Team Spirit @ Max Cup

After a very successful season last year where they went 19-1-1 and were crowned Northern Utah County AA U13 Girls Champions, Team Spirit went looking for more challenges.

The Girls in Gold opted to move up to the highest classification in the state: Club level, more commonly known as AAA. This classification is organized much like professional soccer leagues in Europe. There are 4 Divisions: Premiere Division, and then Divisions 1 through 4. Teams move from the bottom division to the Premiere Division over the years based on performance: at the end of the season, the top two teams in the standings of any division (besides the Premiere, obviously) move up to the next division next season. The bottom two move down.

Clubs at the AAA level typically have an elaborate development structure where players are evaluated, recruited, and added to lower division teams within the club and then progressed through the club based on ability until they are playing on the very best team for their age group in the club. The goal for the club is to get a team into the Premiere Division. The goal for each girl in the club is to play on that Premiere Division team.

For Team Spirit, the situation is a little different. While some clubs have dozens of teams (especially if the club has both boys' and girls' teams) with hundreds of players, Team Spirit has one team and 16 players. If AAA soccer is the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Team Spirit is the country of Kiribati. Nobody knows anything about them, and they're not expected to win. They're just lucky to be invited.

Well, that brings us to the Max Cup in Murray, Utah. The Max Cup is sponsored by the Murray Max soccer club as a fundraiser. Murray Max is one of the smaller clubs around with 16 teams for boys and girls. The Max Cup is a three-day open tournament, meaning any AAA team that wants to pay the fee can enter.

This would be Team Spirit's first AAA outing (the regular fall season doesn't start for a few more weeks), and it was against an unknown field of teams. It turns out that there were four teams in the age group: one from Lehi, one from Salt Lake, one from Murray--the host club, and Team Spirit. The tournament consists of "pool play" (everyone plays everyone else in the group) followed by the Championship game between the two teams with the best records in pool play.

GAME 1 TEAM SPIRIT v. FIREBIRDS BLACK

First up for Team Spirit was Firebirds Black. Firebirds is a club in Salt Lake who designates their teams with the colors black, red, and white. Firebirds Black, therefore, are the Firebirds' best teams--the ones which play in the Premiere and 1st Divisions. So, TS was playing the best team the Firebirds have in the that age group. This Firebirds team won the Max Cup last year.

The first thing the Girls in Gold noticed was their size--Firebirds Black was huge! Fortunately, though, Team Spirit paid more attention to the game than the size of the players. They led 2-0 at the half, powered by two assists by Madison Giles, and prevailed 3-1 by the end.

GAME 2 TEAM SPIRIT v. ARSENAL STRIKERS

The second match of the tourney pitted Team Spirit against a Utah County team, Arsenal Strikers. The outcome was never in question as TS scored early and often in a 4-1 rout. Madison Giles had two goals and, again, assisted on many attacks.

GAME 3 TEAM SPIRIT v. MURRAY MAX

Team Spirit played the host team in what had the makings of a very close contest. At the half, the score was 0-0. Neither team could gain an advantage. Two minutes in to the second half, however, Megan Wilde found the back of the net with some nifty footwork one-on-one with the Strikers' keeper. The Strikers answered back with a booming shot from quite a distance which caught the Spirit 'keeper off guard. But Team Spirit would not be denied and kept the pressure on the Strikers' defense, scoring again when Jerica Befus used her speed to break from the pack and send the ball home. Madison Giles added the final nail to the Strikers' coffin with a goal after a furious melee where several shots from the Girls in Gold were deflected. Giles aggressively stayed with the ball and pounded it home from short distance. With the 3-1 win, Team Spirit completed pool play undefeated (3-0), outscoring their opponents 10-3, and--most importantly--will advance to the championship against Arsenal Strikers Saturday evening at 5:00 at the Murray Park Center.

Stay tuned for a recap of that championship game!