Youth: Cote ousted from RSL Florida

Jim Cote is no longer the Girls Directors of Coaching for RSL Florida Soccer Club after being asked to resign by the club’s Board of Directors earlier this week.

Cote, whose girls under-18 side went 4-0 in the Predator division of the Disney Soccer Showcase last week, said he was shocked when the board asked for his resignation. Cote became the DOC when current University of Tampa head coach Adrian Bush resigned his position with the club in August 2008.

“When I took over for (Bush), the club had started to falter a little bit,” Cote said. “They asked me to step in, I stepped in, there were still major concerns at the club, and I did what I was asked to do. I hired seven new age-group coaches on the boy’s side, I put in coordinators to make the training under the proper structure. You’re going to ruffle some feathers along the way because it’s part of the job. People aren’t going to want to just change, but you have to change in order to be able to develop.”

RSL Florida Club Administrator Ellen LaVielle said via e-mail that RSL President David Laxer was travelling, and unavailable to comment until Monday. The board is holding a meeting on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. at the Bern’s Steakhouse business offices, neat Bern’s in South Tampa, and Cote said he will be allowed to make a statement at that meeting. Cote also said he has received great support from the parents and players since the decision was made, and hopes that the club’s season won’t be derailed with the FYSA State Cup beginning in late March.

Cote said that no matter what comes out of Sunday’s meeting, he will remain committed to the remainder of the season with the team’s he is involved with coaching.

“I made a commitment to those kids, and I won’t let them down, I’ll stay and coach the teams,” Cote said. “There was just no pre-warning, no forewarning. I was in Miami two weeks ago for the Orange Classic, I didn’t even have a team down there, I just went down to help because we had five teams down there, and the president never said a word to me about it the whole time. And they won’t give me a reason, I said ‘just give me a reason, that way I know what I’ve done wrong, and for future endeavors I can fix it,’ but there’s been no reason given. They’re just going in another direction.”

Youth: Cleveland rallies to defeat RSL girls in Super-Y Final

TAMPA – Soccer coaches often say the most important time in any game is the five minutes following a goal.

That proved to be the case in the girls under-17 final of the United Soccer League’s Super-Y North American Finals as the Cleveland Internationals got goals from Kate Allen and Megan Gallagher to rally from a goal down to defeat RSL Florida 2-1 on Tuesday morning.

After Cleveland had the better of the first half, RSL came out sharply to start the second. Zoe Lombard had a cross that shot through the 6-yard area, but Connor Zwetsch wasn’t able to get a decisive touch as the ball went through for a goal kick. Zwetsch also had a pair of chances, one that forced a save from the Internationals goalkeeper and another that she sent wide after stealing possession from a defender.

Zwetsch did finally break the deadlock in the 65th minute, picking the ball up in midfield before beating three defenders on a run into the left side of the penalty area and flicking the ball past the advancing goalkeeper with the outside of her right foot.

“They left a gap open, so I just took the gap and took on the two people in front of me,” Zwetsch said. “I had a good angle, so I just found my around them and tapped it in with the outside of my foot.”

But then, as the RSL players were expecting, Cleveland upped its game. As RSL struggled to find a way out fron its own half, the Internationals we able to build a five-minute spell of pressure. That pressure culminated in a turning shot from 25 yards by Allen that flew into the top left corner of the net.

“I was going to shoot with my left foot,” Allen said. “But then I turned and I had an open shot, so just thought I’d hit it, I was looking far post and luckily it went in.”

As RSL’s opener had spurred on Cleveland, the equalizer led to RSL increasing its intensity, and Niki Carter had a shot well saved as she and her teammates pushed to retake the lead.

RSL’s Jessica Giblin then came inches away from restoring the advantage as she fired a free kick from 30 yards out that came back off the underside of the crossbar and away to safety.

“I thought it looked good,” Giblin said. “It was up in the corner, and I could only hope for the best.”

That near-miss took on even greater meaning shortly after, as Gallagher rose to head home a corner from the left that clipped the underside of the crossbar before dropping into the goal. RSL coach Jim Cote said after the game that he told his team that sometimes, it just wasn’t going to be, and the differences between Giblin’s near-miss and Gallagher’s goal only amplified that sentiment.

“It’s a game of inches,” Cote said. “I’m proud of the girls, I thought Amy Werdine was special all weekend, and obviously Connor showed her worth, and Jordan Johnson, every girl contributed, we got big boosts from kids that normally don’t give us that, (Jessica Jagielski) was fantastic this weekend, and again, they were all fantastic. Hats off to the Internationals, they were great, we’re a little disappointed, but proud as well.”

Allen said after the Internationals had been eliminated in group play a season ago, to return and earn the title was a very special feeling.

“Considering we didn’t do so well last year, to come back left us hungry to win this one,” Allen said. “It’s huge for us, considering what we’ve gone through this past season. We’ve grown a lot as a team, and to come back from last year and win this was really big for us. It feels good.”

Youth: RSL girls rally, advance to Super-Y Final

LAND O’ LAKES – RSL Florida’s girls under-17 team rallied from a two-goal deficit, scoring twice in the final five minutes to earn a 3-2 victory against the Fort Wayne Fever and advance to the final of the United Soccer League’s Super-Y North American Finals on Monday afternoon.

RSL trailed 2-0 early in the second half, but got back into the game on the hour-mark. Connor Zwetsch’s pass towards the top of the penalty area was picked up by Jessica Giblin, who ran at her defender. Giblin lost possession briefly, but regained it and turned to her right, where Thea Linkfield was on hand to shoot low into the right corner of the net.

The goal appeared to energize RSL, as the mid-eighties temperature appeared to begin to take a toll on the Indiana-based squad, and Giblin, Zoe Lombard and Linkfield each had chances shortly after to tie the game.

Fort Wayne did have an opportunity to restore its two-goal advantage with just over 10 minutes to play as Jordan Pawlick knifed through the RSL defense, but in alone she shot wide of the target.

That miss would come back to haunt Fort Wayne in the 86th minute when Jessica Jagielski sent an angled pass into the penalty area looking for Linkfield. Linkfield wasn’t able to get to the ball first, but the pressure she placed on the retreating defender caused a miscommunication between the defender and her goalkeeper, and the defender redirected the pass into her own net.

Linkfield then found the game-winner in the 89th minute, flicking a long clearance to Niki Carter before making a run forward. Carter took the ball, and sent it back to Linkfield, who ran into the left side of the penalty area and shot low into the right corner to complete the comeback.

“Thea and Zoe, the work they did up front for the first 25 minutes was incredible,” RSL coach Jim Cote said. “Then here at the end with Thea, who was relentless, and Niki and those girls just battling. None of those goals were pretty, but the crossed the line, so we’ll take it.”

Fort Wayne had taken the lead in the 29th minute as Marlee Disher capitalized when RSL goalkeeper Jordan Hatton mishandled a header back to her by Amy Werdine, Disher stealing the ball and finishing into an empty net. The Fever then doubled their lead in the 52th minute as Pawlick scored in a sharp first-time finish after a good through-ball had set her up. Cote, though, thought the warm conditions would take a toll on the Fort Wayne players and was proved correct as RSL carried most of the game from the 60th minute.

“I said at the beginning of the tournament, on day one, you’re never going to be out of a game here,” Cote said. “You play in this arena, and the heat, and all these teams are coming from the colder climate, so you’re never going to be out of a game.

“You could see late in the first half their kids were getting tired, and were asking to come off, so I knew if I kept rotating the (players), which is why it’s important to have 18 here who can play, that someone is going to make a difference.”

RSL will face the Cleveland Internationals in the final on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. at the Ed Radice Sports Complex. RSL defeated Cleveland 3-2 in group play at last year’s championship, but the Internationals were impressive in a 5-0 semifinal with against Seacoast.

“They’re very deep, so we’re going to have our hands full,” Cote said. “We took one away from them last year, and I’m sure they’ll want to get one back on us.”

Youth: RSL girls underwhelming in final group game

LAND O’ LAKES – RSL Florida’s girls under-17 team completed pool play with their third win out of three on Sunday afternoon, but did so in an underwhelming performance that saw them concede a pair of goals in the first 15 minutes before a late flurry gave them a 5-3 victory against the MPS Renegades.

The Renegades took the lead in the sixth minute, a lifted ball from the midfield finding Scout Benson, who lifted her shot over an advancing goalkeeper. RSL Florida answered a minute later, Thea Linkfield breaking through on the left to shoot home, but MPS retook the lead in the 13th minute, Stephanie Ribeiro driving a low shot from the right side of the penalty area into the bottom left corner of the net.

At that point, RSL coach Jim Cote had seen enough, and in order to liven his team up, withdrew a player, putting his side at a 10-on-11 disadvantage.

“I said when we started to play soccer, we would put another player on. ‘Til then, we were just playing with 10,” Cote said. “If you’re going to walk around, what does it matter if we have 11 or seven? And that’s what we were doing, for the first 25 minutes we were walking around, that just because we had the RSL shirt on the other team were going to walk away and hand us the match.”

The players appeared to get the message quickly, and despite being a player short began to take control of the game. Jessica Giblin had a pair of shots well saved, and then five minutes for the break Ellen Moore tied the game after Zoe Lombard made a run down the right and centered, Linkfield’s initial shot was blocked but Moore came in on the right to knock home the rebound.

Giblin then hit the post early in the second half, but while RSl continued to have the better of the play, it wasn’t until 12 minutes remained that they took the lead for good. Moore stole the ball in midfield, and slid a pass through to Niki Carter on the right. Carter crossed the ball through the six-yard box, and Jessica Jagielski was at the far post to put home the finish.

RSL made it 4-2 in the 82nd minute, Taylor Batye winning possession, this time on the left, and her quick pass through released Lombard for a low shot to finish. Jagielski then scored her second a minute later, capitalizing after Lombard’s shot had been partially blocked, and while MPS pulled a goal back with three minutes to play, Isabelle DeSouza scoring from a corner after her initial shot had been tipped over the crossbar, RSL closed out the victory.

Cote was full of praise for Jagielski, who brought excellent energy to the team off the bench.

“We knew that when you play a team like that that sit in and are condensed, you need to be able to get flank play, you need to be able to have quality service,” Cote said. “Thea was getting it down the left side, we weren’t really getting it down the right, and (Jessica) came in and gave us a huge boost. She had three or four serves that should have been goals, and then she tucked away a couple and got an assist on one. She was the difference in the game today.”

RSL will face the Fort Wayne Fever in Monday’s semifinals. The Fever finished second in Group C, and advanced as the wild card after a pair of wins in three games, scoring 11 goals in the process. Cote expected his side to be sharper with the tournament entering the knock-out stage.

“We’re just looking forward to the opportunity of playing whoever we play,” Cote said. “At this point, there’s going to be four good teams left, and now you’ve got to take care of your business.”

Youth: RSL girls move into Super-Y semifinals

LAND O’ LAKES – RSL Florida's girls under-17 side moved into the semifinals of the United Soccer League’s Super-Y North American Finals as a strong opening 25 minutes led to a 3-0 victory against the West Michigan Fire on Saturday afternoon at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Center.

RSL was the sharper side to open the game, controlling possession well, cleaning up loose passes from the Fire while getting to 50/50 challenges quicker. The last of those factors also led to numerous free kicks going RSL’s way, as the Fire were often late in the challenge. That appeared to cause frustration among the Fire’s players and coaches, which was only exacerbated when RSL was awarded a penalty in the 19th minute when Thea Linkfield was pushed down from behind in the penalty area. Jordan Johnson stepped up and side-footed her shot into the right corner to give RSL the lead.

The goal, though, seemed to refocus the Fire, and they began to play better, gaining more possession and starting to develop their own rhythm. But a turnover in midfield gave RSL a chance to counter-attack, and Jessica Giblin’s ball forward allowed Niki Carter to use her pace to get behind the Fire defense and shoot home into the left corner of the net in the 36th minute.

RSL coach Jim Cote said he was very pleased with the way central midfielders Johnson, Giblin and Amy Werdine had controlled the game from the outset.

“I said to them at halftime that the first 25 minutes were fantastic,” Cote said. “The intensity was high, we were doubling down, triping down on players, team soccer defending was what we needed to do, that’s what I said we had to do before the game.”

Cote said he was also very pleased with the way his side defended, limiting the Fire’s opportunities as they had against Princeton on Friday.

“The back four I thought was fantastic,” Cote said. “It’s the same thing as yesterday, we didn’t give away a lot of chances, and that’s the thing I try to preach to them, that defending is everything and they’ve got to beat all 11 to score, and I think we’ve done a good job of that over the first two days.”

A similar pattern emerged in the second half, as the Fire frustrations led to first their head coach being sent from the sidelines, and then a pair of players being shown two yellow cards, which led to their ejections and the game ending 11-on-9. Between the two sendings off, Zoe Lombard scored RSL’s third, running onto a long ball and flicking her header past an advancing goalkeeper into the vacant net.

RSL will advance as the winner of Group B regardless of its result against the currently winless MPS Renegades on Sunday, and will play Monday at 1 p.m. in the tournament semifinals. Cote said he thought the way the team had performed so far was indicative of the bond the players shared.

“I think they’re excited to see each other again,” Cote said. “I think the excitement of getting the group back together again and realizing what a special group we have, although they’ve had a wonderful year, the energy level to play with each other is certainly there.”

Youth: Linkfield gives RSL girls opening victory

LAND O’ LAKES – Thea Linkfield scored in the 84th minute to give RSL Florida’s girls under-17 side a 2-1 victory against Princeton in its opening game of the United Soccer League’s Super-Y North American Finals at the Land O’ Lakes Recreation Center on Friday afternoon.

After numerous missed chances to take the lead in the second half, Linkfield latched onto a pass by Colleen Lynch, and then drove a low shot into the right corner of the net to put RSL ahead. The victory, though, was almost grabbed away in the final minute, when RSL goalkeeper Brittany Bennett was unable to hold a shot by Princeton's Emma Carp, and Amanda Redding put home the rebound. But Redding was ruled to be offside when Carp’s shot was taken, wiping out the goal and preserving a vital three points for RSL.

RSL had taken the lead in the 25th minute, Linkfield finding Jessica Giblin, who sent a through-ball to Connor Zwetsch, who broke through the Princeton defense and shot home from 15 yards out. Princeton hit back from the penalty spot five minutes later, though, Capr shooting low to the right to tie the game.

RSL then had a pair of chances before halftime to take the lead, but Giblin and Amy Werdine were both denied. Werdine then shot wide in the second half before Nicci Carter and Linkfield had opportunities saved and Giblin shot wide after beating Princeton’s offside trap.

It wasn’t all one-way traffic, though, as Bennett made a pair of good saves to keep the game tied before Linkfield’s winner.

RSL will face West Michigan Fire Juniors, which defeated the MPS Renegades 5-3 in their opening game, on Saturday afternoon. Victory there would put RSL in a strong position to make Monday’s semifinals.

“The game tomorrow is probably the deciding factor in who goes out of our group,” RSL coach Jim Cote said. “Overall, it was a good performance by Connor (Zwetsch), Amy Werdine was good, and our goalkeeper played well at the end when we needed a couple of saves.”