Over the weekend of January 13-15 we once again went to Orlando to play in Disney's annual 3v3 soccer extravaganza. It is difficult for me to believe, but this tournament has been a part of my life for 19 years now. All but one of those years I have played on a team in the tournament. My first national title was in January of 1999, and I have been enjoying the competition in Orlando ever since (although the first tournament was actually held in Pensacola, before being moved to Orlando). I have a lot of wonderful memories from tournaments past, and I always enjoy the friendships and good times even more than the soccer.
This year, the team my friend Wes fielded was once again called the Travelers, and we faced a field of 10 total teams in the men's open division. Our team included Wes, Peter, Daniel, Steve, Aldo, and myself. As always, my teammates were good guys and easy to play alongside. That said, there were some very tough young teams again in this contest, and we knew as we went to team registration on Friday that we would have a difficult time overcoming the odds and our age. Once again, I was the oldest player in the tournament, with Wes less than a year younger. That burden alone would sink most teams playing against 20 year old guys, but the rest of our team was in their 30's and 40's. In short, it would be a battle to place in the top five teams.
I arrived late Wednesday night at the Seralago, and the weather the next day was wonderful. Perfect for sunbathing by the pool. However, the next day a cold front came in which brought rain, wind, clouds, and much colder temperatures. Saturday was partly cloudy, windy, and cold. Sunday and Monday were sunny, but still chilly. Wes and his new wife arrived in time for dinner on Thursday, as did our friend Lisa. The rest of our crowd, Peter, Daniel, Sylvia, Diane, Steve, and Aldo did not arrive until Friday or Saturday morning in Peter's case. For me, pre-tournament time was perfect for shopping, eating, cruising, and sunbathing.
On Saturday morning at 10:15 we first faced the Footmasters FC, a young team from Texas. They jumped on us early, as we appeared to still be groggy from travel. Often it takes us old men extra time to get warmed up, and this was no exception. By halftime we were already down 5-1. However, in the second half Peter and Daniel turned on the afterburners and coaxed some errors from the other team when we pressured them. We succeeded in closing the gap to 6-4 before time ran out on us. We certainly were not pleased by the outcome, but we knew we had not played our best game.
In our second game we faced another young team called Net Six and Chill from somewhere in Florida. This game was a seesaw battle that we should have won. We went down in the first half but came back to lead by a goal twice late in the second half. Unfortunately, we managed to squander both of those leads, and allowed them to tie us. All of the scoring in the first two games came from Daniel and Peter. The lone exception was when Wes coaxed a breakaway foul in the second half of the second game, thereby drawing a penalty kick. I put the PK in, which made up for some of what I felt was my own poor defense during that game.
By our third game we felt that our situation had become more dire, and we were in need of a win. Although we played a team at 2:55 from New Jersey called the Old Men, we were not surprised to learn that we were a good bit older than the Old Men. To make matters worse, the Old Men had two or three very young fast players playing with them that made life difficult for us. We went up 1-0 in the first half, and the score should have been 2-0, but Peter understandably decided not to touch a ball from Aldo that was rolling into the goal, and the referee called the goal back because it had not been touched in the offensive side of the field. In the second half the young guys on the Old Men played most of the half and pressured us, causing enough mistakes to allow them to go up 2-1 on us. But later in the half Daniel and I switched positions briefly in the offensive zone, and Peter drew most of the defense. Daniel then drew the remaining defender to him and passed to me for a near side goal that tied the score. Peter then finished off the scoring for a very close 3-2 win. With Sunday's games looming, we found ourselves in sixth place - good enough to make the playoffs, but with a poor initial playoff matchup.
Sunday morning we faced our toughest opponent yet. Trouble Brewing was a group of five young men from Indiana, who were clearly better than any opposition we had yet faced. We again appeared groggy for our 10:15 game, and Trouble Brewing took full advantage of our lethargy. In short, we were down 4-0 before six minutes had ticked off the clock. When I subbed in, I tried in vain to keep Trouble Brewing from our goal, but found that their young legs were quicker than ours. Also, because their team was so tall, we had little goal to shoot at, and we couldn't try to chip the ball over them either. Trouble Brewing was also smart enough to play keep away, forcing us to pressure them, which led to several late goals. The final score was 8-0, and our ranking then fell to seventh - barely within the playoffs, but again with a poor initial playoff matchup.
We knew then that we had to do well in our final game on Sunday if we were to have a good tournament, and fortunately we were up to the task. Team Sushi is a young Florida team that had wanted to play in the coed division, but like us found there to be insufficient coed teams. Therefore, like us they put together a full men's team and came anyway. In our game against Team Sushi, our defense prevailed. Steve and I held the back, and Aldo, Wes, Daniel, and Peter provided an impenetrable wall ahead of us. Although the Sushi boys were able to get a late goal on us when I failed to get my knee down on a block, the game was over by then. Peter, Daniel, and Aldo had already put us up 5-0. Thus, the final score was 5-1 in our favor, which gave us the fifth seed (2-2-1) - enough to play the fourth place team in the first round of the playoffs. Wilson United was our opponent at 2:55, and we basked in our good fortune of placing fifth as we waited to play them.
Wilson United is a careful team that has come to the tournament from North Carolina in years past, and we have been able to beat them in the past. Our defense continued to hold early on in the game as we went up by two or three goals before they got their first goal. We were getting tired, however, and Wilson United succeeded in coming back on us to make it a 4-3 game in our favor. But then Daniel scored a "miracle" goal from a bad angle in the corner, and Peter put in another goal to put the game away by a score of 6-4. We had made it through the quarter finals to be a top four team!
But we knew that our luck probably stopped there. The other three teams were Trouble Brewing and two other young teams that had destroyed the competition during pool play. Plus, we faced the top ranked team, Soccer Playa$, at 9:35 in our first semi final game. We went out to eat that night at the Rain Forest Café happy with our situation, but knowing that we would need a miracle to make it much farther.
When 9:35 on Monday rolled around, and we had checked out of the hotel, we all met at the fields to try to put on a good showing against the undefeated Soccer Playa$. Their team, from Florida, consisted of four very young fast guys and one older (perhaps 35) guy who seemed like their coach. We knew that our best shot was to play hard defense and keep the game close, and we started out with Peter, Daniel, and me to try to do just that. Our plan was successful, but not successful enough to overcome them. We scored first, as Peter scored on a nice run down the side when I gave him a curling lead pass. They came back to tie at 1-1, and we almost made it to half time with that score, but they scored a nice goal against us just before the halftime whistle. In the second half of the game we got tired, and they ended up scoring five goals to our two, although one of theirs was at the final whistle again. The final score was 7-3 Playa$.
Tired, we had to play against Trouble Brewing for third place, as they had lost to the second place team by one late goal. Trouble Brewing said that they had two of their five players injured, but only one of their two injuries affected their play. As always, they also had youth on their side. They went ahead on us by three goals before we were able to retaliate. Wes scored a late goal on a nice play and Peter also scored one on a blast from outside, but their defense was otherwise sound and we fell to a fourth place finish by the score of 5-2.
We felt very privileged to have placed in the top four teams in this tournament again this year. Much of the credit goes to our fans, Sylvia, Diane, and Lisa, for cheering us on and for helping us with time, photography, and ball chasing. Many thanks to Wes, my teammates, and our fans for another great tournament this year. I will have to see if I can make it down to Orlando next year. At some point, coaching rather than playing, is in my future!
