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U13 National Championships
National Championship: CASL Juniors (NC) vs. Strikers FC-Chingirian (CA-S)
The CASL Juniors are the US Youth Soccer’s national champion for U13 boys. They defeated Strikers FC-Chingirian 2-1 in Saturday’s championship match.
It was the highly-anticipated rematch as both teams faced off last Thursday with Strikers FC taking that game 2-0.
Strikers FC took control of the match and CASL Juniors rarely had any opportunities to make any impact on the game. But Saturday, CASL Juniors had a chance to redeem themselves and earn themselves not only a revenge win but the national championship.
The game started with a bang as both teams were going all out to get the first goal. In the 5th minute, CASL Juniors earned a corner and an opportunity to put themselves in the lead. Adam Armour crossed in the ball from the corner and Jason Smith headed it in into the corner of the net. This was a shocking turn of events as this was the first time Strikers FC had given up a goal in the tournament.
But the Strikers quickly recovered and scored right away in the 9th minute with a goal from Reagan Wortmann.
In the 24th minute, Ian Holdaway drove down the right wing and delivered a pinpoint pass to Armour who tucked it away for the CASL Juniors. This gave them the 2-1 lead heading into halftime.
After halftime the fast pace of the match continued as Strikers FC tried desperately to tie up the game. Only one goal came out of ten shots and this is due to the outstanding play of the CASL Juniors’ goalkeeper Robert Alphin. He managed to hold back the Strikers attack with save after save, proving himself as the player of the game.
As the clock ticked down, the Strikers were inching very close to tying up the game but Alphin kept his composure and through his play, CASL Juniors came away as national champions.
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