IMG Cup - Boys Invitational: Day 3 Recap

IMG Cup - Boys Invitational: Day 3 Recap
by Jarrod Heil
December 22, 2014

Teams wrapped up day three of U16 competition in Bradenton, Florida at the IMG Cup. Tomorrow is medal day, but first let’s take a look back at few games from Sunday.

IMG Academy U16 Blue 5-0 U16 Orlando City Youth Soccer Club White

IMG Academy U16 Blue rolled to a 5-0 victory over the Orlando City Youth Soccer Club on the backs of Guilherme Casante and Greg Uezono, both scoring two goals apiece. They outpaced OCYS, and held them to shots on goal through the contest.

“We kept the ball under pressure, and sort of broke their pressure in the first half,” said Kyle Lessig, head coach of IMG Academy U16 Blue. “They got tired and they let off and we kept playing.” 

IMG’s Felipe Fihlo drew OCYS’s defenders toward him and dished it to Uezono who stutter stepped the one defender left, pushed it to the right and lasered it home to put IMG on the board in the 25th minute. The floodgates were now open. Uezono got his second goal of the game just four minutes later on a head ball off a corner kick taken by Fihlo.

Ricardo MacGregor got a piece of the action for IMG in the 40th minute when the goalkeeper fell down and let the ball trickle in the net.

Casante found his way onto the score sheet in the 58th and 69th minutes. He scored the former between the grass and the keeper while falling down to the ground. The latter came on a sliding kick when an OCYS player errantly played the ball through the box.

 

U16 Florida Fire Juniors 2-2 Mississauga Falcons Blue U16

Down 2-1 late in the game with championship ties, the Florida Fire Juniors’ knew they’d have to step it up. Their hard work was paid off by dramatic fashion in the final minute of stoppage time when they scored a goal to knot it at two. After the goal in, the final whistle blew.

“I expect that from them,” said Walter Rodrigues, assistant coach of Florida Fire Juniors. “They’ve been a successful team. They hate losing.”

The first half ended scoreless, but the Falcons looked like they were going to put in two quick goals, unfortunately for them the ball didn’t land quite where they had hoped. Falcon forward Mirza Custovic let a laser go off the keeper’s mitts in the 8th minute and midfielder Anthony Chrysanthou banged the crossbar with a free kick from just outside the box a few minutes later.

Back-to-back corner kicks gave the Fire some fuel and they finally tallied their first goal in the 43rd minute. Forward Eduardo Monsivais-Escobedo found space in the top left corner of the net after he received the ball of a free kick by defender Weston Maki.

The Falcons fought back and tied the game in the 58th minute. Custovic created the play from a nifty no-look pass off the back of his foot to midfielder Ricardo Michado. Michado took a run and got the ball to fellow midfielder Tajon Buchanan who proceded to bend it into the top left corner of the net. 

In the 78th minute Buchanan booted his second goal of the game. When the Fire keeper came too far for the challenge Buchanan chipped it off the top of the tender’s fingertips into the back of the net.

The Fire didn’t get down on themselves and they put in the tying tally in the closing seconds of stoppage time. The goal was scored by midfielder Estaban Ramos when he received a cross from Jhalmar Joffre on a short corner kick.

 

 U16 FC Florida Elite 2-2 Davie United Sharks U16

Coming into the match at hand, both teams were undefeated and had combined to score 22 goals while letting in only three. Florida Elite defender, Jared Shea, received two yellow cards which resulted in a red and a man down for his team for the final 30 minutes of the match.

“Obviously we tried to win the match, but they’re [FC Florida Elite] a top team. They’re ranked a little bit ahead of us in the state rankings so this was an important result for us, not only for the showcase here, but for State Cup seeding,” said Guiseppe DePalo, coach of the Davie United Sharks U16 team. “We knew a draw would get us through to the final.”

Florida Elite had three solid scoring chances within the first ten minutes of the game, all set up by crosses from forward Nelson Nazon, before they found the back of the net in the 22nd minute. The goal came by way of a perfect cross-field pass by midfielder Christopher Young that Nazon put in the back of the net, via mid-air strike. 

Davie United got the goal back at the 35-minute mark when forward Gabriel Mesa put a shot between the grass and the keeper while he was falling to the ground. The play was set up by a nifty crossover move from midfielder Netty Silberman.

The Sharks were hungry, and tallied another one via penalty kick in the 43rd minute. This time it was Silberman who got the chance to score after he was tackled in the box before he had the chance to release his shot. He stood one versus one against the goalkeeper on the penalty kick and picked his corner in the top right as the goalie dove to the left.

FC Elite defender received two yellow cards back-to-back, and was ejected with a red in the 50th minute to leave FC Florida Elite down a man for the remainder of the match. It didn’t take long to recoup as they tallied the game tying goal in the 56th minute. Midfielder Kaolin Jackson crossed over, changed directions, spun 360 degrees and potted the ball into the top right corner of the net for the eventual evener.

 

Strictly Soccer Futbol Select U16 1-0 United FC International U16 (KY)

Strictly Soccer U16 managed to sneak away with a 1-0 victory over the U16 United FC club from Kentucky. Strictly Soccer goalkeeper, Daniel Knight stopped one tough shot after another as he backed his team to victory. 

“We haven’t played up to our potential so far in the tournament,” said Joseph Winsser, one of the coaches of Strictly Soccer. “We have to transition them from club to high school [soccer] back to club again … Today we feel like we’re back to normal.”

United FC’s peppering of shots started in the 12th minute when defender Joseph Zamora put a ball off the head of forward Adrian Bowman that was stopped by a diving Knight on the opposing side. Knight, Strictly Soccer’s keeper, would make save after save of that nature throughout the course of the game to hold United FC to nil.

In the 55th minute forward Eric Quinton rolled a ball off the keeper’s mitts that stayed out of the net as it rolled directly across the goal line and out the other side of the net. Just two minutes later Quinton took another shot and it was Déjà vu all over again.

In the 65th minute Strictly Soccer forward, Brett Makowski, broke the tie as he broke free from United’s defenders deep in the box and slipped a shot past the sprawling United goalkeeper.

Top Performances 

Here are the players that stood out the games that TopDrawerSoccer saw on day three of competition at the IMG Cup in Bradenton, Florida.

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