As some of you know, 14 of the Marin League Spikes players played in a tournament in Philadelphia over Columbus day weekend – The Philadelphia Pumpkin Patch 2005.
There were 5 teams in the tournament. Two from Philadelphia, Philly Green and White, then Washington DC, New York and SF Spikes. Format: all teams playeach other once in shorter games (2x25 min. halfs), then two best teams advanced to the final on Sunday.
It started to rain hard when we arrived on Friday and continued through Saturday night. It just got worse and worse, and they almost had to cancel the whole tournament. Of the 4 fields they had, 3 couldn’t be used Saturday, and the 4th field was shorter and supposed to be used for the womens tournament. They ended up moving it to a different location, but just 3-4 minutes away in the same park – Fairmount Park, and the two field looked surprisingly good and held up really well throughout Saturday. It rained hard the whole day, but at least it was warm rain, and games were played back to back, almost without a break, so it wasn’t that bad, just wet, wet, wet. Considering it almost got cancelled, I think most of us was just happy there were any games at all, and all games scheduled for Saturday were played.
First game for us was against the supposedly weaker Philadelphia team, Philly Green. We totally dominated the game, and won the opener 8-0. Next up was Washington DC. They put up a fight, but it was never any doubt who was the best team and who was going to win the game. Spikes controlled the game and won 2-0. Third and last game for the day was against Philly White. Again, we played really well considering the conditions, and cruised in for another 2-0 victory. With the 3 wins the first day, combined with results in the other games, we already had secured ourselves a place in the final the next day.
Saturday night it really rained hard, and there was flooding in parts of the city. We went to the tournament dinner they hosted, then to one of the bars in their gaybourhood and in good Spikes fashion, tried our best to drink ourselves to a tournament loss!
Sunday’s weather was overcast but no rain the whole day. The games were moved back to the original fields on Sunday, and they were in surprisingly good condition. We were supposed to have one more preliminary game against New York. The other 4 teams had a game at 10 and our first was supposed to start 11:15. After those 2 morning games, it turned out New York would be the other team in the final even if they would lose to us in the last preliminary game. Both teams and the tournament organizers agreed that there was no point in playing the preliminary game (2x25min), and then a final (2x35 min). However, we couldn’t agree on the length of the final though, so it became a hot topic and the controversy of the morning. We came all the way from California and wouldn’t mind playing both games as planned, but agreed to settle for one final game, but with normal 45 min. halfs. New York insisted on 40 min. halfs, but we felt we had given them 30 min. already, and that it was nothing more to discuss. Either 90 min. final or two games with a total of 120 min. Then they decided to try to outsmart us and informed us and Philly that they wanted to forfeit the first game and then play 2x35 min. halfs in the final. Their plan didn’t work, since they couldn’t advance into the final with a forfeit. So end result was a final with 2x 45 min. halfs.
This really fired us up, and we decided to pay them back on the field, and did we ever! We scored after less than a minute, and was up 2-0 before 5 minutes was played. We played some great soccer, and our passing game involved the whole team. We never stopped pushing for goals and we went to halftime with a 5-0 lead. Second half was dominated by our guys, and though the outcome was clear, it also became a goal for our dominant defense with Matthew in goal, to keep them from scoring, so we could go through the tournament without letting in a single goal. We achieved that goal and won the game 8-0 after a great performance from our guys, with seven different goal scorers in the final.Â
It was a great team effort. Everybody worked really hard and well together. We only had 14 players for the tournament which is strectcihng it a bit thin, but it worked out really well for us. We had a great time both on and off the field as we always have when we travel together. We traded in some sore muscles and quite a few brain cells for gold.
Congratulations to everyone. You all look great in gold!