Congratulations to the U14B Reds and the U12B Manchester for Winning the US Club Regionals in Modesto!

Sac United was the only Club in Northern California to win two titles. Here's how it happened:

U14B Reds

Coach Shawn Blakeman had a challenge coming into the US Club Regionals as we did not have our full team through 2 of our 3 matches. The challenge of school finals, graduations and summer school had some of the boys playing positions they had limited time playing with a limited team roster. With that, we showed allot of heart. We started our first match against Turlock FC Earthquake Thunder, which was a rematch as we had played them the week before in Norcal League play with a 5-3 win. We knew this was going to be a different game as Turlock FC started the game off with a quick goal. The momentum later changed as we tied the game before halftime, 1-1. We finished the match with a 2-1 victory.

Our second game was against a tough HSC Manchester. The game was very physical from the start, and once again the opponent started off strong and caught us off guard with a quick goal. As the aggressive game continued, we had two PK’s, one in the first half and another in the second which sealed the game at 2-1.

With two wins in our bracket and winning the tie-breaker, this gave Coach Shawn the opportunity to rest our boys for the semi-final game. Even as we were very limited on players, Coach Shawn cycled through what few subs we had. The Reds still continued to show determination and finished strong against a very good AC Milan team although came up short with a 2-3 loss.

Our Semi-final game was against Marin FC, which is a very well coached team that knows how to move the ball. We scored midway through the first half as the Reds played exceptionally well displaying some great futbol as they played the ball from the backfield up to our forwards. Coach Shawn and the Reds were able to hold off Marin FC to move to the finals with a 1-0 victory.

Our final game against the Mustang Hotspurs was a game where the Reds stepped up to the challenge. Coach Shawn made it simple with his pre-game speech to the boys and the Reds came out strong scoring 2 goals in the first half. The Hotspurs were in an unusual state as this was the first time they were trailing in the tournament. Their overall record coming into the final game was 3 wins, 0 losses, 12 Goals For and 1 Goals Against. They became desperate in the second half, although the Reds did what was needed to win the game with a 2-1 victory, 2010 US Club National IX Cup Regional Champions!

With that, the Reds had received an official invitation to move on to the National Cup Finals being held at Hampton Roads Soccer Complex in Virginia Beach, VA., which we plan to attend.

U12B Manchester

The Manchester United team relied on team work when it was needed most. We had many challenges including many of our kids still being in school which left us short handed. Jason did a great job managing our players and bringing up several from the U-11's to fill in holes and to give our players a rest. We also overcame being behind in all of our matches except one. We were down 2-0 against Real Atletico in the first game and came on strong to win 9-2. The best game of the group play was a tie against the SF Seals that was pulled out with 30 seconds left on the clock, our boys never gave up; kept attacking, linked passes and finally scored to draw even 1-1. In the last group match the boys pulled off a 5-0 win vs East Diablo Impact. In the semifinals things were not looking good as the boys fell behind 3-1 to the North Bay Arsenal but battled back scoring 5 second half goals to win 6-3. Again in the finals the boys fell behind 1-0 to Napa United before scoring 3 goals before half time and then hung on in the second half to win the final 3-1. Congratulations to the players, coaching staff and parents for a wonderful result.