2004 Pleasanton Soccer City Invitational

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The tournamnent consists of 4 divisions (A-D), and you are seeded by the results of  two 60 minute games played on Saturday. On Saturday we finished 1-1, with a 14-0 win, and 3-2 defeat. The defeat was bittersweet. We were tied 2-2 with and just missed a PK. They won on a last minute goal. This was a good team (young team), so the bittersweetness was that trying to compete in "A" would have been a tough haul. Much like Santa Cruz OVer-30 A/B breakdown... Note: It is the make up and style of play (e.g have good women players and allow them to takeover the game) that makes the difference.

The Lineup:  see Championship Team Photo

We are in a tough "B bracket, and as it turns out we are the only B team required to win 4 straight 60 minute games on Sunday to win the whole enchilada. 

9am - game 1, a 2-1 win. This included a soon to be famous head-butt (and subsequent red card) by John in goal. The ref almost called the game, when initially only a yellow card was issued, and the opponent who received the "alleged" butt, threatened and attacked John. Turns out he was the sissy in the family, as this guys wife was so enraged by the head butt she went CatWoman, and earned herself a Red. So now we're playing 1 man short, with Scott Kouns filling in goal. For some reason, ref oversight, they played only 1 women short, but in hindsight should have played 1 women and 1 man short. It didn't matter in the end, we deserved this one.

11:40 - game 2, a 4-0 spanking. Our opponent whined it's way throughout the match. Crozier opened the scoring, we never were in trouble. Scott Kouns fills in for John in goal, as he has to sit out a game. Makes Robbie's Red card from 2000 seem harmless. This was a hot game, so we broke out the Tiger Adidas white, we looked good. 

2:00 - game 3, semifinal, 2-1 win. We get down early on a blistering goal. With 20 seconds left in the half, Steve Peck overlaps, crosses a whicked ball to Murph, and she heads it upper corner far post. In the 2nd half we own the play, execute some nice hard tackles, and take the lead (and the game) with a brilliant falling down flick into the net by the Matador (Fermin). The outcome though was not over. On a corner, with under a minute, Vicky clears a shot off the line by staying home on the post and jumping up to head a ball that was headed in. Something Mike Burns could not do for the US National team in 1990. This game was the toughest, but we deserved the win. 

4:00 - game 4, FINAL, 7-0 win. This game was over 1 minute in.  Our opponent was simply spent, and did not have the quickness to stay with Danny & Sarah in the first half. The second half was even more overwhelming. We were up 2-0 at half, they shouted, "come on guys, we're only down 2-0". Fermin scores two goals in 5 minutes. 4-0...3 more goals one Rod, one by Sarah...and this was over. 

Final Statistics:

Goals for: 31 , Goals Against: 5 (Note: Yet another campaign with less then a 1.0 GAA)

Thanks  to Karrie and Randy for hosting!!!!

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