Tournament Weekend

I have evidently been remiss and not posted enough about the soccer tournament my team played in this past weekend. My apologies. We played in the local Lafayette tournament, which would normally be considered a home venue. However, we were registered for a division above our normal level, so for this weekend we were testing out new ground in enemy territory. It went very well. We beat 3 premier teams in 2 days, two of which finished in the final four of the state. Make no mistake, this means we are playing at the highest level of soccer in the state, and beating the best teams. On top of that, we did all of this without our goalie for 75% of the tournament and without our real defense or full team for 50% of the tournament. I am really proud of the team.

We played in the final this afternoon. By the end of the game we had 3 injured players on the bench and only 1 sub. We came back from a 1-0 deficit to tie the game 1-1. After regulation we played two 10 minute golden goal overtime periods. At the end of the first overtime period we missed a PK to take home the cup - it slipped through our grasp. At the end of the second overtime period, we headed to PK's to decide the winner.

We lost in the end...and most people will say that we made a huge statement just by making the final and taking the game through to penalty kicks. However, I think the biggest statement is found in the fact that my team feels like we left some unfinished business on the field today. We were more than equal to the task.

To make up for my lack of game updates, I posted some game photos taken by a fan on the sideline during this past weekend.