North American Finals Saturday
Day two of North American Finals group play matches
 Saturday, November 17
TAMPA – Following a long day of group play at Ed Radice Sports Complex in Northwest Tampa, United Soccer Leagues Saturday Night Soccer Celebration culminated with a feature match between Parsippany SC and RSL Florida highlighting the U17 boys North American Finals. The Tampa fans of RSL Florida flooded the stands and dominated the sideline volume but Parsippany kept pace the only place it mattered, on the pitch.
The game played evenly through the first half with a few scares here and there for both defensive units. Parsippany held a slight edge in possession and scoring opportunities early on and RSL countered with their greatest scoring threat, Sebastian Thurieve, who tracked sideline to sideline looking to create offensive opportunities for RSL.
Top Eight Photo Gallery Day Two
“We played Parsippany this summer in a tournament in Greensboro,” said RSL Florida Head Coach Steve Wolf. “There they went up on us early 2-0 and we never could get it back level after that. That being said we wanted to come out in the first half and be safe and secure, then attack in the second half.”
RSL did not disappoint. In the first minute of the second half Brendan Howard played a towering ball in to teammate Daniel Meacock who narrowly missed getting a head on a sure goal had he caught up to it. A few minutes later Howard was on the receiving end of a second cross from Ryan Asare. Howard chipped the charging Parsippany goalkeeper only to watch the ball sail just over the crossbar.
“We changed our design totally to begin the second half,” said Wolf. “We switched to a three back system with a diamond in front of them in hopes of winning the midfield. Up front we wanted more offense so we played the two traditional guys up top with a third out wide.”
The alterations won RSL plenty of chances on net and subsequent corners. They were unable to convert any into points until Karl Swan stepped up to take a corner with just over 25 minutes remaining in the contest. That’s when the game seemed to begin.
Swan’s corner kick found the head of Thurieve who had risen above a pack of defenders to win the ball. Not the tallest player on the pitch, Thurieve’s vertical was impressive and his header scooted past Parsippany’s goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead.
The goal awoke a Parsippany side whose attack was stagnant for the beginning of the second half. Instantly they went to work on gaining back the lost goal and six minutes later they hit pay dirt. On the play Sasa Dobrijevic drove a hanging line drive at the net off a free kick from just inside midfield. RSL’s keeper was equal to the task but lost his nerve in a pack of charging attackers. The ball fumbled to the ground and onto the fortunate feet of Parsippany’s Ameen Kandil who knotted the match 1-1.
The two teams slowed again as they drew even, but RSL, having drawn Black Watch SC 1-1 a day earlier needed the three points here.
They got it, but not without fireworks, as they used all three minutes of stoppage time to gain back a 2-1 advantage. Ryan Griffin was the hero.
A long and hopeful ball played long was tracked down by the undying effort of Sebastian Thurieve. He managed to get a foot on the attempted clearance of a defender and the ball ricocheted back to Griffin’s feet who sent a hard low shot to the far post. Griffin took off running to celebrate the team’s 2-1 win with the RSL fans along the sideline.
“Thurieve’s goal is very typical of his game,” said Wolf regarding RSL’s first goal of the match. “He is brilliant in the air and scores often off corners.”
“As a first year club we have been very impressed with the Super Y-League North American Finals,” added Wolf. “We were reluctant at first to join the U17 boys division because this team plays so much soccer. We wanted to give them the summer off but it has worked out nicely. We were talking on the bench during the match about how professional this event feels and how smoothly it runs. Also, it was some of the best officiating we have ever seen at the youth level, an all-around first class event.”
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