July 28, 2005 at 7:26 a.m.
Boys U17 squad advances to championships at USA Cup Soccer Tournament
Boys U17 squad advances to championships at USA Cup Soccer Tournament
Chris Golv’s hat trick led the Jaguars to a 3-0 over Gitchi Gummi, a team from Duluth, as they opened the tournament on Monday, July 18. All three goals came on similar plays, with the Jaguars beating Gitchi Gummi’s offsides trap. In the 16th minute, Blaine Maher sent a ball through the Gitchi Gummi defense. Golv caught up with it just outside the goalie box, carried it a few feet and fired it into the right corner from the left side of the box to put the Jaguars up 1-0. Just after halftime, in the 40th minute, Brady Huber slid a pass through the defense on the right side of the defense, and this time Golv scored into the left corner from the right side of the box. Huber also assisted on the third goal, a similar play from the left side in the 53rd minute.
The Jaguars ran in to a stone wall in their Tuesday game, however, losing to St. Louis Park SPAM 7-1. SPAM plays in the Premier Division in the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association, making them one of the top six teams in the state. The Jaguars’ only goal came in the 44th minute while they were trailing 4-0. Maher took a free kick from about 40 yards out. The SPAM goalie ran up too far on the ball. It bounced over his head, and Golv swept past him and headed it into the net to get the Jaguars on the board and avoid the shutout.
The Jaguars then recovered, to beat an Illinois club, Kickers SC, 2-0 on Wednesday. Goalie Tom Fitzer earned his second shutout of the tournament. Andy Olness got the Jaguars on the board right away, as he scored just five minutes into the game on a scrum inside the Kickers penalty area.
The Jaguars came roaring out and scored again just two minutes after halftime. On an Olness throw-in, Christian Swanberg headed the ball to Golv to the left of the penalty area. Golv made a nice move on a Kickers defender, flicked the ball back to Swanberg at the top edge of the box. Swanberg then ripped a beautiful shot into the upper right corner. A stifling Jaguar defense shut down the Kickers the rest of the way, and the Jaguars came away with a 2-0 victory and a trip to the championship round.
On Thursday, the Jaguars faced the United Soccer Club of Kansas City, Missouri in the first round of the championship bracket. Despite playing well, the Jaguars could not solve the Missouri team’s defense and lost 2-0 to end the competitive portion of the tournament.
The Wildcats played one more match, an exhibition, after their loss to United SC, losing 3-2 to Eastside White from Seattle, Washington. In soccer, an exhibition match is known as a “friendly.” Friendlies, which have no effect on league or tournament standings, are common in both youth soccer and professional soccer around the world.
“We did well,” said Jaguar coach Mark Leigh. “Roy or Steve said after the friendly that if we would have gone in to the tournament saying we’d come out of the preliminary round 2-1, we’d have never believed it. We played in the Cup bracket [the highest bracket in the tournament] and thought it would be very tough. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, too. There’s less pressure in tournament games like this than in league play. And they seemed to have the most fun at the friendly. Hopefully, we can transfer the high level of play and sense of fun into a successful high school season.”
Leigh talked about the tournament performances of some of his players. “Tommy [Fitzer, the goalie] played a good tourney. In our 2-0 game, the other team had 21 shots on goal. Tom did a good job making sure all the angles were covered and handling the crossing passes and corner kicks. Chris [Golv, a forward] had some nice goals, but what really showed were his improvement and maturity as a player on Christian Swanberg’s goal in the 2-0 victory. Chris had to work hard to get the ball around the sweeper near the penalty area and then passed it back in front to Christian, who was wide open. Brady’s [Huber] hard work is starting to pay off, too. He’s not just a dribbler; he’s become a hard tackler and a better passer.”
Leigh had a few final comments. “The players really started to play better in the last two-and-a-half games of the league schedule. Going into the second half of the Elk River game, they were down 4-0. But they didn’t stop playing. They scored two goals in the second half and were surging at the end of the game. They went on to beat Elk River a week later. The kids realized they could play at a high level”
Nearly 1,000 U11 through U19 boys and girls youth soccer teams from across the United States and around the world participated in the tournament, at the National Sports Center in Blaine. The soccer complex in Blaine has 80 fields and is purported to be the largest soccer complex in the world.
The Wildcats were coached by Leigh, Travis Delzer and Steve Jones, with Roy Knafla as the statistician. Members of the team included forwards Chris Golv, Joe Knafla, Blaine Maher and Christian Swanberg; midfielders Brady Huber, Brian Jones, Andy Olness, Tyler Pojanowski and Peter Rozumalski; defensemen Jordan BelleIsle, Eric Eagan, Brandyn Johnson, Ross Jones, Mitch Klimek and Chris Hernick; and goalie Tom Fitzer.
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