The CV Thunder U9 boys came home undefeated from their first-ever soccer tournament, the Vancouver Whitecaps Cup.
Under the watchful eyes of former Team Canada player Sam Lenarduzzi and Whitecaps' striker Omar Salgado, they were up against professionally run and coached soccer academy teams of the Greater Vancouver area and did extremely well, especially when considering the fact that our local soccer season has not yet started and Vancouver plays year-round.
Coaches Mark Toomer, Kirby Fisher and Bruno Munger are proud of these boys and what they have accomplished against some of the best-run soccer academies of Vancouver.
In four games they scored 13 goals and conceded only three, missing the gold medal game only by goal difference.
Lots of credit goes to the goalies and defensively assigned players who allowed only three goals the entire tournament.
Congratulations to the foundation of the team: Carson Bell, Chay Trickett, Henry Toomer, Andrew Munger, Stefan Collett, Max Lloyd and Nick Jackson.
The more offensive group consisting of Ty Fisher, Kieran Gillis, Austin Stevenson, Ambrose Tinmouth and Jack Boan was on the other hand constantly creating havoc in the opponents end and managed to score 13 goals, not counting two missed by the referee.
The highlight of the tournament was most certainly the game versus the Coastal FC Prospects select team. This well-prepared team pressured our boys right from the kick-off with some great passing and hard physical play. It was no surprise they went up 1-0 after about 10 minutes. But minute by minute our boys started pushing back and with every won tackle and every successful pass they got stronger and stronger.
In the second half they slowly started dominating the game and scored the well-deserved equalizer. They even had a few chances to win the game but in the end the draw was certainly the right result in this highly entertaining soccer game.
After such a success everybody agrees that this is just the beginning for this bunch. There is much more to come from this talented group of players.
– Comox Valley Thunder