From Underdogs to Conference Champions
As we arrived in Statesboro, GA, we were the only team there that had not won their Division. All of the three other teams could boast of being their respective Division winners. Torments FC (our host) won the Deep SouthDivision, Brazos Valley Calvary won the Mid South Division and SIMA Aguilas the Southeast Division. We, on the other hand, were the "wildcard."The interviews, articles and social media comments about the weekend all pointed to the fact that we were the underdogs. During the week PDL had their experts pick out what they thought would be the results and none of them picked us, not one.
Experts...
They were very confident that SIMA and Tormenta would be the ones to fight for the final and that most likely Tormenta would take the prize. Not even one of the experts thought of us.
The response from our team and coaches was "we will show them," and that's exactly what we did.
On Friday, we played against Tormenta FC. They were undefeated (up to that point), playing home with the crowd was on their side and they were considered to be favorites. Coach Anderson said they were a strong team and had been working hard preparing us for a battle. The pressure was intense but we wereable to score at right before halftime. In the second half, they came with all theyhad but we were able to hold on to the lead. Final score The Villages SC 1 x 0Tormenta FC and on to the Conference final we went.
On Saturday, our Division rival, SIMA was pumped up. They wanted to redeemthemselves after having lost to us during the regular season. They scored firstbut we countered minutes later while in the first half. The score stayed tied withboth teams having several chances. Time ran out and we went to extra time.With the first 15 minutes of the extra time almost up we scored. The Villages 2x 1 SIMA, but we had another 15 minutes to go. With fans looking anxiously atthe clock, the players exhausted but giving their all the whistle blew.
Yes, it is true that we didn't win our Division but we did win our CONFERENCE!
To Pennsylvania, we go! Saturday, July 28 at 7:00 PM
National Semifinals - winner advances to the Final on August 4th.
Only 4 teams left
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