Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo advanced to the USYSA National Final with a convincing 5-0 victory against SSA Chelsea from Georgia. With the win Botafogo set up a rematch of last year’s National Final against VSA Heat from Virginia.

Today’s game was played on a very poor field, which made it extremely difficult to play good possession soccer, but the Botafogo players handled the conditions well. Ashley Handwork got the eventual game-winner halfway through the first half when she met Hope D’Addario’s corner-kick at the far post, and lobbed it over the keeper to the inside netting of the far post. Liz Bartels made it 2-0 with five minutes left in the half, after Kristen Brots found Zoey Goralski in a great overlapping run from the right back position, and Zoey squared the ball to Liz for a one-time finish.

Up 2-0 at the half Botafogo needed a 3rd goal to be absolute certain of a spot in the Final, and Ashley Handwork took care of that with a great finish 10 minutes into the 2nd half after Gianna Dal Pozzo had stolen the ball and played her through. Kristen Brots got her 2nd assist of the game when she went end-line and drove a perfect cross on-top of the 6-yard box which Kaitlin Johnson ran onto and slammed home in the side-netting of the far post. And Liz Bartels finished off with a fantastic solo effort as she beat two defenders and tucked the ball away at the foot of the far post with five minutes left in the game off Mary Rounce’s assist. Megan Geldernick earned the shutout in goal.

Botafogo will now face VSA Heat in the final at 6pm EDT on Saturday 7/26

Over the past several years Tommy Nevins Restaurant in Naperville has run a golf event that provides donations to various groups in the area. WAA is one of those groups that benefited from these golf events receiving over $25,000 the past few years.

Attached is a flyer announcing the event to be held on Thursday, August 21st at the Tamarack Golf Club in Naperville. Besides the opportunity to golf with a group of your friends, enjoy refreshments, food and dinner afterwards, Tommy Nevins donates $200 back to Team Chicago for every foursome that is organized by Team Chicago. In addition to the foursome donation, Team Chicago is being given the opportunity to secure various sponsorships such as Hole Sponsor ($250), Lunch Sponsor ($1,000) or Cart Sponsor ($2,500) among others. Any sponsorship secured by your team will further be credited to Team Chicago at a 80% rate.

This is an excellent opportunity for you and your friends to raise funds, enjoy a terrific event and support Team Chicago. Spread the word now to the parents on your team, family, friends and business associates. To register go to www.golfinvite.com/thursday .

$165.00 per person
$660.00 per foursome
Golf, Cart, Contests, Prizes
Lunch and Beverages on Course
Dinner, Open Bar and Awards Reception
Following Golf at Nevins
1:00PM Shotgun Start
Four Person Scramble
Reception Only $100.00 per person
Includes Dinner and Open Bar

11:00 – 1:00 registration, open bar and grill
1:00 Shotgun Start, Four Person Scramble
Open bar available on 9 holes
Lunch on the turn
Following play will be Dinner & Awards Reception at Tommy Nevins with open bar.

Registration is limited so get your foursome signed up today!
Any questions please contact Thomas R. Spika, WAA Director of Fields and Facilities at 630-978-2855 or thomas.spika@waasports.org

After the group of 16 games, Here are our leaders in the Team Chicago World Cup bracket challenge. We have Colin Tobolski of the U15B Gremio team in the lead with 50 points and in the 100th percentile of the ESPN game!!, followed by Ricky Hildreth, parent of Anthony on the U7B Cortiba and Ed Goralski, parent of Zoey, U19 Botafogo and Jamie, U15 Cruzeiro.

I still have time to catch them.

Check out the full standings at http://games.espn.go.com/world-cup-bracket-predictor/2014/en/group?groupID=5646

RANK BRACKET, OWNER GRP SR QF SF F CHAMPION TOTAL PCT
1
colintobolski codmw28325
22 28 0 0 0 Brazil 50 100.0
2
The golden boot 11rickyhildreth309
24 20 0 0 0 Brazil 44 98.9
3
Goralskieddie2504
21 20 0 0 0 Germany 41 95.4

One American sports reporter converted; many more to work on, though.

Daily Herald – Suburban Chicago’s source for news
U.S. soccer loss or not, things are different now

By Mike Imrem
So that’s it for the United States soccer side in the World Cup.

(Yes, I have taken to calling it a “side” rather than the more common “team” in North America.)

Gone but not forgotten: A sports fan would have to be pretty stubborn to resist acknowledging the value of the U.S. run.

There was a remarkable performance by American goalie Tim Howard. There was a terrific goal by 19-year-old Julian Green.

Yet in the end Belgium won 2-1 in the Round of 16, with all the goals coming in the 30 minutes of extra time.

Personally, it’s no fun making fun of soccer anymore. I’m going to have to switch to cricket, croquet or maybe even cribbage.

I haven’t exactly been bitten by the soccer bug but have been smitten by this World Cup in Brazil.

Maybe this sport will retreat back into the corner of the corner now, but maybe not. This isn’t a time even as recent as 2002 when soccer essentially went away again after the U.S. lost in the quarterfinals.

Demographics are unlikely to let that happen again. Kids are unlikely to move to other sports when this World Cup ends and leave soccer behind altogether.

The Chicago viewing audience for United States-Belgium grew into Soldier Field. Organizers might have had to move the show onto Lake Michigan to accommodate the crowd if the U.S. had advanced.

Soccer has hunted down Americans. The game still is foreign over here, but so are delicacies like the best champagne, truffles and Heidi Klum.

A large percentage of the Soldier Field crowd consisted of young people who rode public transportation down with or without parents and who are as familiar with corner kicks as onside kicks.

Soccer spies tell me that kids play the FIFA soccer video game and learn the names and club teams of the world’s best players.

In the past young people who played soccer in school and youth leagues proceeded to abandoned the game. Now they’ll more likely enjoy dual allegiances like baseball and soccer, basketball and soccer or football and futbol.

Nobody is more surprised by what I’m predicting here than I am. For somebody who based much of his career on snickering, smirking and sneering, soccer always has been an easy target.

Yet there I was, watching U.S.-Belgium and marveling at the action and athleticism.

No, the attraction wasn’t only nationalism. This game would have been dramatic even if it were, say, Belgium-Argentina.

Earlier in the tournament I found myself screaming “Goooooal!” from the recliner when Costa Rica won and “Ohhh!” when the Netherlands rallied to break Mexico’s heart.

And this guy Messi from Argentina does with his feet can be appreciated as much as LeBron James, Tom Brady and Mike Trout are for what they do with their hands.

Not everyone will agree with that observation. Some Americans young and old will continue to resist embracing soccer.

Look, I’m not saying that I’ll join the crowd that starts attending Chicago Fire games and watching the English Premier League on TV.

But I’ll admit this much: I’ll be interested in what happens the rest of this World Cup and look forward to the next one in 2018.

Soccer always deserved some measure of respect because nothing so popular around the world should be totally dismissed by snobs like me back here.

Yet skeptics always could wonder whether seed spitting is the No. 2 sport overseas if soccer continues to be No. 1. Undeniable, however, is that for the past two weeks at least, soccer has reached mass appeal in the United States, of all places.

Not only that but there is the possibility that the sport finally is becoming what advocates claimed it would be in this country.

Now you’ll have to excuse me while I try to think of some jokes about cribbage.

mimrem@dailyherald.com

Copyright © 2014 Paddock Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo completed a three-peat as USYSA Region II Champions with a 2-0 win over OP Eclipse in the final. Zoe Swift got the eventual game-winner from Gianna Dal Pozzo’s pass, and Liz Bartels got the insurance goal from Zoe Swift and Rose Lavelle. Megan Geldernick earned her 3rd shutout of Regionals in goal.

On its way to the final, Botafogo defeated Appleton Goalgetters 7-0, Javanon 5-1, Iowa Alliance 3-1, and Carmel United 4-0 in the semi-final. Ashley Handwork won the Golden Boot at the event with 6 goals.

Botafogo will now head to Nationals in Germantown, MD July 21st-26th to defend its national title from 2013.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro finished tied for 2nd in the U14 “Group of Death” at Regionals. Campton United was able to avenge its 3-1 loss to Cruzeiro from the State Cup semi-final to win the group and advance to the semi-final. Cruzeiro finished out an amazing 2013-14 campaign with a 23-2-5 record in competitive matches, an MRL Premier I Division Championship after going 7-0-0, a IYSA State Cup title, and qualification for the 2014-15 USYSA National League.

Congrats to both teams!