USA Cup 2005 Day 8: Final-ly, the rains come
I think we would have loved rains to come on any other day of the tournament, if it came down as long as it did for this day, it would have cooled things off immeasurably, but because this was finals day, it made things all the more complicated, because referees and teams were leaving either town or the country, and games couldn't be put off to the next day had it happened earlier.The 8 am game I had went off without a hitch. It was a 15 girls game in the Medal Flight (the lowest) that was. Gosh it just doesn't seem fair, but the game wasn't terribly interesting. Neither team did a whole lot with the ball; the tying goal was a blooper that went over the keeper's hands, and we finished in kicks from the penalty mark. You couldn't help but feel for the losing team afterwards - soon after the game I was told they just lost in PKs for the third year in-a-row (twice to the team that just won them).
The 10am games all got caught in the storm - I didn't even know about it until after the medal ceremony in the sports hall - but sure enough, the sky was green and the rain was pouring down. Since I didn't have to leave town anytime soon, I stuck around and picked up a game, the 13-boys Cup Flight final, and dang, what a brutal game. In many ways, it was more boxing match than soccer game - both teams just going at it all-out damn the consequences. The center referee, a State Referee, showed much more patience with cards than I would have, but his gamble paid off: what was an ugly ugly first half, turned into a just as spirited, but less eventful second (less injuries, less people screaming for cards, more high intensity soccer). In a sick sort of way, this was FUN - we did what we do best, referee high-stakes games. We were lucky, a coach with a problem player (who was told that, "You really, really want to sub him out") did just that, and kept a player from getting a second yellow card (many parents thought he did pick one up), and later was able to get him to keep his head by pointing out that the other team was now goading him purposefully in order to get that second yellow - very sophisticated, not to mention cynical, tactics for a bunch of thirteen-year-olds!
The team from California won the contest handily, 4-2 - complete with several players wearing gloves, because the temperature fell down to seventy degrees. Considering that I'm originally from Michigan, and the center still is, we found it amusing.
I think, overall, it was a fun week, although a few things seemed missing; the number of teams were down, the number of referees were down, and the number from overseas was way down. Next year, I'm probably going to have to make a choice between USA Cup and, if I'm invited again, Regionals.