grrrrrrrr !

Eureka won the Association Cup.... congrats to them, but I think that means the Cup belongs to TG really

would like to see.....

some of these moves at the Association Cup, Jan 16th

turns_for_1v1

Association Cup - into the last 16

The TopGun juggernaut (otherwise known as Sally's Sequoia) stormed into Redding to play in the League stage of the Association Cup - the qualifying stage for the Champions League proper. I'm not sure that the Hilton Garden Inn was prepared for our girls.... but once they realised what they were dealing with, the staff did a great job of looking after us.

This was TopGun's first real away tournament, and it was a total blast. We played against teams we had never heard of, the parents got good time to talk and get to know each other, and the girls got to hang out and be themselves.

Anyway, there was some soccer involved as well. I'll put the result up front so that anyone who wasn't there doesn't suffer the tension of having to read reports before knowing what happened. TopGun won all their games and play in the round of 16 next weekend.

Game 1. 3-0 win over El Cerrito.

As with all teams in Redding, we had no clue about the quality of the team from El Cerrito. Even when we checked their record it was meaningless as their games were against other teams we've never heard of. I think El Cerrito may have checked TG's record though, as they played 11 in defence for the whole game. When TG had a corner kick, El Cerrito put all 11 of their players in the penalty box.... and were lucky that some rebounds did not end up in their net. TG started the game cautiously but once we saw that our goal was unlikely to be threatened switched to a more attacking formation. However, the score was 0-0 at half time - again we had struggled to break through a team playing for a 0-0 tie. So for the second half TG played 3-4-3 and it didn't take long for the extra attacking power to break through. Ysa scored 2 quick goals from the usual one v one situations and then Yovanna scored a goal that was all about hard work. The ball was crossed from the right, Yo missed a chance to shoot first time but then hunted down a defender who was trying the run the ball upfield, stole the ball, ran back into the penalty and scored with a defelected toe-poke into the corner of the net..... yay for toe-pokes !! 3-0 was the final score, and this turned out to be the largest victory in our bracket ( J ).

Game 2. 1-0 win versus Sonoma.

Sonoma had tied their first game 1-1 against Butte ( who were to be our final game ). Thus, this game would provide a good clue about what challenge we would face in the last game. Sonoma were clearly more skilled than El Cerrito and managed to get the ball near to our penalty box in the first 5 minutes. Again TG had started with a cautious line up and we maintained that against this more dangerous opposition. Unfortunately Lulu had to drop out of this game after 5 mionutes with a knee injury, and KK was out for about 20 minutes after a nasty fall. Gradually TG exerted more control on the game and kept the ball in the attacking half. Ysa and Alexia hit some shots that missed by inches, and then Cali hit a monster free kick from way outside the penalty box. The instructions were to aim for the cross bar.... Cali stepped back.... then stepped back a bit more.... than ran and launched one into the Sonoma penalty box. Their keeper just managed to keep the ball out of the goal using her finger tips and the TG strikers were unable to divert the rebound into the net, the ball dribbling inches wide.

For the second half, we kept in tight with a 4-4-2 formation, as although TG were dominant, Sonoma did pose a threat. The winning goal came from the move of the weekend. It started with a pass from right defence to center midfield by Yovanna. The ball was moved to Olivia on the center spot who spread it wide right to Cali. Cali moved the ball down the right, clipped it into the box where Olivia had sprinted to - she made a one touch flick to Ysa who nutmegged their keeper with another one timer. TG locked the game down after this and took the 1-0 win.

So, the situation at the end of Saturday was.... El Cerrito and Sonoma were out of it and could not catch TG. Butte were 2 points behind TG so needed to beat us in the sunday morning game.... time for Pizza, hot tub, cabernet, sleep etc...

Saturday evening was great. Lulu's knee was miraculously cured in the Hot Tub enabling her to perform some scary looking bomb dives. Talking of the Hot Tub, all 15 girls managed to fit in at once which must mean the sign about maximum occupancy was incorrect. Then Pizza arrived and parents and players sat together in the Hotel lobby relaxing.... then the girls went off to do whatever 12 year olds do and the parents chilled with some grape juice until the 9pm curfew.

game 3. 2-1 win v. Butte..... and through to the next round

TG went out with their most often used 4-4-2 formation and Butte had to win to progress, so no way were they going to play defensive against us. And it showed. With the more open field TopGun were raining attacks on the Butte goal. Crosses were coming in from all angles. Celine missed a tap in after 2 minutes and the ball spent a lot of time bobbling around in the Butte penalty box. What was also clear very quickly was that Butte were a good team. The girls were fast, skillful and could hit big kicks - which all showed up anytime TG let them have time on the ball.... but we are pretty good at not giving teams time on the ball. The breakthrough came following a battle in midfield - eventually the pall was pushed forward to Ysa who was in acres of space and through one on one against Bob..... A short note here about the Butte keeper - she was quite large, carried a lot of momentum and has possibly the biggest drop kick I have seen from girls of this age. However, I checked her driving license and she was qualified to play..... The Butte coach shouted at this point "uh, here's a goal", and he was correct. 1-0. TG continued to batter away at the Butte goal. Tess hit 2 rockets from outside the box which fizzed just over the bar... couple of inches lower and the keeper would have had no chance... then Cali hit a long ranger... this time the fingertips could only help the ball into the net.... 2-0. Then Lulu hit a long range shot into the net, only for the goal to be disallowed for offside.

Butte forced their way back into the game in the second half, playing some quite nice soccer, but TG still fashioned a bunch of goal scoring chances, some of which should have been converted. We can blame tiredness on some of those misses... I reckon its a good sign that our forwards worked hardest this weekend. Butte got a goal back and put lots of pressure on, but the defence and midfield worked hard to keep them out ( Butte needed 3 goals by now ). One scary moment saw Sierra make a good save and Jes clear up the rebound. We closed it out 2-1 and move on to play against Eureka in Morgan Hill next saturday.

The Association Cup results/schedule is below

http://www.t7sports.com:8080/2005/k139348.htm