Finals Preview: U17 Girls
Defending champ returns, along with four familiar foes
USL News Release
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
TAMPA – The girl’s side of the U17 USL Super Y-League postseason tournament, just a tenth of the copious, 140 team, 3600+ player battle for a bi-national championship, will head to Tampa, Florida come November to determine the best of the best – the top U17 girls team on this continent. As of today, Tuesday, September 9, 11 of the 12 available qualification positions had been filled. The final Southeast qualifier will come down to a two-team fight between the Plantation Eagles and West Pines United. The 11 teams booked for the tenth annual Super Y-League North American Finals have a combined record of 76-7-12, an average winning percentage of 80%.
 Mid Atlantic Division
The New York Magic, a subsidiary of the USL W-League New York Magic, who have been making great strides in club development the last three seasons, qualified first in the leagues largest division. The New York City based club qualified last season for the U16 tournament and went 1-2-0 against the toughest available competition in North America. That team carried-over 14 players from last season’s North American Finals roster and finished with a record of 7-0-2.
Last season the side finished the regular season 7-0-3 and allowed six goals all season. This team, with 10 new faces was able to improve on that feat, allowing only four goals in nine matches in 2008. They also won the Mid Atlantic Division title over the Reading Rage by downing them 4-1 in New York. Last season’s team came into the North American Finals as the second seeded Mid Atlantic club after finishing behind the City Islanders Academy. One of the strongest age groups in the Magic’s development system, look for these upstart girls to soon make an impact with the W-League squad.
The Reading Rage finished second in the Mid Atlantic with a record of 7-2-0. Their only losses of the season were at the hands of the New York Magic and a 2-1, season opening loss to TSF Academy way back on Saturday, June 7. A vastly improved side from a season ago, when they finished seventh in the division with a record of 4-6-1, the club consists of several girls who were finalists at the U15 North American Finals in 2006 (Stephanie Barnett, Jackie Buss, Danielle Finnerty, Katelyn Miller, Jenna Riegel, Taylor Seitzinger, Crystal Zerbe).
The third and final qualifier from the Mid Atlantic Division is the 6-1-2 South Jersey Barons. The side allowed just eight goals in nine matches this season, the second best total in the division. Their only loss of the season was to the Reading Rage, 2-1 in Pennsylvania on Saturday, June 14. They also accounted for one of the New York Magic’s three draws this season, a 0-0 stalemate between the top two backlines in the division one day after their loss to the Rage. That match was played in Ocean City.
Midwest Division
From the Heartland comes of the 2007 U16 girls North American Finals Champion Cleveland Internationals, who qualified with the same record (5-0-1) as the Fort Wayne Fever. The two sides, one an offensive juggernaut (Fort Wayne), the other a defensive fortress (Cleveland), battled to a 3-3 draw in their only meeting of the summer. That match, played on Thursday, July 3 in Cleveland’s Lost Nations Sports Park, did little to decide the division championship, which went not to the defending Super Y-League Champions, but to the offensive-minded Fever based on a goal-differential. The Fever ended the season +36 goals to claim the Midwest Division title. The champs went +34 and will have the tougher road back to the finals in Group A.
Group A consists of the Mid Atlantic Champion New York Magic, Southeast Champion RSL Florida and Northern California runner-up, Cal Odyssey. In Group B, the Fever, who did not compete on any level in the Super Y-League in 2007, will face the Mid Atlantic’s third place South Jersey Barons, the New England Division runner-up Ottawa Fury and Northern California number one, Juventus. The Magic, Juventus, Northern Virginia, MPS Cape Cod and the Internationals being the five sides who are returning from the 2007 U16 North American Finals, experience may well be the deciding factor in forwarding four of those sides to the knockout phase of the tournament.
However, the Internationals’ experience begins and ends with defender Kristen Insana and Melissa Timko, the lone members of last season’s championship side on this season’s roster. Two of those missing-but-eligible players went from the Super Y-League’s U16 level to the W-League this season. One, Danielle Hubka, was a prolific scorer in last season’s U16 tournament. She netted four goals in six matches this season for the 8-4-2 W-League side. The second, Sarah Zawie saw W-League action in two matches.
Northern California Division
Juventus has compiled a two season record of 18-3-5 in the Super Y-League in 2007 and 2008. At the finals last season the club went 1-1-1, scoring four times and allowing three. They won their tournament opener to MPS Cape Cod 2-0, a club that righted the ship to advance out of the group phase. Following that win the Californians fell to the Majestics, 2-1 and tied Mountin WFC 1-1 to fall out of contention. From that roster, 18 return this season. That fact that propels this side to the top of the list of contenders. Couple that with Fort Wayne’s list of accolades and you have a prime matchup between the two sides in Group C, set for the second day of North American Finals competition – Saturday, November 22.
The second place team in California was Cal Odyssey, who went 7-1-2 this season. The team’s only loss was to Juventus, 1-0 on Tuesday, July 22 in Marlin Park. However, the Odyssey also tied Juventus, 2-2 at home on Saturday, May 17. Cal’s defense was the best in the eight team division. They posted a goals against average of 0.60 per match. The Odyssey’s net minders were huge contributors to that number, pitching shutouts in seven of their 10 matches this season.
New England Division
MPS Cape Cod, who finished the 2007 season with a 14-2-0 record, return as the two-time defending champion of the New England Division. After going 12-0-0 during last season’s regular season, the side faced a lot of diversity in the ever-improving New England Division.
The division was so strong in fact, that BW Rhode Island, who qualified in each of the past two seasons for postseason play, was left out in the cold after finishing just one point behind the division’s runner up, the Ottawa Fury. The top three teams in the New England made parity a theme this season. Cape Cod won with 28 points, Ottawa was second with 27 and BW Rhode Island finished with 26. The decisive matches in the three-headed rivalry were Ottawa’s 3-2 win and 0-0 draw with MPS Cape Cod. BW Rhode Island lost four points to the Fury in that area, as they were unable to handle Cape Cod’s attack, giving up five goals to MPS in two matches.
MPS Cape Cod fell in their opening match of the 2007 North American Finals, 2-0 to Juventus but bounced back, hammering Mountain WFC 5-0 the second day and slipping by Northern Virginia, 2-1 on the third. In the semifinals the side fell 2-1 to the City Islanders Academy, only their second loss of the season. The team returns 15 members of last season’s North American Finals roster in 2008.
The Ottawa Fury, who lost their only contest of the season to BW Rhode Island 1-0, qualified for the first time since they went 11-6-0 at the U14 level in 2005. In three seasons since their last appearance in Tampa the side has retained seven members of that team that went 1-2-0 against the toughest competition in North America.
South Atlantic Division
The Northern Virginia Majestics return to the North American Finals a year later after going 1-2-0 at the event in 2007. The team has tightened up the backline that allowed 16 goals last season, giving up only four a year later. Experience-wise, the side brings back 13 players from the previous team that was mathematically alive on the final day of group play before falling to MPS, 2-1. The team has also improved offensively this year, going from 10 goals last season to 26 in 2008. One of the most improved squads in this tournament, the Majestics are looking to take the next step and join the semifinals.
Southeast Division
With West Pines United and the Plantation Eagles still battling to determine the final entrant to the U17 girls’ tournament, RSL sewed up a qualification after drawing the Eagles 0-0 on Friday, August 8. As there was no U16 Southeast Division in the Super Y-League last season, this is the first appearance for the ’91-born RSL side at the North American Finals. Last season however, several players on this team played up with RSL’s U17 side and qualified for the league finals with a record of 9-1-0. Those players include Ana Cate, Michele Larringa, Ellen Moore, Sydney Sivitz and Shelby Wright. Last season’s U17 side qualified for the semifinals after going 3-0-0 in Group A. In the semifinals the team fell to Southern California/Coast Soccer League club Wolfpack Blue, 2-1. This season the team is 8-0-1 and has a goal differential of +59.
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