Florida Fire Juniors

Florida Fire Juniors Have a Great Showing at the Fire Columbus Day Cup

The Florida Fire Juniors soccer club participated in the Fire Columbus Day Cup tournament October 10th – 11th, 2015 held at North Collier Regional Park. With over 50 teams competing from all over the state, the Fire had a great showing winning multiple 1st and 2nd place awards across many age brackets. Below are brief game recaps from some of our teams:

U9 Boys Red

The Florida Fire Juniors U9 Boys Red team played their first games of the year last weekend in the Columbus Day Cup. After winning their first three games to reach the finals, they came up short, finishing the weekend in second place. The team performed well throughout the weekend, stringing a number of passes together to dominate much of possession. The future looks bright for this group.

U10 Girls Red

The U10 Red Girls team went undefeated over the weekend to win their division. Over the course of the four games every one of the nine players on the team took a turn in goal and scored at least one herself.

U11 Girls Red

The girls performed very well in the pool play games defeating the SWFL Adrenaline 4-2 and battling back to a 2-2 draw against the Cape Coral Cyclones. The team finished pool play in first place and advanced to the finals on Sunday. The Fire played the same Cape Coral team in the final that they had played on Saturday. Cape Coral came out on top 2-1 after a flurry of opportunities for the Fire to tie the game, if not win the game, in the final 10 minutes.  Congrats ladies!

U11 Boys Red

The Florida Fire Juniors Boys U11 Red opened the tournament Saturday morning with a tough game against Select Athletico Naples, losing 5-0. Responding from their talk with coach Elvis Aldana  and learning from their mistakes in the first game, the Florida Fire Juniors boys roared out the gates in both halves and shutout Naples FC Lions U11 to win 4-0.  The win put them in 4th place, beating out Naples FC Lions on points with the head to head victory, but put them up against #1 seed Select Athletico Naples.

The 4th place spot played out perfectly for the boys who had nothing to fear going into the semi-final game against Athletico Sunday morning.  The boys again easily found the back of the net and controlled Athletico’s attack shutting down their main player. The Florida Fire Juniors goalie and defense stood firm for their second straight shutout. The boys ended Athletico’s run with a resounding 3-0 victory.  That set up a Championship game late Sunday afternoon versus Lehigh Lightning (#2 seed) who were undefeated and only gave up 1 goal in three games.

The boys found themselves down a goal 10 minutes into the Championship match, but then answered back to draw the game at 1-1 before the half. The Florida Fire Juniors Boys U11 Red found the goal on two more occasions, conceding only one more winning the game 3-2 in the dying minutes of the game.  Great response from the boys who found themselves down after the first match to go on and win their age group at this year’s Fire Columbus Day Cup! 

U12 Boys White

U12 Boys Red

The Florida Fire Juniors U12 Boys Red team coached by Tony Banks, continue their winning streak from last season to cinch the Columbus Day Cup tournament right here in Naples. After going through the first rounds winning two games 9-0 and 11-0, undefeated, the boys went on to the Final against their own club's White team. A fierce game ensued, but the Red team came out Tournament Champions 4-1.

U13 Boys Premier

The FFJ U13 Boys Premier team, led by Coach Fernando Cordova, won the 2015 Fire Columbus Day Cup by winning 2-1 in the U13 Boys finals against the Naples Lions FC13. The Fire began their weekend by winning their four-team group with two victories (beating Cape Coral U13 Black 5-0 and FFJ U13 Select 4-0) and one tie (against the Naples Lions FC13). Then, in the finals, after falling behind 1-0 against the Naples Lions, the Fire came storming back with a quick second half goal to tie the battle at 1-1. Great defensive and goalkeeping efforts kept the Lions from any further goals. In the final minute of regulation, with the game looking to head to penalties, a left-footed wonder strike by Miguel Ortiz hit the back of the net and the Fire were victorious! Champions!

U18 Boys Select

The Florida Fire Juniors U18 Boys Select, under Coach Alan Scott, finished third place in this year’s 2015 Fire Columbus Day Tournament. We are proud of all these young men that stepped up and pushed thru some hard games (with few subs due to injuries), finishing out with a 1-0 win to claim third place. They began the tournament with a tough 3-0 loss to Doral Elite U17. After being down 2-0 and fighting back to a 2-2 tie against SWFL Adrenaline Academy, they ended with an unfortunate 3-2 loss. The Florida Fire Juniors U18 boys select finished out the tournament with a 1-0 win against West Pines United FC, with Zach Arnold finishing a beautiful cross which found the back of the net.

Final Recap of the weekend:

U9 Boys Red: 2nd Place

U10 Girls Red: 1st Place

U11 Boys Red: 1st Place

U11 Girls Red: 2nd Place

U12 Boys Red: 1st Place

U12 Boys White: 2nd Place

U13 Boys Red: 1st Place

U18 Boys Premier: 3rd Place

Congratulations to all of the Florida Fire Juniors teams who participated in the Fire Columbus Day Cup! We wish all of our teams all the best this season!

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