Published: June 24, 2008 12:17 am            

KELLY: Local players head to regional semifinals

Two Southern Indiana players have made it to today’s U.S. Youth Soccer Midwest Regional Championship semifinals in Rockford, Ill.

Trevor Bruner of Jeffersonville and Keenan Sparks of New Albany are part of Javanon’s U16 team, which won a tough bracket courtesy of a superior goal difference. They play Vardar Red of Michigan this morning at 10 for a place in Wednesday’s final.

The boys will need no motivation for what will be one of the biggest games of their lives to date, as they lost to Vardar in the Midwest Regional League earlier in the season and will be gunning for revenge.

The team got off to a flyer on Saturday against another Michigan side, Vardar West, with a 5-1 win, but came unstuck Sunday when losing narrowly to KCFC Strikers of Kansas 2-1.

However, a 5-2 win against PSA United (Ohio North) Monday put Javanon atop the bracket after KCFC Strikers lost to Vardar West.



OTHER LOCALS COMPETING IN REGIONALS

• More than 200 teams and 4,000 players from 14 state associations descended on Rockford this week for the Region II Championships. The bracket games took place Saturday, Sunday and Monday, with the semifinals today and the finals Wednesday.

Among them were a number of the area’s top players, including New Albany’s Kaitlin Robinett, who starred for Mockingbird’s U16 girls Sunday when scoring both her team’s goals in a 2-1 victory over South Dakota.

The girls, the club’s sole representative at the championships, tied their first game against FC Milwaukee Blue, and beat JUSC Premier of Iowa 3-0, but agonizingly went out on goal difference to Milwaukee despite an unbeaten run.

• Also unlucky to miss out was Javanon’s U13 girls, a team featuring Leah Mattingly of Floyds Knobs. They faced an uphill battle after losing their opening day game to KCFC Force from Kansas by a lone goal, but bounced back to beat Rushmore of South Dakota 4-1, and then Toro Booyah of Nebraska 2-1. Only a tiebreaker prevented them from going any further.

• One of the most anticipated games of the tournament was the U17 Kentucky Open State Cup final rematch between winners United 1996 and Javanon, and it didn’t disappoint.

Javanon, featuring New Albany’s Nathan Driggers, took a 3-1 lead, only to lose the game 5-3. United progressed to the semifinals after three victories and plays at noon today.

• Javanon’s U14s feature Providence’s Daniel Wilburn and Floyd Central’s Matt Kelsey.

For Wilburn, from New Albany, the week got off to a nightmare start after he broke his foot in practice just three days before regionals. The U14s lost to FC Milwaukee 2-0 (Wisconsin), Cleveland 3-1 (Ohio North) and Michigan Jaguars (3-2).

Wilburn has been blogging his team’s exploits on U.S. Youth Soccer’s Web site (championships.usyouthsoccer.org/ChampionshipsBlog.asp).

• United 1996’s U19s featured New Albany’s Derek Webb and Jeffersonville’s T.J. Fox, who lost to FC Milwaukee, Arsenal Bluejays (Nebraska) and KC Wizards (Kansas).

• Jeffersonville’s Chelsea Grover was part of Javanon’s U19 team, which tied both PSA Gunners (Minnesota) and FC Milwaukee, before losing to Eclipse Select (Illinois).

Gus Bender, president of Illinois Youth Soccer and host for the regional championships, said, “This (U.S. Youth Soccer National Championship Series) is the greatest tournament in the United States. Everyone in the nation knows that when you win a regional or national championship you have really done something.”

Wednesday’s regional winners from U14 to U19 will go on to play at the US Youth Soccer National Championships at Burns Park Soccer Complex in Little Rock, Ark., from July 22-27.



AWESOME ARSHAVIN LIGHTS UP EUROS

The clash of the busiest period in the club youth soccer calendar with the European Championships in Switzerland and Austria has prevented me from commenting on the latter, which reaches its final stages this week.

To date, there have been many memorable games and some fine football (or futbol as my editor keeps reminding me) to keep the interest, despite the absence of all the British teams and Ireland.

Standout games have included the quarterfinal involving Croatia and Turkey, where a crazy final couple of minutes led to a penalty shootout won by the Turks. Also, the ‘Cardiac Turks’ came from a 2-0 deficit to beat the Czech Republic 3-2 in the group stages.

However, my advice to any youth player in the area is to get his or her hands on a recording of the quarterfinal clash between the Netherlands and Russia, where the performance of Andrei Arshavin was simply phenomenal.

He was at the heart of every Russian move and sliced the Orange defense like a knife on numerous occasions. The tireless energy and skill of the Zenit St. Petersburg playmaker was a joy to behold, as was the performances of his teammates such as Sergei Semak and Konstantin Zyryanov.

For one, I’m looking forward to seeing awesome Arshavin in Russia’s semifinal on Thursday against Spain, which is no slouch itself with a lethal strike force comprising Liverpool’s Fernando Torres and Valencia’s David Villa. Arshavin missed the group game between the two, when Spain ran out 4-1 winners.

First up, though, is another intriguing semifinal Wednesday, when Germany will take on Turkey. Both games are on ESPN, while the final, which will be held on Sunday, will be on ABC. All games are at 2:45 p.m. EDT.

Contact Aidan Kelly at aidokaydo@gmail.com.

        

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