Continuing off Rachel, Lilly, & Gianna’s blog – after our last game of the day we all headed back to our rooms to shower & rest our legs for a bit. After, Heather, Fuster, Sammy, AJ, Sara, Hannah, & Abbey Mazur went out to the clubhouse for a bite to eat. As we were eating fries & slushies the owner came up to our table with two boys our age & asked us who was the fastest person. Everyone pointed at Heather, but she pointed at Sara. Soon after Sara & Heather agreed to race the boys across the entire field outside.

It was dark, so we could barely see but we were the only ones on the field. We found out just before the race began that the kid we were up against, Patrick da Silva, plays professionally for the team Brøndby, which we will watch at the stadium on Sunday. Patrick said that if Sara or Heather won the race that he would buy them a slushie and that if he lost, he would cry. People heard about the race and came outside of the restaurant to watch. After a few short seconds, Sara and Heather beat Patrick in the race. Patrick’s friend gave him a hard time about it and told him he would lose his job. it was quite hysterical. We went back into the clubhouse to get the prize we earned. The boys also agreed to take a picture with the group to have as a memory.

Then we all walked back to the hotel and found some snails on the stairs outside. Sammy and Abbey found this very amusing for a short while, but curfew was approaching so we all went back to our rooms for the night.

The next day, we played the semi final game verses Brøndby and won 3-0. The game was tied for a while but once we scored the first goal we ended up shutting them down and held possession the rest of the game. Goals came from Sara (2) and Kristen.

After the game we went back and had a quick snack before the barbecue with a Danish team. When we got there, everyone was very welcoming and excited. We all sat at different tables and talked to all the Danish girls. It was interesting to hear all their stories and learn things about them individually. They were all really funny and easy to talk to.

When we were done eating, we went to go watch the women’s professional team play. We watched the game and at halftime Katie and Fuster played around with a couple younger boys and some of the girls they met at dinner. The Danish boys showed off all their moves and tricks and we were amazed at how much they could do at such a young age. They all told us to “show off our skills” and we didn’t have any to show them that they already didn’t know how to do. The rest of the girls came to join us at this point and the kids taught us how to do the worm. It was funny to watch people attempt it, especially Fuster. Sam showed off her flip throw a couple times and the Danish girls loved watching her because they had never seen anything like it.

Once we got back to the hotel, some of us decided to explore the building. However, we failed to realize that some doors locked… After about 30 minutes wandering around we decided to head back to our rooms, but little did we know, the stairwell door that we had first gone through was locked. Fortunately we were able to connect to wifi & our teammates came to rescue us after about 10 minutes. We learned our lesson. On our way back to our rooms we quickly heard the bass go boom boom & we followed our musical instincts & found a DJ in the soccer complex. There we met other teams who shared a similar taste in music. We danced & sang along & had a great time! Overall, we love Denmark & we are so excited to start sightseeing & play in the finals!

Sara
Katie
Heather

Team Chicago Academy-Santos midfielder Gianna Marconi has accepted a scholarship offer to continue her soccer career at Colorado State University. Gianna will be part of Head Coach Bill Hempen’s 2014 recruiting class.

The Rams are members of the Division I Mountain West Conference.

Team Chicago Academy-Santos is currently in Copenhagen, Denmark participating in the prestigious Brondby Cup. Every other day the players will share their thoughts on the experience. Here is the first installment:

Our journey to Denmark began on Sunday July 28th. We all arrived at the airport mid afternoon matching and ready to go. We boarded the biggest plane we have ever seen in our lives! It had two floors, three separate sections of seats and mini tv’s. We thought we were livin’ large! Pretty much no one got any sleep…except for Lilly. We had both dinner and breakfast within a 7 hour time frame which was pretty weird. We closed the windows when it was dark out and shortly after we opened them and it was light out again!

After 7 long hours, we finally arrived in Amsterdam feeling like we all just got hit by a car. We had a short layover in Amsterdam which allowed perfect time to grab a quick Starbucks before we left for another flight that would get us to Copenhagen. This flight was much shorter and instead of being served typical American food, we were already being served foreign snacks.

We arrived in Copenhagen after a long journey and were greeted by Phil’s mom and Aunt who were each holding the cutest American flags. It was all smiles from there. We got bused to the Brøndby Stadion where our hotel was connected to the soccer arena. We finally were able to relax for a little in our hotel rooms only to discover that there was no air conditioning whatsoever. The shower was different because it didn’t have a curtain but other than that the rooms were great! We had an awesome view of the soccer fields from our patio so while we weren’t playing soccer, we could watch it.

We all took a small nap before our first game later Monday and then headed off to dinner at Cafeteria Klubhuset. We didn’t expect to like the food, but surprising it was great, especially the bread!!

At the first game, Gianna ran into Isabel, the Danish girl who she and her family hosted last summer when they came to the U.S. It was so great to see them and their coaches. Our first game was against Brøndby IF. They were very physical but continuously got tired as we connected the ball. We won 2-0 with beautiful goals by Kristen and Sam.At th e end of the day, we all crashed. We were so tired from the long day of travel and soccer.

Tuesday morning we woke up and started the day with a good breakfast in the hotel lobby. Then, Phil took us on a walk through part of the town to visit the Supermarket and Bakery. It was very cool to see a different way of living. We learned that the Danish are much more patient than Americans when crossing the street..meaning NO J-WALKING:-)

Later we went to our second game of the tournament and played OB. We won 6-2 with goals by Kristen (2) Katie(2) Heather and Hannah.

After the game we went back to our rooms to rest and then went to dinner. We ate a delicious pasta with meat sauce and again…bread! In our second game of the day we played Hillerod. We won 2-0 with goals by Sarah and Gianna. The team played low pressure so it was easy for us to play around them and keep the ball. Later that night we went back to our rooms to shower and get some rest.

It has been a great trip so far and we can’t wait for more to come!!

Gianna
Rachael
Lilly

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo claimed the club’s first National Championship with a 2-1 come-from-behind win over reigning National Champions VSA Heat from Virginia in double overtime.

The win caps a magical senior year for the Botafogo girls with a 29-1-2 record, 98 goals for and 17 against, an MRL Premier Division Championship, a National League Championship with a perfect 7-0 record as only the 3rd team in history, a Regional Championship, and now a U18 National Championship.

Botafogo dominated most of the attacking play for the entire game while on the defensive end GK Megan Geldernick, Hope D’Addario, Rachele Armand, Jenna Romano, and Dana Miller held the VSA forwards in an iron grip. Botafogo had most of the chances, but instead saw VSA grab the lead on its only real chance of the game early in the 2nd half off a corner kick.

Forced to dig deeper the girls found another gear and attacked relentless until Meegan Johnston’s floating ball into the VSA box was met by a Zoe Swift vertical leap and header for the equalizer. After the tying goal Botafogo kept pressing for the game-winner, but it wasn’t to be in regulation.

Onto two 15-minute overtime periods the tired players went, and with 10 minutes left in the game Meegan Johnston played a great 40-yard diagonal through-ball for Ashley Handwork to run onto. Ashley steadied herself, and drove along the end-line before slotting a perfect ball across the 6-yard box for Zoe Swift to get the game-winner.

10 minutes of determined defending ensued before the ecstatic and exhausted players could celebrate the National title.

Bryce Banuelos, Gianna Dal Pozzo, and Jenna Romano were selected to the All-Tournament Top-11, and Zoe Swift grabbed a share of the top-scorer title with her 3 goals.

The players who participated at Nationals were: Megan Geldernick, Hope D’Addario, Rachele Armand, Jenna Romano, Dana Miller, Brooke Ksiazek, Karla DiJohn, Gianna Dal Pozzo, Bryce Banuelos, Meegan Johnston, Kaitlin Johnson, Ashley Handwork, Molly Piech, Kendall Wilde, Zoe Swift, Alexis Jakuszewski, Heather Handwork, and Katie Ciesiulka.

The entire Team Chicago family congratulates the Botafogo players on their amazing accomplishments.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo defeated Region III champion Oklahoma FC 3-0 today to advance to the US Youth Soccer National Championship game on Sunday. The defending champion VSA Heat from Virginia will be the opponent in the 8:50am final.

Botafogo defeated VSA Heat 3-1 to claim the US Youth Soccer National League title at Disney last January, so it will be a fitting final between the two best U18 teams in the country over the past year.

In today’s game Botafogo came out very focused and got the eventual game-winner in the 3rd minute. Zoe Swift found Ashley Handwork on the right flank, and Ashley served in a perfect cross for Bryce Banuelos to run onto and knock home.

In the 35th minute Gianna Dal Pozzo slotted Zoe Swift a perfectly weighted through-ball, and Zoe chipped the on-rushing keeper for the insurance goal.

6 minutes into the 2nd half Ashley Handwork made a great penetrating run and was brought down in the box for an obvious PK. Up stepped Meegan Johnston to expertly drive home the PK to put the game out of reach and send Botafogo to the National Championship Game for the first time in Team Chicago history.

Megan Geldernick earned her 16th shutout of the 28 meaningful (MRL, National League, State Cup, Regionals, and Nationals) games Botafogo has played this year.