Angelina and Allanah) against players bigger than the TG coaches (who are not known for their tallness). In the second half Cali and Olivia added goals to complete a 4-1 victory which meant 11 points in the unusual system employed for this tournament..... hmmm, maybe we could sneak a placement

In the meantime, Castro Valley battered the Pumas 5-1 and TG's win over Ajax handed 1st place to Castro Valley - so who could get second. Pumas and Ajax were best positioned, both being 1-1-1 compared to Storm and TG being 1-0-2. However, Pumas fell 1-0 to Storm. Castro Valley played against Ajax in what was a dead rubber for CV. But a win for Ajax would have secured second place for them. In a game that was closer than expected, Ajax took a 2-0 lead, only to be pegged back to 2-2. In the final seconds Ajax had the ball right on the goal line but it wouldn't go in which meant TG v. Storm was a winner takes all final game for 2nd place ( and last place )

Storm and TG have played 3 times recently. One win each, and last time a 0-0 tie, which is a fair reflection of the level of both teams. TG started the stronger and made numerous crosses into the Storm box. Eventually a Tess corner was flicked on by Angelina for a tap in by Ysa. Storm pulled a goal back with a set play from the second half kick off where the TG defence were still asleep. But TG got the lead back and the 2-1 win when Ysa got on the end of through ball from Yoshi to prod past the Storm GK..... wow TG snuck into second place, the table is linked below


http://www.gotsport.com/rankings/event.aspx?EventID=11336&GroupID=141658

Vegas Mayors Cup Champions

Oct 22-24, 2010. The TopGun97-Red girls headed to Las Vegas to play in their first "out of state" tournament. This Mayor's Cup is a platinum ranked tournament and is rapidly becoming one of the most respected tournaments in the USA. And the reputation is deserved. The organisation was superb, and the grass fields were cut to perfection with not a bump or gopher hole in sight.

There were 12 teams in TG's section, split into 4 groups of 3 with the group winners advancing to the semi finals - so no room for error, 2 games would decide whether the girls played a semi final and possible final, or just a consolation game on sunday

The games for TopGun started at 8am on saturday morning with a 3-0 victory over Arizona Fury. Maximum points was a good start but next up was Rubisport from Tijuana, Mexico. They played against Fury in between the TG games and scored a 3-1 victory so we went into the game knowing that a tie was good enough to progress. The game was like a classic Europe v. Mexico encounter. The Mexicans played lots of short passes trying to keep possession, TopGun played fewer and longer passes and were more direct. The game finished 7-2 in TopGun's favor and so the girls headed to a semi final on sunday morning (after quite a lot of fun on saturday night)

The semi final was a very tough game against FC Alliance Gold from Seattle who are ranked #10 in Washington and are a very good team full of skill and aggression. TopGun took the lead twice in this game, only for Alliance to equalise from corners within minutes of each TG goal. Alliance applied lots of pressure in the final 10 minutes but TopGun held strong to take the game to PKs and prevailed 3-1. And so to the final against Surrey Guildford United from Canada. Here TopGun were the stronger team and forced multiple saves from the Canadian GK in the first 10 minutes but the ball would not go in. United were more of a threat in the second half and TG continiued to fire shots on goal as well, but the clock ran down and the game finished 0-0. So more PKs and TopGun won again, 4-2 this time to become champions. In true Vegas style, the presentation was made on a stage with speeches given via microphone while "we are the champions" played through the PA !!.

Some more points !

Last week TG did a 1st ever and lost 2 games on the trot... we stopped that run this weekend

Topgun pulled out a 2-1 win against the SCC Breakers "A" team on saturday afternoon. This was an important win against another team in the bottom half of the Silver Elite bracket and gives TopGun some breathing space.

The girls started with our now familiar 3-4-3 formation and gave the Breakers a real going over in the first half. The game really should have been done and dusted by half time as Olivia, Hannah, and Ysa missed at least 5 reasonable chances between them. The score at half time was only 1-0 after a nice finish from Ysa. This was worrying. We all now recognise the pattern when TG misses that many good chances, and Breakers are a good team.... and they soon reminded us of that in the second half as they piled a lots of pressure on our penalty box with neat interchanges in the middle of the field. Breakers equalised with another of those high loopy shots that dipped in under the cross-bar. We are conceding a lot of goals this way, but another year and this will stop happening and then other teams are going to need to play proper attacking soccer. Finally we worked out how to clog up the midfield and stop the Breakers attacks and then with the game almost over, Ysa got on the end of a long clearance and unleashed and ferocious shot from the right which hit the side netting giving the Breakers goalkeeper no chance. 2-1 to TG and closing in on 3rd place.

Cruyff

The prize for the best Cruyff turn video goes to Tess.... no-one else bothered to send one in


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1k7DGqRF5g&feature=related

SCC Breakers 3 TopGun 3

Breakers were skilful throughout and nearly all players could hit the ball very hard. They also had one girl who could launch very big throw ins, and thats where the first goal came from as the ball bounced over our back 3 for an easy shot in the middle of the goal. Breakers looked very good up until this point but the goal against spurred greater effort from TopGun and it wasn't long before we were level as Ysa crossed from the left for a tap-in by Angelina. Chances were being created at both ends in a very open and mostly fair game. Both sets of parents were getting upset at the refs, so nothing new there. TG took the lead when JJ was upended by something in the penalty box. Peyton unleashed an unstoppable PK. Breakers equalised when a speculative shot from distance hung in the wind and dropped under Carries bar. Half time. The second half continued to be open with lots of good soccer from both teams ( the refs commented on this at half time and at the end of the game ). TG took a 3-2 lead when Ysa was tripped in the box and Peyton again smashed an unstoppable penalty into the net. We nearly held on for the win until some defensive confusion and a missed offside allowed a free shot to level the game at 3-3 with 5 minutes to go.... and even after this both teams had clear chances to win the game with Carrie pulling off a couple of great saves and Ysa missing by inches with a cross shot.

Great start for the team at this level