Our first out of state tournament came and went quickly. Last month we went to Las Vegas to participate in the Las Vegas Mayors Cup. It was a success! Everyone played well, and we made it to the championship game with ease. Unfortunately we were 10 minutes from overtime when we finally gave up our first goal of the tournament, and lost 1-0. I was still nothing but proud of our team. Congratulations girls!
Aside from our success, the coaches discussed our favorite moments from the weekend. Here they are. They are in the order of occurrence.
1- Kami and Neil picked me up from the airport Friday night, and we saw the funniest license plate. It's a saying the Neil always has to say...
2- When we got back to the hotel, we met with the girls and played a little game. I had the girls write on a piece of paper a secret that no one else knew. I randomly pulled each secret out of a bag and we had to guess who's secret I read aloud. We got a lot of great information, the best one in particular was Eden confessing her love of wearing boxer shorts to school. So glad you could come, Eden. Ha ha.
3- Presenting Eden with her new Official Bench Captain t-shirt. We really can't wait until you get back on the field, Eden.
4- Winning our first game against vs Carson Valley Falcons 4-0. We never let down once.
5- While in between games on Friday, we broke for lunch. As we were in our car, Zoe, "Mackenzie", and Mia thought it would be funny to bang on the hood of our car. Their plan backfired as Neil honked his horn before they could do anything, and scared the crap out of all of them. If only I could have had that one on video. Ha ha.
6- Not only did we win game 2 vs Las Vegas Surf 4-0, but Emi managed to get herself punched in the face. After a lot of screaming and yelling, and Neil getting out of his seat to take action, the ref finally issued a red card to the other girl, and we got our second PK of the tourney. Again, I wish I had that one on video. It was definitely an eventful game.
7- I got "fake called" by someone. You know who you are!
8- Winning our semi final vs Velocity from Alaska with authority. Again a 4-0 score, Hailey got us our first goal less than 3 minutes into the match. Alaska was another dirty team we had to deal with, but the absolute funniest moment was after Roach scored our fourth goal, Alaska ran, grabbed the ball, rushed to midfield to take a quick kickoff and "counter attack" us? Again... not on video. I blame Neil.
9- Birthday wishes. As much as I tried to keep it a secret, it was my birthday, and the girls wouldn't let me off the hook. They were great, and sang to me before the Championship game, and presented me with a Nike gift card. Thanks for the shoes girls. Ha ha. The funniest part was Alex signing the box, and including his own number to fit in with the girls.
10- Playing in the Final vs Las Vegas Premier. They took it to us the first 5-10 minutes, but we gradually figured things out and slowly moved play up from our defensive third. By the second half, we had them on their heels and dominated the game. Unfortunately their keeper made some amazing diving saves, and kept us from putting one in the net. With less than 10 minutes to go in the game, we gave up a goal, and we lost 1-0. The team played awesome, and I think the most amazing achievement we had, was the fact that we had just played 507 minutes (6+ games) without conceding a goal. I'm proud of how far this team has come in such a short time. Keep working hard girls!
Next up is Harvest Cup over Thanksgiving weekend. I hope we can continue what we've started.
-Sly
