Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro winger Kerry Abello has been called into the U-14 National Team Camp again. Congrats Kerry!!!

U.S. under-14 girls national team head coach April Kater called up 36 players for the last of three training camps in 2013. The week-long event will begin Saturday at U.S. Soccer’s National Training Center in Carson, Calif.

The U-14s will hold two intra-squad scrimmages during camp.

U.S. U-14 Girls’ Roster:
GOALKEEPERS (4): Hilary Beall (West Coast FC; Laguna Beach, Calif.), Laurel Ivory (Sunrise, Surfside, Fla.), Alyssa Navarrete (SC De Sol; Chandler, Ariz.), Anna Smith (Crossfire; Issaquah, Wash.)
DEFENDERS (12): Kerry Abello (Team Chicago; Aurora, Ill.), Chloe Boice (So Cal Blues; Aliso Viejo, Calif.), Caitlin Cosme (Albertson Fury; New York, N.Y.), Samantha Fairweather (Eagles; Thousand Oaks, Calif.), Kaitlin Higgins (PDA; Andreas, Pa.), Jaelin Howell (Real Colorado; Windsor, Colo.), Alyssa Malonson (Challenge; Spring, Texas), Tara McKeown (Eagles; Newbury, Calif.), Karlie Paschall (Tennessee FC; Brentwood, Tenn.), Brooke Redington (South Bay Force; Manhattan Beach, Calif.), Emma Thomson (Sockers FC; Park Ridge, Ill.), Sydney Zandi (Penn Fusion; West Chester, Pa.)
MIDFIELDERS (11): Madison Alexander (Alliance FC; Dorr, Mich.), Kailee Coonan (Penn Fusion; West Chester, Pa.), Alexa Ferreira (PDA; Warren, N.J.), Chloe Frisch (San Diego Surf; Carlsbad, Calif.), Monet Kunz (THUSC; Beaverton, Ore.), Gabby Lawlor (SLSG; Fenton, Mo.), Samantha Neyman (Stars of Mass; North Andover, Mass.), Kiara Pickett (Eagles; Santa Barbara, Calif.), Brianna Pinto (CASL; Durham, N.C.), Ashley Sanchez (So Cal Blues; Monrovia, Calif.), Taryn Torres (Solar-Chelsea Soccer Club; Frisco, Texas)
FORWARDS (9): Kayla Cannon (WCFC; Cerritos, Calif.), Abby Grace Cooper (FC Dallas; Plano, Texas), Reagan Glisson (Tophat 17 Gold; Duluth, Ga.), Joanna Harber (Eastside FC; Bellevue, Wash.), Mary Johnston (Crossfire; Oak Harbor, Wash.), Ariana Owens (Lonestar; Hutto, Texas), Allison Schlegel (Colorado Storm; Parker, Colo.), Alexa Spaanstra (Michigan Hawks; Brighton, Mich.), Kelsey Turnbow (Crossfire; Liberty Lake, Wash.)

Team Chicago Academy-Santos beat FCX 4-1 in its final MRL Premier Division game. With the win Santos moved into first place with a 7-2-0 record and 21 points and 21 goals for and 10 against.

Santos is now faced with an agonizing wait on the result of the FC United-Academy SC game tomorrow night in Waukegan. An FC United win will see it leapfrog Santos and claim the title and the berth into the USYSA Regional Championships, but a tie or an Academy SC win will see Santos claim the MRL Premier Division title.

Santos got off to a great start against FCX on Saturday in very difficult windy and rainy conditions on a slick and fast turf field. Less than a minute into the game Talise Romain served a ball into the FCX penalty box, which Sara Stevens dummied into the path of Heather Handwork. Heather and an FCX defender combined to beat the on-rushing FCX keeper for the go-ahead goal.

Santos maintained an intense pressure on the FCX goal, and Hannah Rodgers hit the crossbar shortly after the goal. Several other good opportunities were squandered before Katie Ciesiulka got the game-winner after 20 minutes. She took a great pass from Hannah Rodgers in the midfield and drove towards the top of the 18 and hit a perfect, low shot to the foot of the far post. Santos continued to dominate and create chances, but instead FCX halved the Santos lead with 15 minutes left in the half on a quick counter-attack.

A 2-1 halftime lead for Santos was far from big enough based on the number of chances and dominance, so there was still work to be done in the second half. Santos quickly put the game out of reach, though, on two great individual efforts. Five minutes into the half center-back AJ Jakuszewski made a fantastic commando-raid up the right flank and drove a perfect low cross into the box for Heather Handwork to finish. And a few minutes later Hannah Rodgers received the ball from a Kelsey Pruett & Kristen Brots passing sequences and beat the FCX center-back on top of the 18 with two incredible moves before calmly slotting the ball past the keeper.

Santos had a number of big chances to extend the lead, but to no avail and the game ended 4-1. And so now Santos awaits its fate :-)

11 college programs representing 12 Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo players have earned spots in the NCAA Tournament which kicks off this weekend.

Jenna Romano’s Wake Forest University will take on Morehead State on Saturday.

Brooke Ksiazek’s Illinois State will take on Rachel Armand’s University of Louisville on Saturday.

Ashley Handwork’s Marquette University will take on Western Michigan University on Friday night.

Bryce Banuelos’ West Virginia University will take on Rutgers on Saturday.

Zoey Goralski’s UCLA will take on San Diego State University on Friday night.

Megan Geldernick’s Ohio State University will take on Zoe Swift’s University of Kentucky on Friday night.

Dani Pitaro’s DePaul University will take on Indiana University on Saturday night.

Hope D’Addario & Meegan Johnston’s University of Illinois will take on Washington State University on Saturday afternoon.

Darby Moran’s University of Wisconsin-Parkside will take on Michigan Technological University on Friday night.

Congrats and the best of luck to all the players!

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional finished with a perfect 7-0-0 record in MRL after defeating Crystal Lake Force 2-0 on Tuesday night at PlayUSA. Internacional had already secured promotion to the U18 Premier Division next Fall prior to the game, and with this result they finished with an impressive 22 goals for and 4 goal against.

Mallory Mollenhauer got the eventual game-winner with 3 minutes left in the first half. Kiley Czerwinski attacked the end-line and drove in a perfect cross on top of the 6-yard box. Sam O’Brien made a strong dummy-run to the near post, and Mallory beat her defender to the ball at the back post.

35 seconds into the second half Kiley Czerwinski put the game out of reach when she latched onto a Sam O’Brien back-heel flick from a great Tori Christiansen overlap to the end-line and cross. Hannah Parrish and Shelby Stitz shared the shut-out in goal.

Next up for Internacional is the CASL Raleigh College Showcase November 6-8th.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia battled to a 1-1 draw against TNT Dynamite (MI) in its final match in the U15 MRL Premier Division I group this past weekend. Brasilia entered the game with a chance to finish second in the most competitive division of MRL if they could come away with a win.

Controlling possession for the first 20 minutes of the half led to Brasilia taking a 1-0 lead. Play started with Emerson Fuller playing a great ball out of the back to Abby Severson who found Rachel White in the box. Rachel put her touch in behind the defender and beat the keeper for the only goal of the match for Brasilia. Against the run of play TNT scored to tie up the match and although Brasilia created more opportunities they could not find the back of the net.

Congratulations to Brasilia on finishing tied for 4th in the 10-team Division with a record of 5-3-1 for the 2013 Fall MRL Premier Division I league. Great job girls!

Team Chicago Academy-Santos battled Academy SC at Commissioners Park last night needing at least a tie to maintain the upper-hand in the race for the U18 MRL Premier Division title and a berth into the USYSA Regional Championships next June.

Santos carried most of the play and had most of the chances in the first half, but was not able to convert on any of them. Instead Academy came out on fire at the beginning of the second half and scored two goals in the opening 10 minutes on great strikes from the distance. Santos tried to stage a come-back, but to no avail.

The loss means that FC United now has the upper-hand as it is in control of its own destiny. A win against Academy on Tuesday night will secure FC United the title. Santos can claim the title with a win on Saturday against FCX in South Barrington combined with a tie, or an Academy win, against FC United on Tuesday. To make it even more interesting, Academy can also claim the title with a win over FC United combined with a tie or a Santos loss against FCX.

Team Chicago Academy-Bahia secured Spring 2014 MRL Premier Division status last Saturday with a convincing 4-0 win over Madison 56ers at Commissioners Park.

Bahia entered the game needing a win to secure MRL Premier Division status. Bahia dominated the first half and created several scoring chances, but were not able to finish any of them and went into halftime knotted up at 0-0.

The second half started the same way with Bahia searching for their first goal of the match. Bahia should have been up by 3 or 4 goals at the midway point of the second half, but the importance of the game seemed to affect the composure in front of goal. Everything changed after Sophia Majher collected a ball on top of the box, dribbled two girls and beat the keeper to go up 1-0. This great finish proved to be all that Bahia needed to qualify for the MRL Premier Division.

However, the flood gates opened and within five minutes of the first goal Paige Miller added two more with great individual runs with the ball before ending with nice finishes. Jennifer “Jeff” Pochyly set up Paige’s first goal with a nice ball served in from the right side while the second goal was unassisted. Molly Grant added the final goal to make it 4-0 on a ball played through from Jennifer “Jeff” Pochyly that she calmly placed past the keeper.

Congratulations to Bahia for finishing in the top four to position themselves for great competition in the Spring of 2014.

Team Chicago Academy-Santos then took on first-placed, and previously unbeaten, FC United in the second game of the double-header at Commissioners Park. Santos needed a win to gain the upper-hand in the MRL Premier Division title race to earn a spot at the USYSA Region II Championships in Dayton, OH next June.

The importance of the game was evident in the opening 30 minutes as it was a very cagey affair where neither team wanted to open up too much. However, Santos slowly started to build momentum and created a few quality chance. In the 41st minute right-back Talise Romain made a commando-raid to the end-line and served in a perfect driven cross, which Gianna Marconi connected with at the far post for the 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, FC United tied it up in the last play of the half, so the score was 1-1 going into the 2nd half.

Santos came out with great purpose in the 2nd half, and Alena Sidwell got what proved to be the game-winner a mere 40 seconds into the half. She picked up the ball just inside the FC United penalty box and toe-poked it into the far post side-netting.

Halfway through the half Alena Sidwell helped set up the all-important insurance goal when she played a perfectly weighted through-ball to Heather Handwork, who then delivered a driven cross for Sara Stevens to forcefully latch onto inside the 6-yard box. Gianna Marconi made it 4-1 with her 2nd goal of the game in the 75th minute on a header off Kristen Brots’ corner. Alena Sidwell then capped off the scoring off another perfect Heather Handwork cross for the final 5-1 score.

With the win, Santos is now in control of its own destiny with two games left. A win and a tie will be enough to secure the MRL Premier Division title and the berth into the USYSA Regional Championships. The first game will be played at 7pm tomorrow (Wednesday 12/13) at Commissioners Park against Academy SC, and the final game will be this Saturday (12/16) at 1pm against FCX in South Barrington.