The St. Albert Soccer Club has been patiently waiting to get into action after a late spring, and they made up for it in style with their Victoria Day Classic tournament this past weekend. Dozens of teams from across the region participated.
The Gazette contacted a few of the soccer coaches to get their impressions of the first big meeting of the season.
U14 Girls Tier I dominate
Head coach Rob Bourbonnais was justifiably happy with his team's finish.
"The Impact 99 girls had a great tournament," he said Monday. "The girls didn't lose a game, scored seven goals, and only had one goal scored against."
The U14 girls beat Southwest United, Scottish and Red Deer. Two of the games were shutouts for the local girls, but due to the way the tournament was set, St. Albert only got the bronze medal.
"Sometimes tournament math just doesn't work in your favour. It happens," said Bourbonnais.
"The girls played well enough to win their second game by half a dozen or more and get into the finals but failed to put the ball in the net on too many occasions – on another night we would have won by eight or nine and been off to the gold medal game.
"Of course the kids might be disappointed, that's to be expected, but for me the important part to take away is that the girls demonstrated excellent soccer during the weekend. It's basically a pre-season tournament and all the girls were given the opportunity to play lots and show the coaches what they have been learning in training.
"As coaches we are happy with what the girls showed. The attitude, effort, technique and tactics were great. Right now we don't want to change a thing. The team is definitely stronger than last season. Everyone can feel it.
"Third place is great but the tournament result has come and gone already and will be forgotten about as soon as the next game is played. The lessons learned and gained by each girl from all the playing they did however will remain, and is what can be used to improve. We are all just looking forward to the next training session and moving ahead.
"It's a positive and healthy competitive environment for the girls where nothing is taken for granted and every girl is working hard to get better. It's a lot of fun to be part of this team and see the girls improving every week."
Bourbonnais noted, in early league play, the Impact 99 girls have one win and one tie. Their next game is Thursday May 23rd against Scottish and Impact 99 will take over top spot with a win.
U18 Tier I, II, III Girls a force
Brian Murphy, head coach of the U18 Tier I/II/III Girls squad, said his team dominated in round robin play but had a slow start in the medal rounds.
"The weekend was very good for my U18 Tier 2 Girls," said Murphy Monday.
"We won our three round robin games by a combined score of 23 to one."
The girls had a tougher time in the finals, though. "In the final we got down early after a slow start," said Murphy.
"It was 2-0 at half for Calgary Blizzard Avalanche. They made it 3-0 early in the second half and then we started to find our legs.
"We scored twice to make it 3-2 then with five minutes remaining we rang one off of the crossbar and the game ended 3-2. The Blizzard Avalanche team won a bronze medal at indoor provincials in March."
Murphy said the tournament was very promising for this group of players so early in the season.
"This team is relatively new as we just formed for the last indoor season where we won a silver medal at the provincial championships," said the head coach.
"We have added 10 new players for outdoor and are essentially starting again but will be a force come provincials in August."
See related story for complete results.
