Salt City- Syracuse, NY

 

The Cobras season final ended at the Salt City Tournament in Syracuse, on July 27th and July 28th.

Many new faces joined the Cobras tournament team, but it was certain from the start of the first game vs. the North Rose Jets that it was going to be a festive weekend. Some division one NCAA recruits along with other Rochester HS and Premiere level talents played with the squad.

NRJ were a scrappy bunch that played well together, but some crisp finishing by the Cobras and a clean slat was too much for the opponants, a 2-0 victory. The second game was a very competitive duel with BYSA Soccer Central, a U 17 premiere team that end up third in the recent State Cup final four earlier this summer, a 2-1 loss for us.  We felt good going into Sunday morning that we could win our semi-final game to reach the final, a rematch was in the horizon. The morning match was a sloppy defensive showing by both teams with numerous goals, some magnificent, but in the end Cobras were toying with Coliseum United out of Utica, NY. Final score was a wopping 8-4. The rematch was built up with all the hype from the first game, an intense scoreless first half ended with a upside down ride for the ages.

After the Cobras took a 1-0 lead with 15 minutes remaining all looked good for another championship title. But a BYSA player, speedy on a break, split through the defense and the Cobras keeper was caught holding a shirt of the opponent in the box, the player fell to the ground as defenders cleared the ball away. The referee justly called a penalty kick for them, but included a red card to our only keeper which seemed a little harsh for a well played game by both sides at that point. This call ruined the game, which the referees could have save if not for the red card assessment. When a referee makes a call like that, he really needs to think about the integrity of the game, not the specific incident. The Goalie was not the last man as the defense was close at hand. Going down to 10 men and no goalie, really put the Cobras in a bind and we were fresh meat to the local spectators and piranhas at hand. In the end, the local team won with a little help by the men in stripes, but the Cobras tournament team took it in stride and class. Fun weekend for all involved. It's funny when you take a bunch of kids that have never really played with each other, get them together for a weekend to play a sport they all love, and in the end experience something wonderful. I guess that is what soccer is really all about, the experience and the memories. The funny thing about this tournament is that the field where we played on, I played on first, almost 28 years ago when I was a youth. This brought back great memories of my youth playing days.  Our Gates Roadrunners team won the State Cup back then on that same field. Hopefully our boys when coaching or watching thier own kids someday will remember that old Cobras team back in 2013, that played some really wacky games and enjoyed some great times with kids that shared a similar passion.  Soccer is life and may the memories live on forever.... Coach Mike