After a massive Republic FC soccer event in Sacramento on Thursday night, the Placer United boys and girls teams were back doing what they love to do, playing the game competing in tournaments up and down Northern California. Over this past weekend we saw Placer United teams strutting their stuff at the Davis College Boys Showcase, Pleasanton Rage College Girls Showcase and the Mid-Summer Classic in Turlock. Both showcase events had a huge turnout of college scouts.

Out in Davis, where the competition was very tough, the U14B Red, coached by Jorge Fernandez, and the U17B Red, coached by Jason Gantt, took home the championship trophies in premier brackets. The U17B White made it to the semi-finals and tied 1-1 in regulation time. Unfortunately they lost out in a PK shootout 7-6.  Also competing in the premier brackets were the U13 Red, U15 Red, U16 Red and U18 Red.

Over in Pleasanton our U15 Red, U16 Red, U16 White, U18 Red and U18 White girls teams competed at the Rage College Showcase.

The U16G Red had three wins and one draw in the Super 1 group and ended the event as semi-finalists. The U18G Red had two wins and two draws and also finished the event as semi-finalists. The U15G Red had one win and one draw, two narrow defeats and finished in 5th place. The U16G White and U18G White both had excellent weekends versus some very good competition. The U16G White had two draws and two one goal losses. The U18G White had four one goal defeats and were extremely competitive in the Super 4 bracket.

Down in Turlock our U9B Red, U10B Red, U12B White and U13B White all played in the Mid-Summer Classic where not only was the weather hot, so was the opposition. Unfortunately no teams brought home silverware but they all competed hard and had a fun time.

Congratulations to all of the players and teams on a great weekend of soccer and collegiate exposure!

Champion U14B Red, Davis Legacy College Showcase

Champion U17B Red, Davis Legacy College Showcase

Placer United U18G ’96 Red

Nine Placer United girls teams travelled down to Davis this past weekend to compete in the Davis College Showcase. Coming off of the club-wide break, the teams had to prepare quickly to get ready for the event. Six of our teams made it out of group play and into the semi-finals, two of which made it to the championship game and one was crowned champion. There were many colleges represented at the event as they were recruiting in the U15-U18 age groups.

The U13G Red had two wins and one loss in group play getting them through to the semi-finals. The lone loss in group play came to the eventual champion, FCA Storm. In the semi-finals, the girls lost a hard fought battle to Mustang.

The U15G Red had two wins and one draw in group play. The draw came against FC Elk Grove who ended up losing in overtime in the final. In the semi’s, the team came up on the short end against Davis.

The U16G Red had two wins and one loss in group play. In the semi’s, the girls were upset by Diablo FC in a hotly contested battle, 2-1.

Davis College Showcase Champions 2013

The U16G White went 1-1-1 in group play and made it through to the semi-finals. In the semi’s, the girls beat Folsom 1-0, a team they lost to 3-2 in the opening match of the tournament. In the final, the girls battled to a 0-0 draw through regulation and overtime. The game went to penalty kicks and the girls came up on the short end.

The U18G White won all three of their preliminary games to reach the semi-finals. The semi-final game went scoreless through regulation time and the girls lost in penalty kicks.

The U18G Red won all three of their preliminary games and moved into the semi-finals versus LaRoca from Utah. The game ended 1-1 after regulation and the girls were victorius in penalty kicks which moved them into the final versus Lamorinda. The girls beat them in pool play 2-1 and then 1-0 in the final to take home the championship.

It was a great weekend for all of the Placer United teams.  Congrats!

Alex Morgan with Ron Benjamin

“Over the club wide break, I took my family on a road trip up to Portland, Oregon, where I was able to visit a number of friends with whom I attended the University of Portland with and a number of coaching colleagues from Region 4 ODP. A few weeks ago, when setting up the trip, I was invited to watch a training session for the Portland Thorns of the newly founded National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).  The assistant coach, John Galas, is a long-time friend and coaching colleague.

On July 4th, the Thorns were preparing for their upcoming match against the Boston Breakers. I arrived at an empty, JELD-WEN Field (home of the Thorns and the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer), and was greeted by Coach John and the Head Coach, Cindy Parlow. Parlow is a National Champion at University of North Carolina and a former standout for the US Women’s National Team.

The players stepped onto the field promptly at 1pm after an hour of weight training. I received the training session topic of the day from Coach John and watched these amazing players go through the session. The team was working on defensive shape and making play predictable in the wide areas to create turnovers. 

After the 90-minute session, the players had ten minutes to work on their individual skills – shooting, corner kicks, long service, etc.

Christine Sinclair with Ron Benjamin

After the players were finished with their cool down routine, my family and I were able to meet all of the players and our kids raced around getting autographs. We were able to talk with all of the players, including USWNT superstars Alex Morgan and Rachel Buehler and Canadian superstar Christine Sinclair.

Ron Benjamin with Thorns Assistant Coach John Galas

The players were then released to enjoy the rest of their 4th of July and we received a tour of the facility, locker rooms and offices.

It was an amazing day for us and i wanted to share the experience with our Placer United community.”

—Ron Benjamin

For more information about the new professional women’s league, please visit their website at www.nwslsoccer.com

Cameron Douglas and Jordan Vice

Cameron Douglas and Jordan Vice were selected to the ‘99 State Pool Camp hosted at Sonoma State from a State Pool Roster of more than 50 boys. The State Pool is made up of boys coming from all the regions in Northern California who were selected from the PDP Regional teams. At the camp, the boys had an opportunity to be coached by National Team coaches and coaches from Spain as well as the PDP coaches. The level of play was very competitive and a real honor for the boys to be selected as participants. Cody Sundquist was also there representing Placer United in the ‘98 team. The next level is National Pool, so this was a great two day experience!

“Bok” (Croatian greeting) from Zagreb, Croatia. As some of you may know, Cody Sundquist and I (Matt Bernard) are currently in Croatia with the Under 14 Boys National Team.

This has been quite the adventure thus far. Cody and I flew out from San Francisco on Sunday May 19^th and arrived in New York City later that evening where we met up with rest of the players and staff. From NYC we flew to London where our flight was delayed for one hour (because they were waiting for us to get through customs). There is only one flight from London to Zagreb per day and thankfully we made it. Unfortunately not all of our luggage got on the flight with us.

We arrived in Zagreb with 99% of our luggage. Unfortunately our airline (who shall remain nameless) didn’t think it was important to send our soccer balls, bibs or cones on our flight. Regardless, we adapted and N.K. Spansko, the club where we were training, was nice enough to allow to use some of their equipment. The rest of our stuff has since arrived.

The team trained several times in preparation for our first game against Slovenia. We travelled to Slovenia for the match which is about a one hour drive . In reality it’s less than 40 miles but because Slovenia is a member of the European Union and Croatia is not (until July 1, 2013) we have to pass through the border crossing, making the trip longer.

Following our game with Slovenia we play against Croatia and Hungary. These matches are the first international matches for the Under 14 Boys National Team. We have 20 players in our roster including Cody and three other players from Northern California.

I hope that everything is going well at home. Congratulations to all the teams who competed and represented Placer United at the Placer United Cup last weekend.

—Coach Matt