Soccer girls hope to stay undefeated

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This article was published 13/08/2018 (2970 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 

 

FC Northwest’s  U17 girls team is off to one of the biggest competitions in the country.

After winning the Manitoba Soccer Association 2018 provincial championship on July 28, the girls will head to the Canada Soccer national championships in October in Surrey, B.C.

The team went undefeated throughout the season and hopes to keep things that way at the national tournament. However, competition will be stiff.

Northwest faces one of the two British Columbia teams in its first game, and head coach Jason McGrevy said this is one of the teams they need to watch for.

“They’ve got super-strong teams, so we are usually the underdogs in those games, so you have to play those a little bit differently,” he said. “Now that (the players) are older, they are smart enough to understand the game and watch the game and read the game, so I think that’s the biggest thing.”

The girls have been working hard on the tactical aspect of their game, which McGreavy is implementing with the help of assistant coaches Trevor Kidd and Frank Pilz.

“It’s kind of understanding the game as a whole and how they fit in,” McGrevy said.

This year’s MSA Cup competition was different, McGrevy said, because several teams couldn’t enter teams due to a lack of players because of work or school commitments. So, FC Northwest and Bonivital SC played a one-game, winner-take-all final.

“They (Bonivital SC) were a good team, they always have been, always a good rival, always very evenly matched,” McGreavy commented.

They game finished 0-0, after 90 minutes but the FC Northwest managed to score two goals in extra time. 

Captains Anna Biebrich and Emerson Kidd said the team’s season went smoothly and that the players quickly came together and learned to play with each other. 

McGrevy said none of the girls try to be better than the other. On the contrary, they all support each other.

“We are a really aggressive team. We aren’t just working for ourselves, we are working for each other which makes us push even harder,” Biebrich said.

“Because we all want to see each other do good, so we all battle for each other,” Kidd added.

McGrevy and assistant coach Kidd both said that team speed was a valuable quality.

“The younger girls have contributed a lot with the speed. They tend to push the other players as a result, so everyone picks up the speed,” McGrevy continued.

The team is excited to go to nationals once again. Three years ago they experienced the competition for the first time in Newfoundland and left with a silver medal. 

“The first year we went it was the best experience because it was new for all of us,” McGrevy said. “We always get a day or so off, and it’s good just bonding and working together as a team, and for the older girls, this will be their last year. 

“But the biggest thing is to get to see a different level of play. For some of these girls, this will be the highest level that they get to play.”

Biebrich will be experiencing a national championship for the first time, and said she’s very excited.

“I like being in a bigger competition. We were both on the Canada Summer Games team, so I think that gave us a taste of how each province is and that we have to work a lot harder. We are a tiny team, so we had to learn to be that much more aggressive to win the ball,” she said.

FC Northwest’s first game is Oct. 3 in Surrey, B.C. Go to https://www.canadasoccer.com/u-17-cup-p150286 for the full schedule.