Sunrise 96/97 Girls Team Plays for Championship at the Atlanta Cup

Atlanta, Georgia (September 3, 2007) – Playing on a national stage for the very first time, the Sunrise Sting u11 girls were able to compete effectively against top teams from Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Oklahoma in the Cup division in Atlanta. The girls played five games in three days and lost their only match in the championship against the Tennessee Impact by a 1-0 score.

There were twelve teams in the Cup division representing five states and all of the teams immediately learned that this was going to be one tough tournament. Almost everyone was evenly matched. Out of the twelve teams, any one of about ten could have won this tournament. And if you reshuffled the deck, and played this tournament ten more times, that might have been what would happen. That is how good and how close all of these teams were to each other. In fact, after the first day of competition when everyone had gotten two games in, there was not a single team left with a perfect 2-0 record. Every team had at least one loss or one tie.

Sunrise opened up the tournament against South Charlotte Gold (North Carolina). Carolina took an early lead in this game, but this was an evenly matched and well played contest by both teams. Sunrise tied the game midway through the second half and pushed hard in the final minutes to get the winning goal, but the tough Carolina defense refused to break, and the game ended in a 1-1 tie.

Next up was the Atlanta Fire Premier team. This was a wild game and turned into a real shootout. For the first time in memory, Sunrise allowed a bunch of goals, four to be exact. But fortunately the Sting attack was even more productive and knocked in six, for the 6-4 win.

The final bracket game was against Cobb Black. This game was close at half but Sunrise opened it up in the second half to take the 3-1 victory and send the team into the semi-finals.

The semi-final was played against the ASA Extreme Elite. This team was big and fast and this game was a real battle for the Sting. ASA entered the semi’s by winning their bracket with a 2-0-1 mark. ASA controlled the first ten minutes of this game, and then it evened out. At half-time the game was 0-0 and it stayed that way until well into the second half. But then the Sting converted two consecutive corner kicks to send the team into the finals with a 2-0 win.

The finals were played against the Tennessee Impact on a picturesque field at Allen Creek Park in Gainesville, Georgia. The various fields are tucked away in valleys surrounded by rolling green mountains and it made for the perfect venue for the championships.

Sunrise came out ready to play in this one and turned in a great first half, generating 12 shots while allowing only 3 against. But Tennessee’s keeper did a great job and made many saves. However, the Impact did punch through one goal on a breakaway by their very talented forward late in the first half to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.

The Impact played a conservative defense in the second half which was effective in denying good Sunrise scoring opportunities, but the Sting kept at it. With about two minutes remaining, a Sunrise goal was nullified by a close offsides call. A final shot in the closing seconds of the game went over the cross bar by inches to give the Impact their well deserved Atlanta Cup championship.

For the Sting, it was a great experience to play against such talented teams from all over Region III and the team left Atlanta excited about the future.