1996 MISSION VIEJO TOURNAMENT

BLUES CONTINUE WORK ON POWERFUL BALL POSSESSION

In the second tournament of the season the Southern California Blues Soccer Club were a couple of plays away from having seven of their eight existing teams qualify for championship play at the Mission Viejo Tournament. As it turned out, only five of eight were still alive on championship monday.

Starting with the U11, they made it to the final but fell short and lost to Irvine 1-0 after failing to score on what seemed to be sure scoring chances. The U12 team also made it to the final to face the Celtic team that defeated them in the finals of the Surf tournament. This time the game was much more even as it ended in a 0-0 tie. The Blues eventually went down to defeat in the penalty kick contest.

The U13 Blues playing some of their best soccer failed to make the final falling short by one point in group play because of giving up too many goals.

The U14 Blues won all of their group games and their quarterfinal only to be stopped by NHB in the semifinal by a score of 2-1. In the semifinal game the Blues had much of the play but gave up a goal a short time after coming back to tie the match.

The Blues team of the weekend was Rich Manning's U15. They came back from their defeat in the finals of the Surf tournament to capture the Mission Viejo Championship 3-0 over the El Cajon Hotspurs.

Needing only a tie in their final group game, the U17 team seemed to be in complete control of their last game when with five minutes left in the game, they gave up a goal against the run of play and lost 1-0, knocking them out of the quarterfinals.

Having only 11 players available for most of the first round of the tournament, the U18 team fought fatigue and injury to get to the semifinal against the Las Virgenes Blazers. In the end the Blazers had more left than the Blues as they scored two goals in overtime to clinch a spot in the finals vs the host Shamrocks.

Overall the quality of play improved for the club but finishing goal scoring chances was an obvious weakness in all of the games.

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