Youth Soccer News: Champions Manchester Premier Cup U.S. Finals: Manchester GU14 Champions to Represent USA in Sweden Next.

Carmel Valley Manchester U-14 Girls Academy soccer team wins Nike Manchester Premier Cup 2011 US Finals; will represent USA in world youth championships.

The Carmel Valley (CV) Manchester Under-14 Girls Academy soccer team will be representing the United States in the Gothia Cup, in Gothenburg, Sweden July 17-23 after winning the prestigious Nike Manchester Premier Cup 2011 US Finals.

Felicia Kappes GU14 Championship Team

The Nike Manchester United Premier Cup, held at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon, is an invitation-only premier soccer event profiling the top soccer teams from the United States. This year’s event included seven southern California teams as well as teams from northern California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington.

CV started the tournament off with a hard fought 2-0 win over Illinois top-ranked team NSA Jaguars with scores by forward Hailey Harbison and Natalie Saddic. However, their first day of competition ended with a disappointing loss to cross-town rival San Diego Surf 1-0.

Day two started with CV finding themselves down early 1-0 against Danville, California opponent Mustang Mavericks. Maintaining composure, CV fought back and midfielder Natalie Saddic headed one in the net to make it 1-1 at half-time. Late in the game, forward Hailey Harbison was tackled hard in the penalty area while dribbling toward the goal. A penalty kick was awarded and deftly placed by Sarah Chase for the come-from-behind win, 2-1.

Beaverton, Oregon provided the next opponent THUSC Mercury. Natalie Saddic scored twice for the margin of victory and guaranteed advancement to the quarterfinals.

The quarter-final matchup paired CV against Redmond, Washington standout team Crossfire Premier where CV cruised to a 3-0 win with goals from Hailey Harbison and Natalie Saddic, while Hanna Keogh provided the final shot bending a corner kick directly into the net.

The semi-final match proved to be a significant challenge against the nation’s top-rated team, New Jersey’s PDA Clash. Neither team was giving in defensively denying quality scoring chances at both ends. The game remained scoreless after two overtime periods and PKs commenced with CV edging PDA.

The final was a SoCal showdown with perennial top performer Arsenal, from Alta Loma, CA who prevailed over San Diego Surf 2-1 in their semi-final match. The final was back-and-forth with early shots by both teams. An early save by CV’s Keeper, Melissa Lowder, was responded to in kind by CV winger Kirsten McBeain who narrowly missed her first shot at the two minutes mark, sailing just high of the crossbar. The game remained back-and-forth throughout. In the closing minutes of regulation

Kirsten McBeain echoed another off the cross bar keeping the score at 0-0. Two 5-minute overtime periods were played with similar results sending the game to penalty kicks. Both Keepers played expertly through the first 5 yielding a 3 to 3 PK score. Then the sixth; tied 4-4. In the seventh round, CV keeper Melissa Lowder makes her save. Then Gianna Montini steps up to take her shot and calmly places it at the back of the net.

"To compete in such a prestigious tournament with the best teams in the country was truly a honor.  The atmosphere, facilities and level of play was incredible," says Felicia Kappes, the team's coach and new DMCV Sharks Director of College Program.  

"This team has never been more deserving of a Championship. We have been competing at a very high level for some time but have never been rewarded with the grand prize. I told them their time would come. What a wonderful time to win it all....now we are off to Sweden on an all expense paid trip to represent the United States, it doesn't get any better than that.  I am so proud of each and every one of them, they worked extremely hard for this day!"

Felicia Kappes has recently left CV Manchester to join former U.S. Women's National Team soccer star turned coach, Shannon MacMillan at the DMCV Sharks to become the Director of the new College Program.  

"The team has been an integral part of CV Manchester's Club and we have been blessed to have them in the club flying the flag for our girls program. While we are sad to see the team leave, they do go with our blessing as Felicia has a great opportunity to further her coaching career at the Sharks. We are very proud of the team's achievement at the Nike Cup and we wish them luck in Sweden and in the coming years," Founder and Director Billy Garton.

Editor's Note: Spelling / Typo corrected 6.16.11

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Tournament Recap: Nike Manchester United Premier Cup 2011 U.S. Finals is a very elite tournament where team only compete in at the GU14 age level.  The tournament selects the top 20 teams in the country to compete and the tournament was held Beaverton Oregon at Nike World Headquarters on Memorial Day weekend.  Southern California soccer clubs had six teams represented.  The Manchester GU14 team defeated Arsenal in the finals after a 0-0 regulation and overtime, went to pk's and we won in the 7th round.  As the winner, these young women will represents the United States at the Gothia Cup in Sweden in July with an all expense paid trip to Scandinavia.