Tso long TSammi

Wrap up

Champions play like champions and walk away with the shirts

Sunday night brought crowds (relatively speaking) to Grand Avenue Park to watch Tsunami defend its title against a 909 squad augmented by speed and height.

Both teams got going early. Suzanne delivered for Tsunami, then 909's giant launched a stunning shot from the half line that caught Sammi by surprise and made the score 1-1 where it stuck for many minutes. The teams were not quite evenly matched--Tsunami had the edge on possession, but both teams had strong defenders that thwarted shots and kept the score stuck through halftime.

Early in the second half 909 exploited a breakaway, and one of their players was on a tear towards our goal and ahead of our defense. Sammi challenged, coming out with an expert slide into the ball. Unfortunately it popped up and our defenders did not win in the ensuing scrum: 2-1 909 United. The score was stuck again. Lindsey arrived soon after, and added just the right pizzazz to Tsunami's offense. We were energized, and took many great runs at the 909 goal. Lots of runs down the side followed by crosses and shots....but not goals.

Tsunami persisted, and finally Rachel completed one of these sequences to bring the score back to a tie. Very soon thereafter, Suzanne made a text book shot into the upper left corner of the goal, elevating us to a winning position. Tenacious defense protected our lead and brought the title home to Tsunami once again.

We like winning, but this one was especially sweet as a sendoff to Sammi, who we are going to miss so much. She has kept the balls out of our net:

A net is but string on a pole

'Til balls enter in for a goal

But Sammi--she stops 'em

She flies, dives and blocks them.

Without Sammi the team has a hole.

With Sammi we sat so prettily;

We cast off our basic humility.

Now we'll be humbled

With her off to Humboldt .

Our net just may lose its virginity.

Semi final wrap up

I did some research, and suspect that it was the chilly air that made those Blackhearts so disorderly Sunday night.* Shoving Staci, leg wrestling Cara, whining to extreme--one player "threatened" to stop playing if the officials kept calling her for infractions. After the last, the ref on the line turned to the spectators, lifted his palms and mouthed "so stop playing."

In contrast, Tsunami displayed order. Passing to feet, lofting lovely crossed balls in front of the goal, talking to each other.... It was a beautiful game to watch. Tsunami had a full team plus a sub to Blackhearts ten, but the numerical advantage looked to be much greater. Tsunami had possession at least 80 percent of the game. When a Blackheart did get the ball, she most often just kicked towards our goal, but with little awareness of where her teammates stood in relation to the goal or the ball.

Early in the first half Suzanne crossed a ball in front of the net, finding Diane in perfect position to tap it in. A few minutes later there was a near repeat, with Suzanne crossing a ball to Diane's head. That one went high, unfortunately. Shortly before the end of the half, Suzanne launched a classic arrow from about 30 yards out into the upper left corner of the net.

Blackheart whining reached its peak as the half drew to a close. They came out for the second half a little less disorderly and a bit more dejected. Whereas Sammi had a chance to show off at least one great stop during the first half in the goal, Leslie had to be content with dancing and prancing to stay warm in the goal during the second half. Blackhearts focused on defense during the second half--while making no serious offensive threats, they did manage to thwart Tsunami attacks. Most of the time. Amy got by their defenders to score once in the second half.

Onward to the finals! Tsunami!

*Here's some scientific trivia for you: "Internal blackening, or 'blackheart' is an important physiological disorder of pineapples that arises as a result of storage at chilling temperatures."

*http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/905832/discoloration_in_raw_and_processed_fruits_and_vegetables/index.html

PX90 or P90X Taking on those young Corona Strikers.

We won 3 to 1 and we were the only teams playing at 8:15 p.m. the ground was hard and dusty. Had a lot of players falling and sliding on the dirt. Pam hope you are okay. Thanks for those who showed up we had on sub and it was great! Thanks to our fans that watched us play.

We start playoffs in 2 weeks at 8:15 (vs. the 4th place Blackhearts). As Laura put it; can't wait to hear about the PX90 from Leslie.

Go Tsunami! BTW--The new Red jersey's are really flashy and cool we've been receiving a lot of great compliments.

Thanks again to JOEY MONACO -Owner of Red Devil Pizza in La Verne Calif for sponsoring our team. Check out the bottom of the page to see his logo.

Also, thank you to Brian at Soccer Garage for getting our jerseys to us so fast he did a great job designing them.