August 2006

PAGE 9

25 WSYSA Teams Compete in

Far West Regional Championships

ongratulations to the 25 teams from WSYSA who expended their best efforts at the Far West Regional Championships in Boise, Idaho during the week of

C

June 19-25, 2006. Of the 23 WSYSA full-sided teams who went to Regionals, 16 moved on to quarterfinals and ten advanced to semifinals, with four teams

participating in the finals.

Special congratulations to the GU-13 SYSA Emerald City FC F92 White team, who defeated Cal-North 1-0, and to the GU-15 LWSYA Crossfire Premier

90 team, who outscored Cal-North 2-1. The GU-15 team will be participating in the US Youth Soccer National Championships in Des Moines, Iowa

during the week of July 25-30, 2006.

In their own words...share the excitement as some of our own share their stories from this year's Regionals, below.

In our opening game we were down

our play during this game. We did fight

feeling to know we would be advancing

GU-17 - EYSA Eastside FC `88 Red

hard, though, and after a back and forth

one goal in the first 45 seconds of the

to the semifinals and were among the

By Jorden Kussmann, Goalkeeper/Defender

match that could have gone either way

game against the Mustang Blast (Cal

final four teams in our age group. We

we found ourselves one goal short in a

North champions) on a hard volley off a

were given the day off on Friday follow-

ur journey to Boise was a long and

O

heartbreaking 3-2 loss.

cross. We didn't give up and out-worked

ing the quarterfinals, which was a nice

arduous one, requiring commit-

The following day, the Mustangs

our opponents the rest of the game to

break after one game-a-day for the four

ment, effort and determination. Many

from Cal North ended up beating the

come back and win 2-1, starting off the

previous days.

Surf from Cal South to become the

would have predicted last fall that

competition with a bang!

The other three teams in the semi-

Regional champs. We could console our-

Eastside '88 Red would not have made it

For our second game, we again gave

finals were all from California and we

selves knowing that the only loss the Cal

through undefeated in both the league

up the first goal in the first half against a

were paired off against the Cal South

North Mustangs suffered during the

season and the Washington State

very tough FC Portland team, the 2005

Champions, the Surf. One of the biggest

entire tournament was against us in our

Championship Tournament. This was

regional runner-up. We battled back to

obstacles we had to overcome for this

very first game nearly a week earlier. The

particularly true considering we play in a

score the tying goal in the second half

tournament, and especially for this

results reminded us that we had compet-

very competitive U-17 age group in one

but had another goal waved off from an

game, was the fact that we were only

ed very well with the "Best in the West"

of the hardest, most important years of a

offside call, and we ended up losing 2-1.

able  to  bring  sixteen  players  to

and were so close to making it to the

youth soccer player's career. But to

For the third game, we realized we had to

Regionals. The further toll of injuries to

National Championships. But that's soc-

everyone's surprise, we did make it

win and likely win big to advance to the

some of our players during the tourna-

cer and there's always next year!

through all 20 games undefeated.

quarterfinals that could be decided by a

ment, plus the heat and physicality of

Our goal for many years had been to

(continued on page 11)

complicated three-way tiebreaker formu-

the event, seemed to have an impact on

finish in first place during our league sea-

la. We succeeded by tallying up enough

son and then to win the State Cup so that

goals against Nevada in a 4-0 win.

ank u

we could play at Regionals. Under the

Immediately after that third game

guidance  of  our  coaches,  Hilton

we knew we would move on to the elim-

Th  Yo

Bashford and Matt Deines, we finally

ination round, but we had to wait for

accomplished that goal this year and

other results to find out if we were first

found ourselves at the Far West

or second in our group. It was finally

Regionals competing against some of the

decided that we would have a shoot out

very best teams in the country. We were

at 7:15 AM the next morning with the

in a difficult bracket which included an

Cal North team to determine who we

Oregon team that had been a regional

would play in the quarterfinals. After

finalist the previous year as well as a top

only four penalty shots, we lost the

team from Northern California. Many of

shootout which meant we would play

us were nervous, but in each of our pre-

the first place team from another brack-

game pep talks, our coaches reminded

et, the Ladybugs from Arizona. This time

WSYSA's official photographer

us to think of this competition as a

we scored first in the first half and ended

tremendous opportunity to shine and

up battling it out for the rest of the game

not to focus on the pressure.

to preserve the 1-0 win. It was a great