The team arrived for their first match in away blue ready to play. Our opponent was a strong team from nearby Winston-Salem that passed the ball very well and was able to keep the ball at their feet.

The team gets ready for their first match of the tournament

However, the Lunachicks stepped up and played some intense soccer, holding their opponent to 5 shots on goal and one goal allowed while we had three shots on goal at halftime. Our opponents patient passing was something new for our team to adjust to and they did so fairly well.

4v2 is often a scary sight for defenders

At halftime, with the score 0-1, we explained to the girls exactly who they were playing in an effort to build on their confidence. The first half had been a close match up with both teams moving the ball forward on the attack. But the girls seemed to come out a little rattled and our opponent was able to patiently build attacks forward with crisp passing as they pressured our goal often, but in the end were only able to score two more, resulting in a 0-3 loss for the Lunachicks.

T2 Dribbles past a defender

But we were very proud of the girls because they had shown they could play with a team like this stride for stride. Telling them at halftime who they were playing clearly rattled them a bit and when the 2nd goal was scored, they eased back expecting they could never catch up. But they played a solid match against the team that eventually won the U12 tournament championship.

We would be facing a similarly strong team in the afternoon matchup from nearby Chapel Hill, so the coaches were unsure how things would go now that the girls knew they were facing strong Classic teams in every match. From the opening huddle, it was clear the girls had gained some confidence in the morning and were ready to play soccer. They played hard, smart, and together as they outshot their opponent 10-5 in the first half.

BamBam is on the move

Their excitement at halftime was noticeable because they realized they weren’t just ‘hanging in there’ – they were controlling the match for periods of time in the first half, applying significant offensive pressure.

This was a great shot by BamBam from just over midfield

The match was a lot of fun to watch as both teams fought hard for possession of every ball and scoring chances began to increase as the match wore on.

Emmy and Bubbles pursue a free ball with two opponents at their backs

It was clear on a number of occasions that the girls were putting everything they had into this match, as the photo below shows after an ‘oh so close’ shot on goal by T2.

T2 grimaces in pain after almost scoring

It wasn’t long after this that T2 put the ball in the net for our go ahead goal on a rebound off a long free kick from BamBam.

BamBam tries to recover the ball as it suddenly disappears from her feet.

As their coach, I was very proud of the girl’s effort in this match and it was looking like they had the match in hand when they scored to lead 2-1 with seven minutes left. But that’s a lot of time, and with just over two minutes remaining, our opponent pulled even on a corner kick as the ball deflected off one of our players into our own net. A tough way to let a win slip away, but the girls and coaches knew they had just played one of their most enjoyable and exciting matches.

Torch gets helped across the field after a rough collision during the 2nd half

The post match chat was one of excitement and praise for the girls as they had finally played together as a team, with numerous players having scoring opportunities and players looking to pass instead of trying to do everything 1v1. They added a new question to their pregame chant ‘Do You Believe?’ and it was clear they did.

The Lunachicks jog to the parent sideline after a hard fought match

At the end of Saturday they had earned only one point in group play, but the matches that had been played meant so much more to a team that still doesn’t believe they are as good as they are. It was great to see the girls so excited about how they had played.

Sunday morning the girls knew they could not advance to the final with a win and their mood was quite different than on Saturday. The same intensity was not there and they allowed their opponent to move the ball around at will, losing 0-4. It is not uncommon for this team to treat Sunday matches this way and while it was very discouraging to see them let their best chance for a win slip away, they had raised a bar for themselves on Saturday, one their parents and coaches won’t forget.

Hats off to CUFC for putting on a well organized tournament, even after foul weather threatened to disrupt much of the weekend. We enjoyed our first ‘Classic’ experience and hope that we gave our opponents some decent competition as a Challenge competitor.

You can see a lot more pictures of the weekend’s events in our United Cup Photo Album. Right now it’s mainly pictures from Saturday, but as more pictures come in, we’ll add them. Below is a slideshow of random tournament pictures from the weekend. Click on the picture below to start the show if it’s not already running or to advance to the next picture faster:

GO LUNACHICKS!

UPDATE:I’ll be posting some older news items from email as well.