Sunday, June 22nd.  Sunny, 84 degrees, 15-20 mph tradewind blowing across the sloping grass field.

This is a story of the Last Washington Team Standing:  Crossfire is down to 12 un-injured players, but this is the Region IV Championship Final, so all are ready to play.

The Story begins with San Juan, moving downslope, pressuring Crossfire the first half, but the defense held, preventing serious threats.  In the 13th and 14th minutes, Crossfire broke through for shots on the San Juan goal.
 
Crossfire was called for infractions resulting in free kicks eight times in this game.  All the calls had an impact on the energy of play.  In the 16th minute, an errant bounce led to an inadvertent “arm ball”, which produced a call and yet another free kick.  This one, as it turned out by the end of the game, would be very important.  At that time, San Juan took a free kick from 45 yards out.  With the slope and wind advantage, they put the shot into the box.  After a spirited four second scuffle, a San Juan player gained control of the ball, wheeled and fired a shot into the right side of the Crossfire net.  The San Juan Fans roared, and their team celebrated.  Crossfire, as they have in the past, remained poised, and composed.
 
As the first half continued, however, and Crossfire’s attacks were being deflected, the team’s mood appeared to be less determined, but at the same time, San Juan was also unable to mount serious threats the remainder of the first half.  Crossfire would need some kind of boost to head into the second half.
 
Many of the Crossfire fans moved down to the sidelines as the second half opened.  The volume of support picked up markedly, as the girls put up a determined program of attack.  Throughout the second half, now with the slope advantage, Crossfire continually threatened to score.  Then, in the 40 minute, Crossfire put their left forward in goal, freeing up the goalie, who in the normal season was our center forward, to step up our offense.  There was an immediate injection of energy, and a sense of purpose, which caught fire on the sidelines as well.  Crossfire mounted attack after attack, threatening several times.  In the 51st minute, a beautiful center mid pass found the right forward wide open and breaking on the San Juan net.  As the San Juan keeper came out to challenge, she fired a hard shot from just outside the right outer corner of the box.  It hit the Crossbar.

Crossfire continued to hammer any openings to attack the goal.  One counter attack by San Juan, in particular, tested our substitute goalie, but the shot rebounded off the crossbar.  Crossfire counter-attacked off of this miss, and once again came very close to bringing the score level.  The clock continued to work against us, however, and unfortunately, this was not to be Crossfires day.

These girls played hard!  During the battle (and a battle is what this game was), the injured players stepped in to provide some relief, so our hats off to all the girls.  It was a fight to the finish, and they never gave up.  Instead, they picked up the fight as full time approached.  They were the last Washington Team Standing, and they dug deep to hold the line.  In the end, they did not win, but we believe they were still victorious.

Our compliments to our opponents.  Crossfire wishes San Juan the best at the National Tournament, and hopes they bring home a championship for Region IV.

Final Score:  San Juan Spirits 94 Blue 1, Crossfire Premier G93 Flory 0
 
Box Score:  Crossfire:  12 shots, 6 on frame, 1 corner kicks, 5 free kicks
                San Juan:  10 shots, 2 on frame, 4 corner kicks, 8 free kicks

Level grass field, sunny with a strong sun, temperature 80 degrees,  and a 10-20 mph tradewind blowing across the field.

The first half began with the Slammers patiently probing the Crossfire defense, trying to feed the ball up to their big forwards.  Several corners by them were well defended.

In the 18th minute, the Slammers finally got the shot they were looking for as their right forward put a cross into the mid box where a strong header directed it on a path for just under the crossbar in what looked like a certain goal.  But the Crossfire keeper lept and made an incredible fingertip save, grasping the ball with her fingertips, like a snowcone, just in front of the crossbar.  The beautiful thing about this Goalie’s performance, is that anything she has vision on, she seems to be able to keep out of the goal.

Crossfire quickly rebounded, and in the 21st minute the right forward lofted a long, high arching slot on net.  As it came down just in front of the crossbar, waffling in the teeth of the tradewind, the Slammers keeper was unable to maintain control of it.  The left Crossfire forward, her defender and the keeper collided in a melee for it, and the Crossfire player hammered it into the net.

The game was then wide open, with the teams mounting alternating attacks.  However, for some reason, the Slammers appeared to be content with Crossfire setting the tempo for the game. This served Crossfire well, as they paced themselves, deflected attacks, and mounted coordinated attacks of their own.  In the 33rd minute, the right forward broke free on the right side at about the 35 yard line.  As she drove in, the Barcelona keeper came out to block her advance.  With that, our left forward broke up the center.  A deft pass by the right forward  to her trapped the Slammers keeper far out in the box, as left forward caught the pass in full stride and hit the center net with her shot.

The Slammers attacked relentlessly, as crossfire maintained a composed response to all attacks.  Finally, however, in the second half, they scored in the 42nd minute on a corner shot to the mid box, which they headed in perfectly.

The Slammers truly turned up the wick on forward movement, with an growing roar of support from their fans.  At one point, they even moved their whole team up, including the goalie.  In the 54th minute a hard shot from the right top of the box was blocked by the Crossfire keeper (who continued to be outstanding), who smothered the rebound.  Some gutsy play by injured and exhausted players helped stave off the Slammers attack and preserve the win.  This was a well deserved, TEAM win, and we couldn’t be prouder of these girls.  Go Crossfire!

Final score:  Crossfire 2, Slammers 1

Box score:    Crossfire:  6 shots, 3 on frame
                    Slammers: 6 shots, 6 on frame

Here are some pictures of the Crossfire Flory match against the FC Slammers

Our U-12 boys came out at the start of the game feeling confident.  They moved the ball well and attacked early, scoring two goals in the first seven minutes.  Half time score was 5-0, Crossfire.  The second half Wyoming began to regroup but Crossfire McCormick were able to stay strong and work together, upping the final score to 9-0.  Throughout the entire game the ball stayed firmly in Wyoming’s half, with the exception of one shot on our goal.

Very hot and sunny.  Game pretty even for first ten or fifteen minutes, then x-fire scores on a good through ball.  For the next ten or fifteen minutes Oregon has the better play and almost scores on a header.  With ten seconds left in the half Crossfire scores on a 25 yard shot over the goalie’s head.  In the second half it looks like Crossfire’s strong conditioning took over and the game ends with Crossfire winning 5-0.