FRISCO, Texas – The final day of action for the U18 teams at the 2012 Development Acadmy Playoffs meant 90 more minutes of tussling and fighting for the lone group title.

Late drama on U18s first day | Battle continues for U18 Playoff spots | Two MLS Academies progress

North Carolina Fusion 1-0 Crossfire Premier

Heading into this final group game, only a win would clinch the top spot in Group 1 for the North Carolina Fusion, while just a tie was enough for Crossfire Premier.

For long stretches it looked as though Crossfire’s organized, efficient approach that had got them this far would take them all the way to Houston.

But in the 58th minute forward Alex Rotunda had other ideas for the North Carolina-side, as he smashed home a long-range effort to make the difference as the Fusion eked out a 1-0 win.

“I thought we were good today,” Fusion head coach Marc Nicholls said after the game. “I think we’ve had a really good week. We passed the ball well, we created chances, thought we defended well.”

Given the high stakes of the day, the game started off as a tight, physical affair – Fusion had to push forward a bit more, looking to get the breakthrough, while Crossfire sat back during the game’s opening minutes.

Physical challenges soon started flying in, and despite being content with a draw, Crossfire looked to attack through leading scorer Hamza Haddadi who started up front as usual.

And while he and Jacob Hallgrimson both missed chances in the first half, Crossfire looked comfortable at 0-0 and within sight of a spot at Finals Week.

Fusion finally found the breakthrough when Rotunda latched onto a loose ball about halfway through the second half, and his drive from outside the box that found the upper corner of Ian Clark’s goal.

Crossfire continued to attack, leaving itself vulnerable to the counterattack, and in the 68th minute, Fusion should have had a second. Warren Marshall got on the end of a cross from substitute Marco Sunol, only to see his shot deflect off the post at close range.

The bouncing ball fell to Rotunda, but the Crossfire defense was alert to the danger and blocked his shot off the line.

Those misses almost came back to cost the Fusion, as Crossfire hit the post in the dying minutes of the game, while Fusion goalkeeper Jefferson Caldwell also came up big with a pair of huge saves.

“Obviously the last few minutes were a bit hairy,” Nicholls said. “But that was our fault – we had several chances to go 2-nil up. And unfortunately missed them. We never seemed to do things easily, we always go down to the wire, it was the same last year with this group.”

Fortunately for the Fusion, those last few chances didn’t find the back of the net and the final whistle kicked off a modest celebration amongst the Fusion players and coaches.

Along with securing passage to Houston, Nicholls was also pleased with the nature of the win against a quality opponent.

“To win 1-0 is actually quite satisfying, we don’t tend to do that very much,” he said. “[Crossfire has] come into this in great form too. We saw their scores, they beat the Galaxy, Whitecaps, Sounders. They’ve beaten some real good teams in the last few weeks.”

Solar Chelsea 3-1 Chicago Fire

Twelve minutes was all Solar Chelsea needed to book its trip to Houston.

Three goals during that early stretch more or less put the result out of reach for the Chicago Fire, as Solar rolled to a 3-1 win to capture top spot in Group 7 with three wins in three games.

It all started when Zach Mathers caught Fire goalkeeper Zak Allen a bit too far off his line, bombing home a shot from distance to open the scoring in the 4th minute.

“[He] caught their goalkeeper out,” Solar head coach Kevin Smith said after the game. “He must have seen it straight away, chipped the goal from 40-50 yards. Unbelievable goal.”

Three minutes after that, a Fire turnover in the midfield left them exposed, and a through ball came to Ryan Condotta who beat Allen to extend the lead to 2-0.

Then, in the 12th minute, the Fire’s back line failed to cope with another Solar attack, this time Thomas Elder making the run in behind and adding a third goal before the game had reached the 20 minute mark.

The Fire managed to pull a goal back through Victor Pineda’s fine strike from 25 yards out in the 30th minute reduced the deficit to 3-1.

But that was all the Fire could muster on the day, and from that point on, Solar kept their attack up at a relentless pace, despite not needing to score any more goals. If it weren’t for the heroics of Allen, who denied forward Alfred Koroma on a couple of occasions, the final score could have been much more lopsided.

By game’s end, it truly was mission accomplished for the talented Solar team.

“This is what our goals were, and we’ve reached it,” Smith said. “Still some work to be done, we’re going to go to Nationals and we’re going to want to represent our club and our conference well, and they’re some big names there. For our club to be a part of this and be around that kind of competition, that is what these boys have dreamed about.”

U18 Results Groups 1-4 (Group winner in bold)

Group 1

North Carolina Fusion 1, Crossfire Premier 0

FC DELCO 3, Shattuck-Saint Mary's Soccer Academy 1



Group 2
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2, Texans SC Houston 0

Weston FC 4, Pateadores 0



Group 3

LA Galaxy 1, CASL Chelsea FC Academy 1

De Anza Force 2, Vardar SC Freiburg 0



Group 4

Empire United 6, South Carolina United Battery 1
Colorado Rapids 2, Dallas Texans 1