Once again the boys take home a tournament championship in style and grace. From a dramatic come from behind tie against our counter part Canadian Cumberland Cobra brothers, to a revenge blow out of our Blackwatch Expressway League revivals, to a physical battle with the Buffalo Northtown Arsenal semi-final, was just some of the highlights of the weekend.
The grand finally was against the Oshaswa Rage the team we played against last year in the final, when we had a last minute penalty kick to close out the Boys U16 2012 Cobras Championship. The team was back and ready to avenge the title that slipped away last year. These guys were hungry. The initial fight came before the game even started, when the referees were unsure which team needed to change their shirts. We did not want to wear our black uniforms in the 90 F degree weather, they did not want to wear their dark green shirts. We were the away team they were the home in tournament standings. The referees ruled that the home team needed to change. They were not please, they even made a smart comment to the linesman, nice host team. Well when I heard that, I said OK we will wear black and be the gracious host. This added fuel to our teams fire and the coaching staff made it known to the boys that we willingly changed. The Cobras came out fired up and slipped in a goal in the first ten minutes, the game went back a forth for the next 40 minutes with opportunities at both ends. The Canadians were forceful and outright trying to get back in the game. This paid dividends as they equalized with about 15 minutes left in the game. Our team could not be denied, many of them have played in this tournament with my team for years and some since they were 8 year olds. We won it as Boys U11 and went 5 years without smelling a title, until last year. Many knew that for most this was the last time they would play in our home tournament as a Cobra.
With three minutes left we took the field determined to not to go into the automatic penalty kicks, which basically would have been a flip of a coin to the winner .
Our game winning goal came in from a vicious attack to get the job done, and the Cobras Trophy was ours for the third time in team history. Great work team and thank you all for volunteering and support throughout the weekend..........Coach Mike
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