Monday, June 22, 2009

Juniors at Regionals

While the Wizards team was getting ready to and taking on Atlas in SuperLiga, the 6 Wizards Juniors teams that qualified for regionals (5 state titles, 1 Midwest Regional League birth through the U-16's) were competing in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Over the course of the group play round, the Juniors were a combined 12-5-1, scoring 48 goals while conceding 21. No Juniors team suffered more than 1 loss in the tournament. Of the 6 teams that made regionals, only 3 of those teams advanced to the semifinals.

The U-13's made the semifinals, going 3-0 in group play. They'll take on Ambassadors FC out of Ohio North in their semifinal. The U-15's lost their opener to Vardar, a Midwest Regional League qualifier, 2-0. The 15's recovered, winning their final 2 games, but so did Vardar, and the Michigan club advanced from their group. The U-16 team qualified for regionals through the Midwest Regional league, even though they lost in state cup. The 16's lost their second game, but were able to do well enough in their other games, and get help to advance to the semifinals, where they'll play Westside United out of Indiana.

The U-17's also got off to a slow start, losing their first game, but they too got the results the rest of the way to go their way, and they too qualified for the semifinals. In the semis, they will take on fellow MLS youth side, the Chicago Fire Juniors. In the U-18 division, the Juniors won their first game against Springfield SC. The Juniors lost their second to Javanon out of Kentucky, before winning their final game over Inter FC of Illinois. Unfortunately Javanon advanced out of their group. The U-19's lost their first game to Pike Indy Burn and had trouble recovering. They tied with Valley United out of Minnesota, before beating SD United Manchester. the U-19's finished third in their group and saw both Pike Indy and Valley United advance to the semifinals as there were only 3 groups in the U-19 division.

Tomorrow is when the U-13's, 16's, and 17's will play their semifinals. Should they win, the finals will be on Wednesday. Good luck to those 3 Juniors teams.

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