College Women's Matchday: Tampa vs. Tusculum at Columbus State Tournament

WHEN: Friday, 4 p.m.

NEED TO KNOW: Tampa’s women try to rebound from a trying opening weekend at the Columbus State tournament.

The Spartans were handed a heavy 4-0 loss in its last outing on Sunday by No.5 Grand Valley State, getting outshot 23-9 in the process. Coach Gerry Lucey will hope his side can replicate their 4-2 victory against Tusculum at the same tournament a season ago.

When the two teams faced then, Tampa was ranked No.6 and Tusculum was ranked No.11 in Division II. Now, both sides are unranked, and looking to get their seasons into gear.

Colleges: H1N1 symptons cancel Saint Leo women's weekend

Saint Leo has announced both of its women's soccer games this weekend against West Florida and Delta State have been postponed due to sevenal student-athletes who are indicating the symptoms of H1N1 virus.

Both games were scheduled to be played in Pensacola. It is not immediately clear whether either game will be rescheduled.

"Five players from our team have experienced flu-like symptoms" Lions coach Ged O’Connor said. "It's obviously not a good thing to happen to us right now. We need to compete more than anything else, but on the other side, we don't have any other options. These things happen. It's unfortunate, but it's the only thing we can do right now to keep everyone safe.

"We'll take a couple of days off. The good thing is that it will hopefully only last for two or three days and we can get back to practice. We'll do the best that we can, and right now that means staying home and getting everybody well. Hopefully, this won't affect other teams in the future."

This is another setback for the Lions, who are favored to win the Sunshine State Conference. Monday's game against Webber International was cancelled after a sever thunderstorm hit Babson Park.

Now, it appears the Lions will open the season at home to Armstrong Atlantic next Thursday at 7 p.m.

Colleges: Bulls honor Dafeldecker's memory

TAMPA – It’s been almost four years since the bay area’s teaching and soccer communities lost a man who had become an integral piece of its fabric.

On Friday night, South Florida’s women will again honor the memory of Mark Dafeldecker as it hosts the 2nd Dafeldecker Classic at the USF Soccer Stadium.

Dafeldecker died of a stroke while on the road to attend one of his daughter Erin’s games for the Bulls. Known to everyone as Mr. D., at the time of his passing he was the principal of Northwest elementary, and a coach for Hillsborough County United, having been an active member of the soccer community since he moved to Tampa in 1981.

“We hope that it honors the Dafeldecker family, and the memory of Erin’s father,” South Florida coach Denise Schilte-Brown said.

The Classic begins with LSU facing Central Florida at 5 p.m., with the Bulls facing Florida International at 7:30 p.m. The tournament continues on Sunday, with the Bulls facing LSU at 1 p.m. before Central Florida and Florida International play at 3:30 p.m.

For more on Mark Dafeldecker, and his legacy, here is a piece by St. Petersburg Times writer Bill Coats, originally published shortly after his death.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/25/Hillsborough/_Mr_D__always_put_the.shtml

UNDER THE WEATHER: The virus that affected the Bulls in their game against Florida has lingered into this week, with Schilte-Brown unsure of who will and won’t be available for Friday night’s game.

It has also meant a reduction in numbers for the Bulls practice this week, Thursday being the first time she has had close to the full squad available.

“It has really hit our numbers,” Schilte-Brown said. “There are so many lingering symptoms that they don’t want to make a call on it until (Friday).”

LESSONS LEARNED: With the reduction of available players, Schilte-Brown said she didn’t know whether she would see if the players had learned what she hoped they would until they get on the field on Friday.

What she did see against Florida, though, was an improvement in her player’s positioning and awareness that allowed them to make the right moves without automatically needing her guidance.

“I do think, every game right now we’re getting a better handle on our tactical awareness,” Schilte-Brown said. “I think that Florida already showed us, even in this short little time, that girls knew where to move, I didn’t have to move them into their spots, they were just floating in and out of their positions, and knew what I was going to ask of them before they even did it.

“Eventually you want them out there playing where they don’t have to think about anything, it’s all coming naturally to them.”

Youth: RSL picks up point against Jacksonville in Premier League

RSL Florida’s boys under-16 team remained undefeated in the Region III Premier League, but couldn’t find a way past the Jacksonville Fury as the teams played to a 0-0 draw over the weekend.

“First half, we were pretty sluggish,” RSL coach Steve Wolf said. “They caught us in a couple of bad situations.”

Due to the heavy rain across the bay area last week, the squad had been unable to train properly, and Wolf thought that led to the team being out of sorts to open the game. As it progressed, though, RSL managed to establish itself, coming close to taking the lead in the second half on a shot that came back off the crossbar.

Jacksonville also had a player ejected with 15 minutes to play, but RSL wasn’t able to take advantage.

“We put more pressure on them, we hit the crossbar, but we couldn’t capitalize on that,” Wolf said. “But it was a good match.”

Despite the two sides being the Florida representatives in the league, Wolf said neither side was that familiar with the other, having last played before he became coach of the team.

“The boys said they hadn’t played them since they were U-13, U-14,” Wolf said. “We really didn’t know much about each other.”

RSL will travel to the Wide World of Sports Complex in Lake Buena Vista this weekend to compete in the Disney Soccer Showcase Qualifier. RSL has been grouped with the Wellington Wave, Florida Rush and Norcross (Ga.) Gold in its group, opening play on Saturday morning against Wellington.

Ordinarily, the winner and runner-up of the qualifier gain a berth in the Disney Soccer Showcase that begins in the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

“That’s a huge tournament for these kids,” Wolf said. “Hopefully we’re prepared, and they show enough desire and the mentality is right to get the job done.”

Colleges: Bulls earn tough victory against Knights

TAMPA – On paper, the series between South Florida and Central Florida in men’s soccer has been one-sided, with the Bulls holding a 20-3-4 mark all-time entering the game against the Knights.

On the field on Tuesday night, the two teams looked a lot closer than that history might have indicated, as the No.11 Bulls earned a tough 2-1 victory through first-half goals by Fernando Gonzalez and Zak Boggs.

“I think they tried to disrupt the game,” USF coach George Kiefer said. “And I thought they were effective of that at times, and I thought when we played the way we wanted to play we were very dangerous. We need to get more of those minutes like we want to play than what they want to play.”

While UCF came out looking the sharper of the two sides, once the Bulls settled they began to dissect the Knights’ defense, which soon led to the opening goal.

After the play was switched across the field from the left, Jorge Mora brought the ball in from the right, opening up space behind him, and that allowed a pass to a streaking Aubrey Perry, who drove into the box, only to have his shot blocked behind the goal.

On the ensuing corner, however, Javed Mohammed floated a teasing cross to the far corner of the six-yard box, and Gonzalez was there to head home and put the Bulls ahead in the 24th minute.

Another quick passing move led to the Bulls’ second goal seven minutes later, as Sebastian Thuriere slid a pass through the UCF defense to Asani Sinclair, who beat the Knights’ offside trap and drove into the left side of the penalty area. Under pressure from the recovering defense, Sinclair laid the ball across the penalty area to Boggs, who took a touch before roofing his shot into the net.

While USF was able to make the most of the chances it created, UCF was disappointing in its attacking third. USF goalkeeper Jeff Attinella was forced into five saves before the break, but the Knights could have done better from the free kicks and corners they won, poor deliveries frequently allowing the Bulls to clear their lines easily.

The pressure the Knights were able to build, however, did disrupt the Bulls’ rhythm in the second half, as USF was careless when it gained possession, allowing the Knights to keep the bulk of play inside the Bulls' half.

“The second half, they came out playing a lot of long balls,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve got to do a better job winning the first and second balls.”

Kiefer said he thought it would be easy for the Bulls to fix the issues they had with the pressure UCF was able to generate.

“I think we leave here knowing we need to do a little more aerial work with the guys, and work on our midfielders about getting into better spots for second balls,” Kiefer said. “I’m happy that we got this out of this game, that we do see something we can get better at.”

For all their pressure, though, the physicality with which the Knights played came back to haunt them to the tune of a pair of ejections. Finlay Milne was the first Knight to see red in the 75th minute, picking up a second yellow card for a rash challenge on Shawn Chin when the Bulls went on the counter-attack after a UCF corner.

Ben Hunt also received his marching orders six minutes later, getting a straight red card for deliberately preventing Boggs from capitalizing on a blocked UCF defensive clearance that would have led to a goal-scoring opportunity for the Bulls senior. UCF coach Bryan Cunningham had no objection to either sending off.

“I thought we were a little sloppy in the second half picking up a couple of lazy yellow cards for grabbing jerseys and things like that, and that’s always going to come back to haunt you,” Cunningham said. “I thought the sendings-off were fair, both guys deserved it, and it was silly on our part to commit those fouls.”

The Knights pulled a goal back in-between the two red cards, Yaron Bacher’s free kick from 40 yards out being met by Nik Robson, who flicked his header across the penalty area to Jeff Simmons, who headed home from eight yards out in the 76th minute. The second sending off killed the game, however, as USF was able to maintain possession easily against the nine-man Knights to hold on for the victory.

Cunningham was regretful his side wasn’t able to pull the first goal back sooner, which could have led to an opportunity to earn at least a draw.

“We had good control of the game, we had them boxed in their end, we just couldn’t find that second ball and put it in the back of the net,” Cunningham said.

Colleges: Tampa men earn No.1 spot

The Unversity of Tampa jumped to the top spot of the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of American Division II poll, released on Tuesday afternoon.

The Spartans, who were ranked No.3 in the preseason poll, defeated Florida Memorial 2-1 in their only game so far, Saturday’s game against Palm Beach Atlantic being postponed due to an unplayable field.

Fellow Sunshine State Conference side Lynn moved up one spot to No.7, while Saint Leo moved into the Also Receiving Votes section.

http://www.nscaa.com/seniorRes.php?it=1065

Tampa resumes its season on Friday as it faces Clayton State.
The news wasn’t as good for Tampa’s womens squad, which dropped out of its poll after a draw against North Georgia and a loss to Grand Valley State to open the season.

Youth: Flames players, coaches benefit from Dutch trip

A trip overseas left some young Brandon Flames soccer players, and their coach, with a new perspective on the game.

Now they're hoping that can translate into boosting their development in the Flames' youth ranks.

Brandon's Assistant Director of Coaching John Clare took the players, all under 13, to the Frans VanBalkom Soccer School of Excellence in Sittard, Holland. There they trained and played against five different teams, each progressively more difficult as they went on.

According to Clare, by the time they got to the fourth game against German club Bayer Leverkusen's under-11 squad, it was evident how good youth soccer was in central Europe.

“They gave us a clinic,” Clare said. “They showed us how to play some soccer. We lost 2-1, but it was still the toughest of all the games we played.”

As much as the players learned, Clare said he may have learned more about coaching from the sessions at the Academy. Most, if not all, youth academy coaches in Europe are former players, all working with professional licenses after gaining certification.

“Their development is tremendous,” Clare said. “Everything was very structured, their coaches from U-11 up are professionals, and you have to have your (coaching) license. Here, we're training kids and we're giving them a lesson but we don't have professional coaches.”

Clare added that the facilities clubs used for their youth training was also leagues ahead of the U.S., with locker rooms, showers, recreation rooms all on site for players and coaches to use. That difference was not lost on player Ian McCauley.

“You get trained well, very well,” McCauley said. “You get [treated] like a professional.”

In addition to the matches and training the players experienced, they also got the opportunity to watch professional matches, travelling to watch FC Köln host Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg in the opening match of the season. The following day, the group went to watch Roda JC face NEC Nijmegen in the Dutch Eredivise.

“It was the first time the kids had seen an atmosphere, you know, one side cheering, the other side cheering teams of that caliber,” Clare said. “[In Cologne] it was 48,000 people, everything in red, the atmosphere was tremendous, and the kids, they’re eyes were just big.”

Player Chris Thatcher said walking up the steps and emerging into Cologne’s RheinEnergie Stadion was unlike anything he had experienced.

“It’s just amazing,” Thatcher said. “Everyone was loud, my eardrums were starting to burst.”

Clare believes that players and coaches could gain significantly by undergoing a similar experience.

“If [coaches and players] would go and spend some time watching what they do, how they train, looking at the different levels, it would give them a little more insight as to where they need to be to,” Clare said. “For me, I walked off the last field and I thought, ‘You know, I’m a pretty decent coach, I’ve got my ‘B’ license and I’m working on my ‘A’ license.’ I walked off the field and I felt like this big, these guys are miles ahead of us.”