Richmond Madrid nets national title

Courtesy: The Richmond Review www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/richmondreview/

Madrid nets national title

Apr 19 2007

The boys of Richmond Madrid are national champions.

The under-14 soccer team won the first national futsal championship last weekend at Capilano College. The B.C. champion defeated provincial rival and runner-up Langley United 5-3. Langley had edged Madrid in the tournament opener.

Futsal, a fast-paced game played in gyms with a no- bounce ball. It is hugely popular in South America and Europe.

After its first loss, Richmond built up a 3-0 lead and held on to edge the Alberta champions 4-3. The Alberta team hadn’t lost in 28 games during their indoor season.

Madrid also built up an early 2-0 lead in its next game against Ontario’s Glen Shield but then had to come back from a 5-3 deficit to win 7-5.

That set the stage for the final against Langley and Madrid was ready.

Caleb Clarke opened the scoring on a solo effort early on, but Langley promptly replied with a goal of its own to tie the game. Clarke replied with another goal, scoring off a pass from Declan Rodriguez, but again Langley promptly responded to knot the score at 2-2.

Madrid took its third lead when Jason James dribbled to the Langley goal and laid off a nice pass for Jason Deo to make it 3-2. But for the third time, Langley was able to tie the game on a great individual effort from its forward to tie the game just before the half.

The second half saw the same high tempo and brilliant skills, as both teams went up and down trying to score the go-ahead goal, said Madrid coach Clive Clarke.

Michael Anderson entertained the crowd with his fancy dribbling and Jordan Coblin and Matt Hoogveld defended well to keep the Langley forwards from mounting any serious attacks. And goalkeeper Michael Darnel snuffed out any further shots that Langley could manage, while Zach Hamzagic and Jacob Quail were tireless in the middle as they continued to win balls and distribute smartly.

Richmond’s next goal was a thing of beauty as all five Madrid players on the court touched the ball once on this play. Darnel started the play by passing the ball to Coblin who then passed it off to Rodriguez who passed it up to Clarke. Clarke wheeled and laid of a ball to James whose goal brought the crowd to their feet in amazement and celebration.

Clarke scored the final goal to seal the victory.