Avoiding the Drop

Pictured L to R - Austin, Zeke, Tyler, Spencer, Nick, Hunter, Brad, Seven, Edwin, and Coach Marc

We here at Avoiding the Drop love the game in all it’s forms, from the Champions League final seen by millions worldwide to kicking a ball against a wall in a back alley. This weekend we were fortunate enough to have one of our field correspondents Kevin at one of the biggest U-10 tournaments of the season, the Henderson Cup. This is his account of the tournament from the view of the Henderson Tigers.

The Henderson United Tigers had an outstanding regular season this year, going 9-0-0 and had high hopes for capping that season off by raising the Henderson Cup Trophy this weekend.

Friday night saw things start off well for the Tigers. They faced off against LV Nitro and controlled most of the match and came away with a 4-1 victory. Saturday’s morning match was against Real United, and after a shaky first few minutes, the Tigers gathered themselves and went on to a well earned 7-0 victory. Saturday afternoon saw the first real tough match of the weekend against the Gators. The Tigers had a one point lead over the Gators in the group stage and this was the final group game. Tigers had handled them quite easily in the regular season, but this was a much improved team from week three and the Tigers had their hands full. The score was 3-2 at the half, and remained that way for nearly the entire second half. With less than a minute to go the Gators capitalized on a corner a corner kick to even the score and the Tigers had to settle for a draw. The draw however, left them the winners of their group and a place in the semi-final game on Sunday morning.

Sunday morning’s semi-final had the Tigers facing the Young Guns in a rematch from a month ago. Young Guns struck first getting a goal in the first minutes on a well played counter attack. The Tigers took much of the first half to get the equalizer and then just before the final whistle, the Young Guns took the lead again to enter half-time ahead 2-1. The 2^nd half saw the Young Guns taking all the chances, being aggressive on 50/50 balls, and generally out hustling the Tigers. They scored a third goal early in the second half and from there on they controlled the game. The Tigers had a few shots on goal, but lacked any spark. In the end the Young Guns got a fourth goal and went on the championship game to face the Gators who had won their semi-final earlier Sunday morning. In the end, the Gators ended up raising the Henderson Cup after defeating the Young Guns 5-1.

I would especially like to thank Avoiding The Drop for indulging me by posting game previews and allowing this recap. Zeke has gotten a real charge out of checking the website out every Friday when he gets home from school to see what is on the Internet about his team. He has told some of his friends that his team “gets reported on the Internet just like Liverpool and Fernando Torres.”  (his favorite team and player) So even though there were tears after their loss, I was able to remind him that Liverpool and Torres have had their share of losing this season, and that helped him feel a little better. Perhaps they’ll continue to indulge me and excite Zeke when Spring season starts in March.

Until then… Here’s to the Tigers!!