The Midwest Regional League (MRL) season is winding down over the next few weekends with some marquee match-ups for Team Chicago Academy teams.

This Sunday, Team Chicago Academy-Santos will host North Shore United at 3:30pm at PlayUSA in a match that will determine the Girls U17 First Division title and promotion to the U18 Premier Division for 2013-14. Both teams are undefeated and with a win Santos will earn the Division title, while with a tie Santos will need two wins in the final two MRL games November 10th and 11th at PlayUSA to secure the title. Please, come out to support Santos this Sunday.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo will travel to Wisconsin on Saturday and Sunday to take on its two only remaining rivals for the Girls U18 Premier Division title. Coming off an impressive 8-2 win v. Chicago-Inter last Wednesday after a sublime first half performance, Botafogo will need either two ties or at least a win against Lou Fusz Wipke in the Sunday game to retain its Premier Division title and earn a berth into the USYS Regional Championships in Des Moines, IA in June 2013.

On Monday night, Team Chicago Academy-Eagles will travel to Orland Park to take on Chicago Fire in its final MRL game. With a win Eagles will finish 3rd in the Boys U14 First Division and be in contention for a Premier Division spot for the 2013 Spring season.

Finally, Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia finished its MRL season with a 1-0 win at Chicago-Inter on a goal by Jasmine Ruiz from Rachel Erdman. Meegan Keefer and Madison Lockard shared the shutout in goal. With the win Brasilia finished tied for 2nd in the Girls U14 First Division, and is awaiting final confirmation that it has earned a wild-card into the Premier Division for the Spring.

Friday, October 26, 2012:

Team Chicago Academy Director, Phil Nielsen, has been selected as the 2012 Illinois Youth Soccer Girls Coach of the Year.

Phil will be honored at the Illinois Youth Soccer Awards Banquet on Friday, March 1, 2013.

Phil oversees all U13 to U18 Team Chicago teams and coaches the U18G Botafogo, U17G Santos and the U13G Cruzeiro.

Coach Nielsen is the second Team Chicago coach to win the prestigious award, following the 2001 winner Dr. Salvador Morote who coached the 87/88 Brazil Girls to back-to-back IYSA regional titles.

Congratulations to Coach Phil. phil@teamchicagosoccer.org

This past weekend Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo traveled to Grand Rapids, MI to face Grand Rapids Crew and MI Futbol Club in the MRL Premier Division.

Putting its perfect record on the line against the home team on Saturday, Botafogo took complete control of the game from the first whistle and ended up with a comfortable 6-0 win behind Zoey Goralski’s 4 goals and tallies by Ashley Handwork and Gianna Dal Pozzo. Megan Geldernick and Kiley Dunning shared the 5th straight shutout in goal.

On Sunday Botafogo faced a tough MI Futbol Club squad in a rematch of the Regional Semi-final. MFC clearly played for the tie and unfortunately Botafogo was unable to convert on its chances even with total domination in possession and chances, so it ended in a 0-0 stalemate. Megan Geldernick earned the 6th straight shutout in goal as Botafogo has yet to get scored on in MRL Premier Division play, and remain comfortably in first place.

Next up for Botafogo in MRL is the re-scheduled match against Chicago-Inter this Wednesday at 7:30pm at PlayUSA.

Team Chicago Academy-Falcons won the Superclubs Champions Cup in Rockford this weekend.

They started out falling to 2-1 to a tough Chicago Blast side, but they then bounced back in impressive style with a 5-0 win against Tigres de Cicero. In the 3rd and final round-robin game the Falcons tied 2-2 against Midwest Red Devils, which was all they needed to advance to the final.

In the championship game Falcons avenged the earlier loss to the Chicago Blast in a rematch of the first game. In a drama & excitement-filled championship match, the Falcons battled hard to emerge victorious.

As the final seconds of regulation closed in, Emerson Beinhauer was awarded a penalty kick, which he converted to force extra time. Strong defensive play from Matt Montrose, Connor Ahler, and Trey Eichamer led the team and kept the high pressured Blast offense off the score board. Again, as the finals seconds closed in of extra time, Alfonso Pizzo received a pass from Adam Bose and beat the Chicago Blast goalkeeper to win the tournament in exciting fashion.

Team Chicago Academy-Cruzeiro had a very impressive showing at the IYSA U13 MRL Qualification competition this past weekend in Rockford, IL. Playing in extremely difficult conditions, Cruzeiro had to emerge victorious from its 4-team round robin to qualify for the Midwest Regional League in the Spring.

Cruzeiro got off to a great start with a convincing 5-0 win over Panthers on Saturday morning. Riley O’Brien had 2 goals and an assist in the game while Jamie Goralski, Jordan Kind, and Lauryn Wesoloski rounded out the scoring.

In the 2nd game on Saturday Cruzeiro beat Eclipse 4-0 behind Jamie Goralski’s 2 goals in 1 minute in the 2nd half. Jordan King had gotten the opener in the 1st half and Mia Lakstigala capped off the scoring with 15 minutes to go.

Heading into the final game on Sunday morning against Strikers, Cruzeiro knew that a tie, or even a narrow loss, would see them qualify for MRL. However, the Cruzeiro players made an emphatic statement with a very comfortable 6-0 win. Sarah Avery came up from her right-back position to score the eventual game-winner before Kerry Abello unleashed a bit of magic on the Strikers.

Kerry had 5 goals including both an Olimpico (directly off her corner-kick) and a powerful free-kick from 25 yards out. But most impressive was her mazy run over 65 yards beating 5 players before she calmly slotted the ball home at the foot of the far post.

Goalkeepers Bailey Witt and Anna Aubuchon earned the 3 shutous in goal with great play behind a very strong effort by the defenders.

For the other Team Chicago Academy teams in MRL competition this weekend it was a bit more of a mixed bag. Botafogo, Santos, and Internacional all had to postpone their home games due to the weather and field conditions.

Botafogo will play the postponed game v. Chicago-Inter Homer Glen at 7:30pm this Wednesday 10/17 at PlayUSA. The other two games are TBD.

Team Chicago Academy-Eagles traveled to Northbrook, IL to face FC-1 Academy Elite in its quest for the U14 Boys MRL First Division title. In the battle of undefeated teams, Eagles lost a tight game 3-1 and will now need a win in its final game v. Chicago Fire on 11/4 to finish 3rd and hope for a wild-card berth into the Spring Premier Division.

Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia traveled to St. Louis to take on two of the other top-3 teams in the U14 Girls MRL First Division and unfortunately came up a little short in both games. On Saturday it was a 3-0 loss to JB Marine and Sunday a 2-0 defeat to Futura Academy. With a win in its final MRL game v. Chicago-Inter on 10/27 Brasilia can still finish 2nd in the Division and qualify for the Spring Premier Division.