The Okotoks soccer community got a chance to flex its tournament muscle for the first time in over two years.
Okotoks United hosted the first of two weekends of the Anthem United Communities Cup with over 40 girls teams showcasing their skills in boarded soccer and futsal from Jan. 14-16 at the Cavalry FC Regional Field House.
“It was our first event for over two years and it had a new set of rules and instructions than we’ve had previously, but it was overall a big success,” said Okotoks United technical director Matt Lumsden. “There was a lot of extra admin behind the scenes in comparison to previous years.
“But there were a lot of measures put in place to ensure a smooth and efficient tournament and I’m thankful for the teams for their assistance in making that happen for the kids.”
Okotoks came away with a pair of silver medals in the competition.
In the U17 Tier 2 futsal ranks, Okotoks went undefeated in round-robin with a draw and two wins over Blizzard United and MUSC.
A rematch with Rangers Athletics in the gold medal match went the way of the visitors in a 1-0 thriller.
“It was our girls U17’s first time playing futsal, they’ve always played different formats growing through the age groups and actually play a different format in the league at the moment,” said Lumsden, also the head coach of the U17 squad. “For a first attempt, it was a good weekend, they played really well all weekend.
“They had a really good performance in the final and just got caught in the last minute with a breakaway goal. But that’s sports, sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some.”
United was inches away from forcing the game past regulation into penalty kicks.
Ashlyn Grant’s direct free-kick with three seconds left hit the crossbar with the rebound then put into the net milliseconds after the final buzzer was sounded.
“In the last minute being a goal down we pulled our regular goalie and added an extra-attacker to create a five-versus-four overload, to try and get a few more opportunities and get that equalizer and it did almost work," Lumsden said.
In the U13 Tier 4 boarded division, Okotoks also claimed silver.
United qualified second out of its group with a 1-1-1 record and were defeated 5-1 by Medicine Hat’s RASC in the gold medal match.
Elsewhere, in the U9 Tier B futsal, Okotoks earned third and fourth place finishes.
“For us in these tournaments the soccer is one thing, but the social side of things is another and perhaps the most important part,” Lumsden said. “It was a chance for teams to go through that process, go through a tournament experience together.
“We had a number of teams travelling from out of town or even North Calgary staying locally and it’s good for the economy and the social experience of the players and teams and that’s what’s kind of been missed the last couple of years.”
The tournament was the first of two weekends with the boys divisions taking to the field house from Jan. 20-23.
All told, 51 teams in 11 divisions will be part of the second weekend of cup action.
“The first weekend went really well and gave us a nice platform to run a slightly busier boys weekend,” Lumsden said. “There’s a few tweaks that we’ll make after week one, but generally speaking we’re feeling quite positive about how things went and now looking forward to week two for the boys tournament.”
For more information go to okotoksunitedsoccer.ca.
