IMG_9739The Bishop U12 boys AYSO select team traveled to the Lancaster National Soccer Center in Lancaster, CA for the Quartz Hill Shootout soccer tournament over the weekend. We weren’t sure what to expect, as we haven’t played any big teams from Southern California before.

It turned out that we had the most difficult draw in the tournament!  The first team we played was from San Fernando Valley.  We lost that one 2-1, but played quite well.  Jerrod Dossey scored in that one from an excellent strike fed by Elijah Alexander.  The second match was against Downey, and we lost 3-1.  We conceded two goals in the last quarter, having been beaten by fast breaks.  Joey scored in that one from a great strike outside the penalty area that caught the keeper by surprise.  The last qualifying match was against Valencia, and we tied 1-1, on a penalty kick by Elijah Alexander in the final minute of the match.  Every other team in our flight failed to win a match, so we advanced to the medal round on goal difference.

We met Valencia again in the 3rd place medal match.  This time, we played much better, defeating Valencia 2-1 to capture 3rd place in our division.  So guess who the 1st and 2nd place teams were?  San Fernando Valley and Downey – the two teams we had to play in qualifying.  So our qualifications were the toughest draw, but it was a good experience for our boys.

None of the teams we played exhibited the tactical skill and touch of the Bishop boys.  Of course, I’m biased, but every team we saw only played the long-ball strategy – that is, they sent their biggest, fastest boys up front and kept booting the ball forward hoping to catch our defenders off guard.  This will work at the youth level, but without teaching the touch and foot skills that they’ll need at higher levels of play, they will never get better.  I was gratified to see that as our boys grow and catch up size-wise to other regions, they will have superior foot skill and tactical ability.  It was a good experience which validated the strategy of Bishop soccer to develop players, rather than concentrate solely on winning matches.  Bishop boys play better tactical soccer than any teams we saw at Quartz Hill, so that was fun to see.

Click on the photo above to see the photo gallery from the Quartz Hill Shootout tournament.

Joe Griego