Team Chicago Academy-Internacional finished with a perfect 7-0-0 record in MRL after defeating Crystal Lake Force 2-0 on Tuesday night at PlayUSA. Internacional had already secured promotion to the U18 Premier Division next Fall prior to the game, and with this result they finished with an impressive 22 goals for and 4 goal against.

Mallory Mollenhauer got the eventual game-winner with 3 minutes left in the first half. Kiley Czerwinski attacked the end-line and drove in a perfect cross on top of the 6-yard box. Sam O’Brien made a strong dummy-run to the near post, and Mallory beat her defender to the ball at the back post.

35 seconds into the second half Kiley Czerwinski put the game out of reach when she latched onto a Sam O’Brien back-heel flick from a great Tori Christiansen overlap to the end-line and cross. Hannah Parrish and Shelby Stitz shared the shut-out in goal.

Next up for Internacional is the CASL Raleigh College Showcase November 6-8th.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia battled to a 1-1 draw against TNT Dynamite (MI) in its final match in the U15 MRL Premier Division I group this past weekend. Brasilia entered the game with a chance to finish second in the most competitive division of MRL if they could come away with a win.

Controlling possession for the first 20 minutes of the half led to Brasilia taking a 1-0 lead. Play started with Emerson Fuller playing a great ball out of the back to Abby Severson who found Rachel White in the box. Rachel put her touch in behind the defender and beat the keeper for the only goal of the match for Brasilia. Against the run of play TNT scored to tie up the match and although Brasilia created more opportunities they could not find the back of the net.

Congratulations to Brasilia on finishing tied for 4th in the 10-team Division with a record of 5-3-1 for the 2013 Fall MRL Premier Division I league. Great job girls!

Team Chicago Academy-Santos battled Academy SC at Commissioners Park last night needing at least a tie to maintain the upper-hand in the race for the U18 MRL Premier Division title and a berth into the USYSA Regional Championships next June.

Santos carried most of the play and had most of the chances in the first half, but was not able to convert on any of them. Instead Academy came out on fire at the beginning of the second half and scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes on great strikes from the distance. Santos tried to stage a come-back, but to no avail.

The loss means that FC United now has the upper-hand as it is in control of its own destiny. A win against Academy on Tuesday night will secure FC United the title. Santos can claim the title with a win on Saturday against FCX in South Barrington combined with a tie, or an Academy win, against FC United on Tuesday. To make it even more interesting, Academy can also claim the title with a win over FC United combined with a tie or a Santos loss against FCX.

Team Chicago Academy-Bahia secured Spring 2014 MRL Premier Division status last Saturday with a convincing 4-0 win over Madison 56ers at Commissioners Park.

Bahia entered the game needing a win to secure MRL Premier Division status. Bahia dominated the first half and created several scoring chances, but were not able to finish any of them and went into halftime knotted up at 0-0.

The second half started the same way with Bahia searching for their first goal of the match. Bahia should have been up by 3 or 4 goals at the midway point of the second half, but the importance of the game seemed to affect the composure in front of goal. Everything changed after Sophia Majher collected a ball on top of the box, dribbled two girls and beat the keeper to go up 1-0. This great finish proved to be all that Bahia needed to qualify for the MRL Premier Division.

However, the flood gates opened and within five minutes of the first goal Paige Miller added two more with great individual runs with the ball before ending with nice finishes. Jennifer “Jeff” Pochyly set up Paige’s first goal with a nice ball served in from the right side while the second goal was unassisted. Molly Grant added the final goal to make it 4-0 on a ball played through from Jennifer “Jeff” Pochyly that she calmly placed past the keeper.

Congratulations to Bahia for finishing in the top four to position themselves for great competition in the Spring of 2014.

Team Chicago Academy-Santos then took on first-placed, and previously unbeaten, FC United in the second game of the double-header at Commissioners Park. Santos needed a win to gain the upper-hand in the MRL Premier Division title race to earn a spot at the USYSA Region II Championships in Dayton, OH next June.

The importance of the game was evident in the opening 30 minutes as it was a very cagey affair where neither team wanted to open up too much. However, Santos slowly started to build momentum and created a few quality chance. In the 41st minute right-back Talise Romain made a commando-raid to the end-line and served in a perfect driven cross, which Gianna Marconi connected with at the far post for the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, FC United tied it up in the last play of the half, so the score was 1-1 going into the 2nd half.

Santos came out with great purpose in the 2nd half, and Alena Sidwell got what proved to be the game-winner a mere 40 seconds into the half. She picked up the ball just inside the FC United penalty box and toe-poked it into the far post side-netting.

Halfway through the half Alena Sidwell helped set up the all-important insurance goal when she played a perfectly weighted through-ball to Heather Handwork, who then delivered a driven cross for Sara Stevens to forcefully latch onto inside the 6-yard box. Gianna Marconi made it 4-1 with her 2nd goal of the game in the 75th minute on a header off Kristen Brots’ corner. Alena Sidwell then capped off the scoring off another perfect Heather Handwork cross for the final 5-1 score.

With the win, Santos is now in control of its own destiny with two games left. A win and a tie will be enough to secure the MRL Premier Division title and the berth into the USYSA Regional Championships. The first game will be played at 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday 12/13) at Commissioners Park against Academy SC, and the final game will be this Saturday (12/16) at 1pm against FCX in South Barrington.

A hectic MRL weekend for Team Chicago Academy teams saw two of them clinch their Division Titles after convincing victories.

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional defeated Waza from Michigan 4-1 to secure its U17 First Division title and promotion to the U18 Premier Division II next Fall.

Only needing a tie to secure the title, Internacional quickly took care of business with 2 great goals in the opening 20 minutes of the first half. 6 Minutes in Sam O’Brien found Miranda Lambert who drove to the endline and delivered a perfect, whipped cross with her left foot that Kiley Czerwinski ran onto and hammered home in the far post side-netting. 10 minutes later Jori Romano split the Waza midfield with a diagonal pass to Alena Sidwell, and Alena played a great through ball into Maddie Pokora’s perfectly timed run from the right flank. Maddie calmly beat the GK for the eventual game-winner.

Internacional should have been up by 3-4 goals at the half, but as it often happens in soccer, instead Waza got a goal back early in the 2nd half to make it interesting. With 15 minutes left Sam O’Brien put the game out of reach when she slammed home a rebound off the Waza keeper at the back post. And with 5 minutes left Sam scored her second on an Olimpico directly off her corner kick.

Internacional is now 6-0-0 in MRL play and just has one final game left against Crystal Lake Force.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro also needed a tie to clinch the title in its U14 Premier Division Qualification group. Hosting Libertyville 1974 at Benedictine University at 8am on Sunday morning was a very difficult task as the field was still frozen and extremely slippery in the first half. However, Kerry Abello gave Cruzeiro a 1-0 lead halfway through the first half on a free kick, and the team was able to ride that lead into halftime.

For the 2nd half it was a transformed Cruzeiro team that showed up. The field had thawed, and the Cruzeiro girls stepped up their intensity, and very quickly they established a consistent possession game in the Libertyville half. 10 minutes in Kerry Abello doubled the lead from Jordan King and Emma Rydholm. And 8 minutes later she got her 3rd to put the game thoroughly out of reach from Erin Sweda’s assist. With 10 minutes to go Kerry made it 4-0 to finish off a perfect attack when Erin Sweda split the Libertyville midfield with a diagonal pass to Alyssa Bombacino, who in turn played another perfectly weighted diagonal ball to Kerry Abello, and she calmly far-posted her finish.

Cruzeiro finished with a 5-1-1 record, 16 points, and an impressive 16-2 goal difference. Defensively the girls have really matured this season, and strong play by the entire back-line and the GKs Bailee Witt and Anna Aubuchon has been a critical part of the division title.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia got a fantastic result this weekend by taking down Alliance FC the Michigan U15 State Cup Champions by a score of 4-2.

Going into the game Alliance was in first place in the MRL Premier I Division. Alliance opened the scoring in the first half finishing a goal off a rebound. Brasilia started to gain a little more possession and it was a great run by Jade Eriksen-Russo that lead to the equalizer. Jade received a ball and drove to the Alliance’s end-line and served a ball to the near post that Jasmine Ruiz slotted past the keeper. Great timing and poise allowed for this great combination to take place.

Going into the second half presented some additional challenges with Brasilia playing two games in two days with only twelve healthy players. The second half started off with Alliance applying a lot of pressure which led to their second goal. Down 2-1 Brasilia fought back and ran off three goals in about a fifteen minute span to secure the result. The second goal came off Jasmine Ruiz’s corner. She drove it into the box and Makenna Schoolman hit the ball toward the back post which found Nicole Mondi who snapped a header past the keeper to tie things at 2-2.

With the second goal Brasilia started to gain more momentum and Maddie Lambert made a penetrating run into the final third and took a shot from the top of the box that deflected off an Alliance player. Off the deflection Safia Hannin collected the ball and went in and chipped the keeper to make it 3-2. The final goal came off a nice combination that started with Abby Severson serving a ball into the box that Jasmine touched on to Safia who placed her second goal of the match past the keeper. The back four and Lupe Anguiano shut things down in the remaining minutes to preserve the win.

Brasilia finishes its MRL league play with a match versus TNT in Kalamazoo, Michigan this Saturday.

Team Chicago Academy-Bahia lost a close game to Eclipse in the U13 MRL Premier Division Qualification group, but is still in complete control of its own destiny in terms of Premier Division qualification for the Spring 2014.

Bahia is hosting Madison 56s this Saturday at 1pm at Commissioner’s Park and with a win Bahia will finish either 3rd or 4th in the group and secure a spot in the Premier I Division this upcoming Spring.

Team Chicago Academy-Santos midfielder Madi Harris has verbally committed to continue her soccer career at the prestigious Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Vassar is one of the most selective and elite liberal arts colleges in the country.

At Vassar Madi will be playing for Head Coach Laura Williamson who was Team Chicago Elite Academy Director Phil Nielsen’s assistant coach during his final year as the Head Coach at Smith College in Northampton, MA. Vassar competes in the NCAA Division III Liberty League.

Happy Halloween to all the Team Chicago players and families. Stay safe and (hopefully) dry tonight as you go “trick or treating”. May your night be fun and your bellies full.

Enjoy this great piece of pumpkin art created by Team Chicago Academy-Gremio under Head Coach Orlando Hadzic.