See any names you recognize or know to be strong players, zero in on those targets as players to stop first: 

In a defensive battle from the beginning, Summerside B Tier 2 EMDSL travelled well to St Columban tying the home team 1-1 Thursday night, following a Keagan penalty kick executed well. 

Keagan scores another penalty kick, worked hard off the ball and provided a scare, coming out with a very bad cramp later in the match, noted Coach Carl. Coach Nathan adds, "I would say too that defensively, they held their own after St Columban scored. Some really good wall and defensive formation against free kicks, didn't give them any freedom, which made it easy for Beau, with lots of space"

Jack and Eric in the central midfield were hustling and stopped at least four goal scoring oportunities. Eric and Agelesh offere a couple of scoring chances on the right, unfortunate not to finish them. Luke tried out central forward spot, creating space, drawing a lot of attention. It really was a full team effort, Nathan added. 

In Friday night football, AJ, Hayden (2) and Ryan rallied the troops to the 4-3 victory over Nathan Matos and his Croatian club. 

"Really solid game across the board," said Coach Carl. Croatia earned a questionable PK and scored on one or two free kicks on more questionable calls from Southend U15 boys favourite referee. Hayden's first goal was a soft, flukey slow to cross the line goal, second was a banger. Ryan had a beautiful stroke on a free kick goal. AJ opened the scoring muscling home a stolen ball on a solo run and finish. And 3 yellows for Croatia, 0 for Southend Summersiders As. 

On Tuesday night, London TFC U15 Boys Regional team travelled to Waterloo to take on BVB Dortmund International Academy U15 Boys, dropping a 4-0 decision, in a game that could easily have been 2-1 if you eliminate mistakes and take greater advantage of chances. The scoreline flatters Waterloo somewhat, as did the same in the Kick Off Cup, when London lost 2-0 in a 50 minute tournament game. Jaxon had the only on target chance for LTFC on the night.

In London, Southend United Summerside Killer Bs took on Lambeth FC Black at North London, topping them 3-1 on goals from Keagan, then Alex with the brace. Coach Nathan, flying solo on the night, did a masterful job. "It was a tense 1st half trying to get their feet under them. Was a pretty soft foul by Oli in the box that gave them their PK goal, I don't think Beau was really tested after that. Back 3 plus 4 mid really took away any chances for the rest of the game. Keagan was fouled in the box and awarded a PK, unfortunately didn't convert so was 1-0 at half. 2nd half was a better effort from all. 1st goal from Keagan was a scramble in the box and came out to a tap in at the post. 2nd goal was a corner from Junsei in the box that met Alex's foot and slowly trickled into the net. 3rd goal was a beautiful wing pass by Kaden to Jack, who slotted it to Alex at the top of the box and just powerful enough to hit the net bottom corner. With 15 to go we really battled hard and kept Beau clean of any threat."

Friday night brought equal fortunes for Summerside A Team U15 Boys in EMDSL Tier 1 play against Nor'west, a perennial leader in the team. AJ did score, but unfortunately so did Norwest 7 times. All in all, not a terrible game, but a good learning experience, teaching Summerside the importance of Intensity for one, Intelligence of play, for two, and Integrity, not letting a rising score get to you and ensuring your encouraging teammates with positivity, like Jake did with Beau. It can't be easy being that last line of defense when the 10 boys in front haven't been able to keep Norwest away, and multiple times. Next time, Summerside will aim to see further improvement on the three I's, the focus points of this 2024 Summerside outdoor season.

NEXT UP

WRSL Match - Sunday, July 7, 2024 - Windsor TFC @ London TFC U15B, Tricar Field, 1 p.m.

Training - Sunday, July 7, 2024 - T1s and T2s Training Session, 2 p.m. at Meadowgate Park soccer field

Training - Tuesday, July 9, 2024 – Tier 1 and 2 Session or Possible change in plans for this one, if we can figure out a Watch-Party-Plan for Canada vs. Argentina - 6 p.m. (TBD)

EMDSL T2 Match - Thursday, July 11, 2024 - Strathroy United @ SEU Summerside B U15B, Windemere Field 1, 6:30 p.m.

EMDSL T1 Match - Friday, July 12, 2024 - SEU Summerside B U15B @ Alliance FC White, Fanshawe College, 6:30 p.m.

Jafet, Jaden and Jaxon created the best scoring chances for London TFC U15 boys in their losing battle with Kitchener TFC, getting shutout 3-0 at North London Athletic Park field #3 Tuesday night. 

Jaden offered the opening early shot high and wide with a left foot strike, from a low pass from Jaxon on the right. Jaxon followed up with a wide header off of an excellent Matt cross, another player who was one of the clear top performers was Matt, running for days throughout his 70-odd minutes. Jafet had another amazing attempt off a free-kick, over the wall and almost past the Kitchener keeper who was cheating closer to the far post - good save. Jaxon had one more interesting chance, winning a ball down the left side, to the end line, attempting a cross to Jaden or Matt top of the six, hitting a defender and deflecting almost over the reach of the goalkeeper, another good save. 

NEXT UP:

In the end, Woodstock prevailed 5-3 over Southend United Summerside B in EMDSL Tier 2 U15 boys division Tuesday night at North London Athletic Park Field 3. But the journey there was definitely interesting and exciting for on-lookers. 

Woodstock opened the scoring about 17 minutes in, followed by a Hayden marker, from Agelesh at about 21 minutes. Then there was a long stretch of Southend dominance throughout out the remainder of the half, with Beau facing only a few shots, to Summerside earning about 8 on target against the Woodstock keeper, with some really good saves and luck. Hayden added to his tally, finishing an Owen started play, down the left side, giving Summerside the lead, about the 59th minute. All that needed to happen was possession, ball control and if chances came for another insurance marker, take those. Instead Woodstock scored 4 unanswered goals, on a collapse of team-defending. Luke, Sam and Andrew did all they could to stop the onslaught. Beau got unlucky on a strange bounce for one of the goals. And, it could have been more, with various breakaways, and Luke having to sprint back goal-side to win those battles, and one additional save, as a ball was just about to continue in for a sixth. Thankfully for Summerside, some solace was given as a penalty was awarded to them in the 88th minute, where a confident Ali F-R stepped up and sent the goalkeeper the wrong way, hammering it middle-right. 

This game was lost in the midfield, as too many second half giveaways and limited to no effort in tracking back, lead to too many Woodstock-overload chances in Summerside's defensive third. This needs to clean up, whether it's the midfield working harder to be in the best position to defend any sort of turnover or winning balls first on goal kicks either way or not diving in, allowing the opportunity for an easy beat and breakaway. Formation may need adjustments, if we cannot work with what we have implemented, adds Coach Duncan after the match.  

Summerside A Team met Whitecaps London Friday night, only to be rained and stormed out while down 1-0; a reschedule will be expected soon. 

NEXT UP:

For Tier 1s - 

For Tier 2s -

For Regional London TFC U15s -

Andrew, AJ, Keagan and AJ again scored for Southend United Summerside A Team, helping them earn their first win in Tier 1 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League play this 2024 outdoor season, winning 4-1 over Condor FC on this sunny Sunday afternoon at Meadowgate Park soccer field in Summerside subdivision. 

Lots of good passing, attacking penetration, Noah patrolling the midfield, Riyan, Nathan and Jake S dominating the defensive centreback zone, Ryan controlling the 18 yard box, as goalkeeper. Nathan gave up a penalty, that was plowed high and away by former Summersider Diland P. Ryan was luck to avoid a DOGSO (denial of goal scoring opportunity) when he wiped out Diland just outside the 18, but referee Peter saw it as a good challenge (hmm - we'll take it?). The only goal came from a strong freekick from the Condor side. 

Immediately following this match, we shift focus to London TFC in Ontario Cup play against Mississauga City Inter, same colours as past Southend and parent partner Inter Milan. Unfortunately this game didn't go so well for the London club. as Alexis was the only one able to score on a cross from Jaden. Both strikers went on to miss 2 or 3 chances each. Matt even missed a sitter, earlier in the match, and Mississauga took immediate advantage following that miss, barrelling down the pitch to make it 1-0 as quick as the missed chance was kicked back in to play. 

Mississauga dominated possession, London couldn't control play for more than a couple of touches or beyond 1 pass more often than not. London needs to get back to basics and quick possessive forward moving passing, less work dribbling, and make the ball do the work through smart quick passes. Too many giveaways and again, more often than not in the London defending third. Not where you want to dribble out of trouble or give up many passing interceptions - disappointing, but easily fixed by doing the oppositve. 

NEXT UP:

London TFC U15 Boys team hosted Woodstock FC Tuesday night at North London Field 3, falling 1-0 midway through the first half, then 2-0 after about 35 minutes. London TFC battled hard to score before half on a Jaxon blast from the right side of the 18, with defender tight, Jaxon hit hard and pinged the right post, with the ball sciting toward the other post, landing just behind the goal-line and in for the score. 

At 2-1 it wasn't looking great, as Woodstock continued to pressure the second half, and some strange decisions and giveaways at the back, lead to further opportunities, though most were fired high or wide of Emerson in net from the 2010 regionals, in support of Roenik taking a mild concussion day off. However, LTFC did eventually earn their own free kick, after 3 yellow cards - Mason, Jafet and Matt, with Jafet to take their kick top left, offensive side of just outside the 18 yard box. He hit it clean, though it looked to be going high and wide of the top right corner of goal, it curled beautifully to nestle into the that top corner of inside-goal netting. What a class shot to tie the match at 2-2. And it went on to finish this way. 

NEXT UP: 

Working backwards, Croatia U17s topped your Southend United Summerside A Team T1 EMDSL U15 boys 5-2 Tuesday night at Regina Mundi College Field. Coach Carl points out that with the size, age and overall 1 to 2 years of training difference, our Summersiders fared very well, considering. Riyan and Ryan scored for Summerside. 

Tuesday afternoon saw Clarke Road take on our Summersiders regular nemesis (i.e. in Matt, Nathan, Ollie days) or recruiting pool (all the same names), however you wish to view it, but this time in Glencoe Secondary School this time. Final score was a little lopsided for Jaxon and Jacob S's Clarke Road Trojans, who won about 10-1 with Jaxon scoring one, and Jacob playing stellar defensively. Jaxon even contributed in the second half at right-back, winning a cross in his own six, beating a smaller player twice, then a bigger Shamus, followed by just eluding Ollie, then two more converging players sandwiched him slightly as he broke through by mid-field, poking the ball ahead to his teammate. In addition to our regular Summersiders, brother of a recent trialist Phil Mensah, Dennis, also scored for Clarke Road Tuesday. 

Lastly, a big weekend for past Summersiders Ryan G, Jaxon and Matt, this time in London TFC colours and facing off against Waterloo and Kitchener Saturday, followed by Windsor Caboto and Windsor TFC on Sunday. LTFC lost 2-0 to Waterloo in a match they dominated, outshooting BVB IA Waterloo 6 - 2; 5 of those LTFC shots from Jaden. Both goals very unlucky for LTFC keeper and defenders.

London went on Saturday to beat Kitchener in the 50 minute touranment game 3-1 - a team that beat LTFC back in November about 10-0, before Jaxon was able to join them while he nursed his collar bone injury. LTFC was going into the match hopeful that Kitchener hadn't brought their grey uniforms and would have to forfeit, rather than play white  vs white strips, away team must change. Jeronimo scored the first goal on some great work with Jafet. The former Condor teammates were elated with that 1-1 half time score.

In the end it was a super sub situation, whereby both Jaxon and Matt came on with only 15 minutes or so left in the 50 minute match, and having been on the bench the whole time, only for Matt to score the go-ahead and insurance goals, the first coming from excellent pressure from Jaxon on the midfielder who was forced to pass back to his defender who proceeded to lose the ball immediately to Matt's attacking pressure. Matt spinted his dribble in to the top of the 18 and fired near-side to beat the keeper.  Happy for the result, they went into Sunday with at least one game if they lose or draw it, and possibly another if they won against Windsor Caboto. 

Win they did on Sunday, going up 2-0 by half time on goals from, you guessed it, Jeronimo again and Jaden, at last ;) After wholesale changes into the second half, LTFC struggled a bit to gel and Caboto scored to make it 2-1 and started to get scary. Alexis ended up adding an insurance marker and the goal that put the team through to the semifinal later that day against Windsore TFC. 

Windsor TFC are a juggernaut, and the fans are at very least interesting. Unfortunately, our LTFC boys coudn't maintain Windsor, due to a couple of silly situations. Handball in the box from Eddie, PK goal Windsor TFC. Foul on a breakaway from Eddie on Windsor attacker, then another slide-tackle from Michael, but he won the ball, unfortunately too soon after Eddie's foul, thus the Free-Kick that lead to another Windsor TFC goal. Jaxon got on early, as Jeronimo was injured, and played left back, and played it reasonably well. No goals down his side was impressive - a few won balls and good passes out of trouble. Windsor went on to win the semi-final 3-0, and then beat up on Kitchener in the final 4-0. Alliance lost in the other Semi Final to Kitchener. 

Now you're all caught up. Next up - Tier 2 Killer Bs travel to Woodstock, Thursday, May 16, 6:30 p.m. and Tier 1 A Team face Southwest London at North London Field 2, 6:30 p.m. on May 17. 

Southend United Summerside A Team came back strong in a battle with top 3 team Golden Feet Friday night at Fanshawe, with AJ and Keagan tallying the only Summerside scores. Jacob made outstanding saves throughout and most particularly in the latter stages of the match to keep it 2-2 at the time. The A Team was unlucky to give up the late goal. Tighter full team defending will see these scenarios through to 90 minute and even possibly create chances for the 3 to be on the Summer(side) next time. 

In Toronto, Saturday afternoon, London TFC U15 regionals participated in their second round of MilkUp Ontario Cup play, facing Canada First Academy at their home pitch, St Patrick Secondary School. Jaxon scored early in the first 5 to 10 minutes with a chipped ball toward goal from the top of the 18, past the charging keeper, and the Centre Back was slightly late clearing the ball from just behind the goal line - 1-0. CFA scored on a great shot before the half ended tied 1-1. 

The second half saw poor defensive communication at the top of their own 18 turn in to a turnover near the defensive end line, #10 Santiago from CFA, won the ball with some teammates, darted to the top corner of the six and fired a left foot shot, short side, high and past Rhoenik - 2-1 CFA. LTFC battled hard, but nothing was going in, not a great corner from Jafet to Jaxon's head, just over the cross bar, nor Alexis firing up the left foot, wide and high a couple of times. Finally in stoppage time, it happend, Alexis pulled off the low power shot, from left side of goal to far right inside the post for the tie - 2-2. Moments later it was the final whistle and on to penalties. 

They scored, Alexis scored, CFA scored, Jafet scored, the home team scored, Jaxon scored, Goalkeeper for CFA scored, on the only one tipped by Rhoenik so far, Eddie stepped up started his fun and fancy rounding approach from the right of ball, rounding left and forward with a feint and fired right, goalie guessed right and made the save. CFA finished with the fifth and final goal to move on in the MilkUp Cup. 

NEXT UP:

Tuesday, June 4, 2024 - Strathroy United vs. Southend United Summerside B @ Hank Van Denk Fields, Strathroy 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, June 9, 2024 -  Southend United Summerside B vs. Lambeth 2010 Black @ Meadowgate Soccer Field # 1, 12:30 p.m.

Tuesday, June 11, 2024 - London TFC U15 vs. Woodstock FC @ North London Field 3, 9 p.m.

Sunday, June 16, 2024 - London TFC U15 vs. Caboto FC Academy U15 @ Tricar Field, 12:30 p.m.

Summerside B boys looked like they were going to lay a beat down on Lambeth FC this afternoon at Meadowgate soccer field, going up 4-0, only to allow three unanswered goals, and then tackc on two more of their own to win 6-3 on the day. Oliver H lead the scoring with the hat trick of three goals, coupled with one assist. Hayden had two goals and two assists, while Kevin added the opening goal, and assisted the final one. Brewer assisted Kevin's opening goal too. 

Defending as an 11-player unit, for 90 minutes was part of the story of this match. There was too little midfield and forward drop-off in intesity and central defensive support, and a bit much jumping in from defenders, rather than focusing on delaying attacks - perhaps from the excitement of being up 4-0.

Integrity, Intensity and Intelligence were stressed at halftime, in team-talk with coaches.  Intelligent communication, chance creation and clearances, along with increased Intensity were needed in defensive organization to win balls and move them in the right direction, in order to retain the cleansheet earned through about the first 35 minutes.

Integrity is using all of that, along with keeping your cool - Brewer questioning the referee in a intelligent manner, with integrity, regarding some pushes not called for fouls was a good demonstration. Eric needed to tap into his intergrity by ignoring name-calling and simply walking away. Instead, he earned a yellow, which 9 times out of 10 will go to the person retaliating, whether an on field play-foul, or through language, keep it clean, be the better man, and show your integrity in that regard, say the Coaches. 

NEXT UP:

Western Regional Soccer League U15 Boys - Tuesday, June 11, 2024 - London TFC vs. Woodstock FC @ North London, 9 p.m.

EMDSL T1 - Sunday, June 16, 2024 - Southend United Summerside A vs. Condor FC @ Meadowgate Park soccer field, 12:30 p.m.

Alliance FC London of Western Regional Soccer League U15 boys division got the jump on London TFC Sunday night, going up 4-0 by a soggy half time. The second half got worse for both teams weather-wise, with torential downpours, but Alexis earned LTFC U15 regional boys a Penalty Kick, for which there was some debate over who would take, but captain Jafet took charge letting Alexis know Jaxon had won the right in Friday training, so here was his chance for his first goal with LTFC, and did he ever take it. Top right, as the goalkeeper dove left. This was all LTFC could muster, but the second half was much better than their first and really they never showed any quit, going full tilt basically all game, but for those four moments. 

London TFC topped Milton Magic in Ontario Cup prelimary round play today at Mustangs Field at Western, winning 4-0 in the end. Alexis with the hat-trick, and Matt M adding the additional goal. Everyone played Coach Cameron's plan to perfection. Standouts beyond Matt and Alexis, likely include Maldini, Jafet, Julian H, D and Jaxon I with Jaden upfront. 

Clarke Road SS Trojans celebrated the TVRA Soccer season's end with a bang, topping West Elgin 11-0 at Tricar Field Tuesday afternoon. Jaxon scored the opening goal on a great low cross from Chase, steered in awkwardly off the cross bar, down and into goal. Jaxon's second was a nice run, receiving a channel pass from Colton and he poked it into the far corner. Finally, the third, perhaps mose impressive saw Jaxon beat about four West Elgin defenders, squeezing through two for a final pass into the low left corner for the hat trick. 

Southend United Summerside B Team faced off at North London Field 1 against St-Columban, in another exciting tight matchup. Both teams looked relatively like they were still in early season form - Summerside with limited possession and a few turnovers here and there, allowing far too many shots on Beau, who was spectacular stopping about 11 or 12 shots that actually went on target. St-Columban, struggled to get really good shots though, and only tucked one away, after Keagan had already scored his first of two penalties. 

The A Team was away to Sarnia in Tier 1 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League U15 Division play, also on Thursday, and dropped behind by a couple goals, only to mount a spectacular comeback to finish in a draw. AJ scored both goals, one on a great forward pass from Andrew to Hayden, then Hayden, mimicking his setup of Keagan's goal last week, low-crossed in front of the keeper, behind the defender and AJ snuck in to poke home the goal. In other highlights, Sarnia had a red card, while Andrew collected his first yellow. 

NEXT UP:

Thursday, May 30, 2024 - Southend United Summerside B vs. Lambeth FC Black, 6:30 p.m. @ Windermere soccer field 1

Friday, May 31, 2024 - Golden Feet vs. Southend United Summerside A, 6:30 p.m. @ Fanshawe College soccer field

Despite having lead both 1-0 and 2-1 for upwards of 75 minutes of their TVRA matchup with undefeated Strathroy CI boys' varsity soccer team, Clarke Road fell in the end 4-2, after Matt M (former Summersider, now LTFC and Strathroy CI player) joined the foray. 

Jaxon may have scored the nicest goal, with a cross from Cane to Jaxon's head and inside the far post - a beauty. Matt's was equal, but came off an error from the defensive, goalkeeper communication and GK handling, allowing Matt a simply shot alone on goal. Jaxon made it 2-1, looking like a Clarke win, Matt secured the 4-2 victory for Strathroy in the end. 

In Southend United Summerside B team news, Summersiders visited Woodstock FC at BMO Field, Cowan Park tonight, pulling out the 1-0 victory off of a Jack goal from a Junsei corner-kick. Intensity, integrity and intelligence showed well for our Tier 2s. Beau was Brilliant, Andrew, Aiden, Luke, Wes and Jack held the fort at the back for the cleansheet, while Junsei, Ali, Keagan, Jack again, Brewer and Agelesh dominated the central midfield. Sam, Kaden did well on the wings, and Eric, Brewer, Keagan, Agelesh, Kaden, Owen, Jack and more did really well up front, with various shots. 

NEXT UP:

Clarke Road Secondary School saved their best for later in the second half against Montcalm Secondary Tuesday afternoon at Western's Alumni Field, winning 2-1. 

Chase C opened the scoring for the Trojans, making it 1-0 about 60 minutes in with a sneaking run past his defender in the 18 yard box, following with a strong poke to the far corner. Jaxon wasn't to be denied achieving at least one of his 3 or 4 good chances, equalling Chase with another sneak round the side of his defender goal, firing just high enough to clear the sprawling Montcalm keeper. 

Clarke Subs came in for the final 10 minute push, bent, allowing one goal, but didn't break. Great team effort Trojans! 

Fun In Football For All (FIFFA) continued with preseason play pitting Condor FC 2010/2009 Tier 1 Boys against Southend United Summerside A Team Sunday afternoon at Citywide. Summersiders powered through to a 6-1 winning result. 

Andrew R opened the scoring, with Noah scoring a banger from distance and left-foot. Noah added another from a penalty kick won on a Condor handball in the 18-yard box - slotting it top right corner, with confidence. Keagan scored on a direct free kick, while Andrew R and Hayden added the additional goals on a nice left-footer from Hayden and another solid high, dipping shot from the top of the 18, from Andrew. 

Jacob B played well in goal, grasping all the high balls that entered his goal area and distributing positively at all times. Jake, Ryan, Riley, Kyle, Andrew, Wes and Nathan all defended well, with support from midfield from Noah, Riyan, Ryan (when in MF), Adrian, Keagan, Logan and Hayden ran the front line well. 

Come out and support the Tier 1 EMDSL Southend United Summerside A Team, as they take on Condor FC, 2 p.m. at Citywide Field #1. Let's fill the stands with T2 and lots of parent support, if you are available today. 

So much soccer happening behind our scenes and in front of them too, at Summerside CSC, from; 

1. St Thomas T3 v. Summerside Killer Bs preseason, 2-1 victory at Citywide, to...
2. Fun In Football Festival for ALL T1s and T2s mixed into 3-team tournament, banger goals (Noah), all at Western Alumini Stadium

With the following to come: 

1. Condors FC v. Summerside A Team at Citywide tomorrow at 2 p.m.
2. Season starting May 16 (T2 - Killer Bs) and May 17 (A Team) - schedule is posted here and at EMDSL.ca
3. July 20 - Tiamo Festival Cup - Driven by Kia - hosted by Roma Soccer Club in St Catherines is booked for T1 A Team
4. July 13 - to be booked upon final registration payments - Soccerfest at St Thomas for T2 Killer Bs

We are off to an exciting start to the Southend United Summerside season. 

In other Summerside alumini news: 

Jaxon scored Clarke Road SS school's first goal of the season, his first of his rookie, debut appearance in regular season against Medway, in a 3-1 losing caus, on the previous Thursday, following a big loss to Andrew and Ryan M's John Paul II 5-nil, on the previous Tuesday.

This Tuesday, Jaxon fared well against Saunders, playing about 1/2 the game, and then featured in about 2/3s of the London Christian 2-1 win on Thursday. 

London TFC's Regional U15 Boys schedule/standings, etc... will also be published here so we can all keep an eye on Ryan G, Matt M and Jaxon's continued successful play at their new club. Hope to see some of you out there soon ;)  

...in Pics: 
    

Coaches, players and parents alike are all excited about our 3-team intra-club Southend United Summerside 2nd Annual Fun In Football For All (FIFFA) Festival playing out at UWO Stadium this afternoon at 2 p.m. for all our Tier 1 and 2 U15 boys. 

The day will begin with splitting up into three teams, coaches being assigned to a team without their son/player on it, warm-ups, and then right into either Red, White or Blue teams playing each other, i.e. Red v White, then White v Blue, then Blue v Red, while the third team continues with Soccer-olympiad passing, dribbling and sprint challenges in a  endzone area of the field/stadium. Teams will rotate through all teams playing each other in 20 minute mini-games and all three participating in the endzone Soccer-olympiad. 

Keep in mind your top performers game-play, and soccer-olympiad participation, looking for positive play, performance and team support, and for some rewawrd and recognition from teammates afterwards. We will also try to fit in a full squad pre-game pic and/or post-game pics too. 

Looking forward to lots of fun, this coming after T2s beat St Thomas last Sunday at Citywide, and we look further forward to our T1s taking on visiting Condors next Sunday again at Citywide. What a fun time of year - and the weather only enhances that fun. 

Know:

Southend United Summerside B Tier 2 2009 boys team took on St Thomas Soccer Club's 2009 boys T3 team Sunday afternoon at Citywide. The Summersiders prevailed, topping the Reds with a score of 2-1 over a four quarter game, to ensure lots of good coaching was able to be shared at 20 minute intervals. 

Eric M opened the scoring on an excellent steal and dribble from Keagan just Summerside's side of half. He took St Thomas on a diaganol run toward goal, finding Hayden with a give and go, then fired low to the keeper's left, where Eric followed through to pot the sitter. Agelesh and one St Thomas player scored in the latter quarters of the match to round out the 2-1 final result. 

NEXT UP:

 , April  , 2024 - SE Summerside FIFFA Festival - UWO Stadium 

Agenda Items for Southend United Summerside: 

1. Bring A and B teams together to gel as best they can early and develop teams that compete at these higher levels than 2023
2. Finalize Tournament plans
3. Tournament plans hinge on finalizing ALL player final payments 11 outstanding 5 T1s, 6 T2s
4. Uniform handouts - T2 done, but 1 to come; T1 to come, next opportunity

On that note, let us introduce your teams - only two are missing, one late signing, Alex C and two, Riley, as his was handed out with T2s on Friday. Below is a sample new jersey front and back, an homage to the 2024 District Cup 2010 Division champs and your T2 and T1 rosters, from left to right.  

LS Croatia 2010 and Alliance FC London 2011 boys put forth amazing fight Sunday at BMO Centre only to fall short on their EMDSL District Cup aspirations, both losing in the semi-final and final respecitvely to Southend United Summerside A boys, 7-2 in the semi and 3-1 in the Final. 

Andrew lead the scoring on the day with a "hatty" against Croatia, and 2 in the final, 5 goals total. Kyle scored the winning goal in the final, off an inbound from Ryan, that connected with his hands, undetected by the ref falling for a quick poke into goal. Andrew added the insurance marker against Alliance, securing his brace (2 goals).

Further scoring in the Croatia match was opened by Hayden, with Jaxon adding #2 and #3, then the two noted above from Andrew, then Ryan on an inbound tipped off the fingertips of the Croatia GK and Andrew rounded out the goals in that 7-2 semifinal.

A team cannot score 10 goals in two games without great goalkeeping (Jacob), solid defending (Noah, Kyle, Jake, Atticus, Ryan, and Riyan) and lots of solid passing, turning into assists on goals, like what we saw from Andrew (2), Hayden (3), Brewer, Jake and Jaxon; and general two-way excellent play from Marcus and AJ - what a team effort and two games for the Summerside boys! 

NEXT UP:

Exhibitions for T1s and T2s, 2024 Outdoor seasons, and Tournament decisions and planning

Hayden from Andrew, Kyle from Brewer and Andrew from Marcus got the goals needed to win.

And, with dominant ball control, distribution and defending from Jacob, Noah, Riley, Kyle, Ryan, Jake and Atticus and supportive intelligent possession and transition from defending organization to attacking organization from Riyan, AJ, Jaxon, Southend came out on top of Alliance in the quarter finals of District Cup EMDSL play Sunday afternoon at BMO Centre, winning 3-1 with all goals coming in the first half. 

Well done Summersiders and see you in the Semi-Finals against LS Croatia 2010B. That's right the last place team knocked off the favored Alliance, proving predictions are just that, and any given Sunday...

NEXT UP:

After a near-dominant first half, Summerside did their best to continue that trend in the second today, unfortunately to no avail, as Diversitas Law Group were able to sneakily slot through a corner kick, as they fired low and hard and it just misdirected for Finleigh into goal. 

Diversitas second came from another strange bounce around goal, and still found the back of the net, somehow. Finleigh was her phenomenal self, making amazing saves, one with her face, and both clearing and goal-kicking divinelly. This loss came down to a better overall team finally re-finding their stride, despite their recent struggles. 

Jeremy, Jesse, Rylan, Liam did their best to defend, while Zach, in one of his strongest matches, almost had a couple of goals, which could have made it interesting. Carter took most of the inbounds, unfortunately not enough mess in the goal area to create a clear-cut chance. Erfaan, Aaron, Keegan, contributed solid efforts, and Mason and Jeffrey were strongest threats, outside of Zach entering the goal mouth. Finishing was off, unfortunately.

At last the league champions (going into the final game of the season undefeated) Southwest London FC 2010s dropped their final match of the 2023-2024 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League season, as Southend United Summersiders overcame the underdog label for this one match, topping Southwest 3-1 in a hottly contested game. 

Jacob returned to the starting goalkeeper spot, while Jake lead the back-line strongly with support from Kyle, Atticus, Riyan and Ryan. The attack was lead by the starting lineup of Jaxon, Andrew and Hayden. All three colected goals, while Andrew and Hayden both tallied an assist each.

Andrew scored in the first half on a steal from the midfield, he carried, beat a couple and fired home. Jaxon scored a little later in the half to make it 2-0 on a left side carry in from Hayden, who fired a low cross that bounded to Jaxon for the tap-in. Southwest made it interesting scoring, also in the first half, to make it 2-1. Time was ticking at and time it was looking like Southwest may tie it up, but Southend turned it up a notch, shutting down # 9 and # 20 for the remainder of the match and often winnging balls in midfield, to take in on goal for the chances. Finally with about 4 or 5 minutes left Hayden burst down the right side, just a little quicker than his opponent defenders, and fired hard an low beating the keeper to his far-post right side (inside the left-post for Hayden). A huge relief and insurance goal to cap the spoiling game in a near perfect season for Southwest. 

NEXT UP?(that's right there is a next up - next week):

Summerside Gators could have won similar to last week's 4-0 result over London Optimist Bandits, with the chances Mason, Carter, Jeffrey, Jeremy generated. In the end Jeremy was the goal-scoring hero. Aaron, Erfaan, Rylan, Liam, Finleigh, Oliver and Zach all contributed positively to the clean sheet result of 1-0 over Bandits in a SWISL Sop B Division play-in to reach the Quarterfinal game next week versus Diversitas Law Group. 

The coming quarterfinal match, for DLG and Summerside, could prove to be super exciting, as all Summerside games have been. Diversitas cruised through much of the 2023-24 season undefeated, until meeting Summerside, when they had just 1 defeat. Summerside shut them out in a 0-0 draw and since Diversitats has struggled to win again. Summerside will hope to take advantage of this trend. 

Mason and Jeffrey may have stood out with 3 and 1 goals respectively in a 4-0 victory, but the 0 part of this scoreline doesn't come about, if not for Oliver, Finleigh, Liam, Jeremy and some masterful team defending for the full 40 minutes. 

Mason rallied the troops with three great goals, Jeffrey rounded out the Gators scoring, after multiple efforts and great chances. Assist were shared throughout the team with Aaron, Erfaan and Jeremey tallied assists, and Jeffrey's goal was won from a short goal kick where he stole from the defender, took a touch and fired it home. 

Next up are the SouthWest Indoor Soccer League Sophomore B Division playoffs, with Gators earning sole rights to seventh spot now, and thus get to participate in a better play-in to the next round, facing the 11th place team. Mar. 16, 2024. 

NEXT UP:

Despite best efforts on all but set-piece and 1v1 fronts, Southend United Summerside U15 2009 Boys fell 2-1 to Southwest London 2010 Tier 1 Boys in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League - 2010 Division indoor season play Saturday at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field. 

Southwest took the lead in the first on a set-piece gone wrong, with a wonky wall, various defenders and forwards just hanging out and no one worried about their sharp shooter, until it was far too late. Organized Set-Piece Defending will be a focus for sure for Coaches Duncan, Steve, Carl and Nathan moving forward, let's figure these out together, so we can win these moments better, added Coach Duncan post-match. 

Southend did well to battle back to a draw position at 1-1 with Jaxon finishing a great, dangerous inbound from Brewer, that Hayden, Andrew had a crack at and Jaxon was happy to be johnny-on-the-spot when it bounded his way and he poked it toward the open low right corner. 

Unfortunately, sharp-shooter was able to deke Noah just enough to wrap his left foot around the ball with about 5 minutes or so to regain the lead, and the Southwesterners just hunkered down, out hustled and played heads up passing soccer against Southend the rest of the way. 

NEXT UP:

What would a Summerside Gators game be without a roller coaster or many heart-in-mouth moments for and against? 

Rylan opened the scoring in the first half, giving the Gators a 1-0 lead, however, Summerside couldn't hold on to that to half, giving one up to Dynamo to level things at 1-1 by half-time.  Oliever D was strong in goal as always, as was Finleigh on D, taking a bulk of the goal and inbound defensive zone kicks. Jesse and Liam worked hard defensively, as did Jeremy full field defensive and offensively. Jeffrey was wicked fast on the wings as always and Erfaan and Aaron got stuck-in as much as possible. 

Keegan, Mason lead the front line most of the time, but couldn't generate quite enough offense to steal a win or draw. It was another one of those high-energy games, that just lacked shooting finishing and passing to create goals around the opponents net - maybe next week. 

NEXT UP:

Southend United Summerside A 2009 boys got off to the best possible start in this derby match with Southwest London 2010 boys in EMDSL 2010 Division action Saturday at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field, leading 1-0, only to fall to 4 unanswered goals and 4-1 loss. 

Andrew lead the way with his goal in the first give minutes, but with mistakes in trying to dribble out the back, Southwest gained one back before halftime. 

Southwest couldn't be stopped after multiple defensive miscues with Summerside defenders trying to beat players with dribbles rather than smarter passing or clearances. Goal-kick distribution needed to be better, as did overall confidence and team engergy.

Summersiders will look to build on confidence, consistency and courage in 3 training sessions this week - Monday, debreifing the result and sharing White Oaks Public School big space between T1s and T2s, Wednesday for fitness, energy, confidence and consistency-building and Friday, Tier 2 training, open to T1s for this week only, to help further build team intensity. 

NEXT UP:

For Coach Duncan, Finleigh was far and away our player of the game. As much as Jeremy is everywhere on the pitch 90% of the time, for near equal amounts of Diversitas attack times, Finleigh was last player back, always ready and willing to throw herself into a clearance. Ollie was equal to the clean sheet at the back, stopping all that came his way. 

Jeremy lead the Gators in shots, and ultimately this one came down to the need be clinical around goal and bring pre-game training into game time play. Jeffrey had a 4 on 1 in the dying moments and had time to settle the ball, look up and make a sharp cross, instead firing a shot, while off-balance. Similarly, Carter on a corner needed to take advantage of 5 Summersiders in front of the net, instead took the shot from the side-line inboud, and it ended up hitting back-side-netting. Different choices on those two plays and it's likely 2-0. Clinical, in-moment thoughts will get goals going. 

NEXT UP:

London St Thomas Croatia struggled to get it going against an on form Southend United Summerside A team in 2010 Division EMDSL action at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field Saturday afternoon. 

Andrew opened the onslaught of scoring for the Summersiders, that took them to a 5-0 lead at half time. Jaxon followed Andrew's lead, then Andrew again, then Brewer then Jaxon once more before half. Assists were tallied by Marcus, Jacob B, Jake S, Atticus, Hayden in the first half scoring for Summerside. 

The second half saw Hayden open the scoring, with Croatia getting one back to make it 6-1 at the time. Kyle followed up with the next goal, then Hayden again and AJ rounded out the scoring, after the Croatia keeper made an amazing diving stop and it just fell to AJ's pounce and poke through the legs of the helpless keeper. Assists were few and far between in the second, as most were solo goal efforts from Hayden, Kyle and AJ, but Hayden's second was assisted my Jaxon. 

Overall 9-1 final score shows a dominant result not seen before in these ties, as Croatia has generally held their own against Southend's Summersiders - having only lost 3-1 and 4-2 previously. 

NEXT UP:

Summerside Gators fell 2-1 to Scotiabank Saturday morning at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field, despite Mason's header goal of the year, off of a solid Carter cross. 

Jeremy, Zach, Erfaan, Rylan, all contributed a solid performance though the full unit, including Jesse, Finleigh and Oliver, couldn't quite overcome Cohen's two big goals. 

NEXT UP:

Here are 7 things that I always say require no talent but help your team immensely:

> Punctuality

> Work ethic

> Energy

> Attitude

> Listening

> Being prepared

> Putting in extra practice off the field

In the words of Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard:

“Talent has to be applied daily to get the end product on the pitch. Part of my job as a coach is to ram home…talent is one thing, work ethic and applying it is another”.

Southend United Soccer Club and Summerside CSC would like to thank Katherine Rocha (Andrew R's mom) for all her wonderful support and assistance in bringing in Fundraising and Sponsorship over the past six months. Starting with Fireside Bar and Grill - Year-end Celebration and Trivia night back in October, and then with connections to Oxford Builders, joining our family as Gold Sponsors and now EllisDon as Gold Sponsorship too. What can we say, but thank you to Katherine, Oxford Builders and EllisDon. How impressive are all of you!? (rhetorical question)

Southend Unites Summerside A Team topped Alliance 2009 Boys 1-0 in 2010 Division EMDSL play Sunday afternoon, on a lone goal from Andrew, assisted by Hayden. Jacob stepped up in a big way, earning his league-leading 7th clean sheet tied with Southwest GK Velasquez. Impressive job all round for the Summersiders - sorry I missed it. 

I had to watch former Summersiders Matt, Ryan G and Jaxon regrettably get trounced by an OPDL level Windsor TFC, playing the Regional 2009 boys, with a final score of 12-1 for Windsor. The score flatters WTFC, as much of the goals came from players still learning their roles with the London group, and it was clear the WTFC boys have played together for a number of years. It can only get better from here. Alexis scored the lone London goal on a PK. 

Assessments are now complete and everyone should be getting their appropriate invites or explanation emails soon, if not already. Our hope was to be able to drum up enough interest to go 3 teams, but unfortunately 8 players and no coach can't create a third team for Tier 3.

We have attracted what we expect is a solid core of players to build upon, with ongoing development and moving our teams from T3 to T2 and T2 to T1 year over year. It will be challenging for everyone in their first years for each of these levels, but we coaches are here to help develop you through the challenges and to help you seek greater opportunities to improve upon your previous performance. 

Nathan, Steve, and of course Coaches Carl and Duncan look forward to working with eveyrone who's make their respective teams, and hope to be able to build a third next year - Coaches & Players Wanted ;) See you at the schools for training teams. 

Jaxon I, Matt M and Ryan G, of London TFC Regional, formerlly Southend United Summerside A players, learned their opponents in Western Region Soccer League recently: 

It will be a challenge, as London TFC has OPDL, and many of the other teams do not, so Regional clubs with OPDL affiliates typically have a greater challenge trying to take on teams that if they had OPDL, their Regional players would be there. Either way, should be a fun learning experience from start to finish, not unlike playing T2 EMDSL against 2008 boys teams. We'll see soon enough. 

Today, the boys take on Windsor TFC in a February friendly at Tricar, 1 p.m. I look forward to reporting on the boys' successes and experiences, as they go. 

Summerside Community Soccer Club Gators scored a big win to get back to a .500 winning percentage at 5-5-4 (W-L-D) and achieved even ground on goal differential, so far for the season, in a hotly contested 2-0 victory Saturday afternoon at BMO Centre's A&B Rental Field. 

Heroes included Finleigh and Oliver teaming up for the full game clean sheet, while Jeffrey and Mason scored the goals. Finleigh saved lots of challenging Puddle Pools' opportunities in the second half. Jeremy had his usual strong game. Keegan was close on a chance. Aaron was juggling on the run at one point, while Carter, Erfaan, Rylan, Liam and Zach all showed really strong performances. Very impressive match. 

NEXT UP:

Friday afternoon's PD Day for high schoolers loaned itself well to a gathering of about 37 Summerside trialists, shown here in pre-game dynamic stretch mode, heading into an exciting scrimmage tournament of three teams, in which yellow ended up the victor by the end of the two hour session. Hopefully great Fun In Football For All (FIFFA) was had by everyone. 

On Saturday, Jaxon and Duncan got to coach the Summerside Gators to an unfortunate, albeit super-exciting 1-0 loss to London Optimist Crush at BMO Centre's A&B Rental Field. 

Ollie played great and teamed up with his posts and defenders Jeremy, Rylan and Liam to only allow 1 goal, though it could potentially have been about 5. Great work! 

Keagan had a great chance or two, along with Mason, Aaron, Zach and Erfaan who were all working hard up front, and getting back to help as best they could. 

Later Saturday, former Summersiders - Matt McDonald, Ryan Galloway and Jaxon Inglis too on the 2010 London TFC Regional boys team with their new team, London TFC 2009 Regional Boys. It started tight but slowly broke wide open, and they ended up winning it about 12-1; with Matt and Ryan scoring, while Jaxon tallied 3 assists, 2 on corner kicks and 1 a poke through the 18 to the striker. 

Sunday morning saw Southend United Summerside take on Byron's 2010 boys, building a 2-0 lead by end of the first half. For the second, coaches were in full agreement that a switch-up might be fun. In hindsight, maybe some pre-game training on the idea, as well as notice may have been helpful, as the boys fell to 2-1, went up 3-1, then 3-2 again in the second, after the flip. 

However, it worked out just fine in the end, with Atticus, Riyan and Riley all adding goals in the second half to Marcus and Andrew's team leading 2 goals of the first half. Both have 10 on the season thus far. The result 5-2, maybe not the 8-0 of before, but an interesting test and experiment for the boys to test different skill sets. 

As yet uncertain where our A and B Summerside Teams of 2023 might land in 2024; here are some possible scenarios being discussed, along with some potential positive changes coming in form of sponsorship and coaching staff adjustments.  

Southend United Summerside A team is considering testing the waters of Tier 1 EMDSL for the 2024 Outdoor season, if it stays a 2009-player-only division. However no commitment has been made or will be until we get player/parent buy-in to the idea and decide closer to April, once EMDSL starts advising what the divisions will look like.

If we were to go Tier 1 with some or much of last year's Tier 2s and any new recruits, we'd like to bump up our Tier 3 crew to Tier 2, on the same premise of it happening only if a full 2009-born division is in place (if it's mixed, we re-think and likely go back to T3, same with Tier 1, back to Tier 2, if league is 2008/2009s)

Some additional good news, Oxford Builders has offered and committed to Gold Sponsorship through the 2024 Outdoor Season:

Another Sponsorship announcement is expected for next week too

For the upcoming season, we will also look to increase our participation from 1 tournament for T2s last season to 2 for T1s (if we go that route) and 1 for T2s (again, if we go that route). If we end up in mixed '08/09 T2 and T3 again, we will still make the same commitment to participate in 2 x T2 and 1 x T3 tournaments this year. T3 may be tougher, as it's harder to find Recreational/House League level tournaments. 

In other news, Coach Jamey and the Summerside coaching staff have chosen to part ways, so if Summerside B were to shift to a T2 team there will be a new coach in the mix... (again, all just in discussions stage at this point on the Tier piece - remembering Tier 3 = House League, basically like SWISL, but separate male/female leagues, Tier 2 is now considered Recreational, basically a step up from house league and toward Tier 1 the top tier at Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League levels)

As a result of this news, please welcome Coach Nathan Fry to the fold - his addition will lend strong soccer knowledge, skill and understanding, with a focus on development of all players willing to put in the effort to continuously aim to improve as well as maintaining Fun In Football For All. 

Lots to consider and likely lots more clarity to come. With assessments for our top tier team coming to a close soon, we will likely be able to solidfy A & B teams, and start building team dynamics, with commitments to 4 or 5 days a week of football. More to come on Team roster finalizing, registrations, training schedules through April/May and uniform orders, funding for the outdoor season, preseason plans, and then league planning, summer training and game day schedules. 

Can't wait to share next steps and more specific timelines and expectations soon. 

Southend United Summerside 2009 boys upended London-St. Thomas Croatia 2010 boys 4-2 Sunday morning at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field. 

Croatia opened the scoring, but conceded on a Jaxon corner that popped high in the goal-box, just off the goal line where AJ was johnny-on-the-spot to head home for the 1-1 tie at the time. The second half continued to show Croatia's young talent and speed, causing Jake, Ryan and Atticus trouble on the defensive end, and lead to their 2-1 lead over the Summersiders. Just 2 minutes later Atticus received an overlapping pass down the wing, dribbled relentlessly to goal for the goal to make it 2-2, tied again. Hayden to the rescue late, as he added a brace for the win and insurance, first goal assisted by Andrew, second, no assist, as Hayden powered through and past the defender to slot home past the keeper's left side. 

In other news, Summerside Gators topped London Optimist Suns 2-1 Saturday, in yet another hottly contested match.

Mason opened the scoring off of some nice buildup play from Carter, and beating Josh on a quick, snap shot. Various other chances went wide for Summerside, and soon after they gave up a goal to make it 1-1. Finleigh earned the 1st half cleansheet, and Oliver stifled Suns in the second, only allowing that 1 goal against. Aaron got the winning goal, more of an own goal, but it showed that when you fire on target in the attacking zone, good things happen. Jeffrey with tge hifh work wthic speed and composure got the ball in from right side of goal, where Aaron got a touch on ut and off of the defender and into the net 

Great game overall.

NEXT UP:

Summerside Gators struggled to score at BMO Centre's A&B Field, as they were shutout by London Optimist Knight 2-0 Saturday afternoon. 

Oliver stood on his head, but the two goals were more than enough for the Knights to put this one to bed and take the 3 points for themselves. 

Jeremy got a little rough, hurting himself and Domenic from the other team on the final play of the game. Hopefully they are both okay, and we can put that sort of over-agressive play away for future matches. 

Jesse, Carter, Mason all worked really hard to generate something alongside Jeremy, Oliver, Rylan (defensively and joining the attack). Erfaan, Keagan, Aaron all did their best to push forward. Goals just weren't in the cards for Gators on this Saturday. 

NEXT UP:

In Sunday News, your Southend United Summerside 2009 U15 boys team playing in the 2010 Boys Division of Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League, took care of busines, with 3-1 wins in each half of their match with Alliance FC London 2010 boys team, at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field - for a final score of 6-2, if you need the math done for you ;) 

Riyan lead the way with two early goals in the 7th and 9th minutes, both assisted by Jaxon, then Andrew, Marcus, Jaxon and Riley added their own markers to round out the result. Riley's demonstrated coaching direction does sometimes work, as we've often (maybe always) encouraged attacking-zone inbound kicks be taken at Goal, i.e. on target. Riley did this here. The ball flew at just the right power, trajectory and direction, on target of the goal, hit a defender and into the opposite corner from where the goal keeper was seeking the ball. Andrew and Marcus goals were classic Andrew and Marcus goals, as they found the corners of the net beautifully each. Jaxon rounded out the scoring with another Coaches-feel-good moment. He applied pressure immediately on the short goal-kick, won the ball with strength off the defender and left footed the ball past the keeper into the right corner. Riyan though, was man of the match for setting the tone of this match for everyone - Great all round team effort. 

Assists were tallied from Jaxon (2), Ryan, Andrew and Hayden - Excellent passing efforts from these guys and much more on this team today. 

NEXT UP

In Summerside Sonics soccer Saturday at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Field, the short-handed, subless squad stayed safe, trying to save energy, but were overcome by the rested Bulls, with lots of subs. London Optimist Bulls won 2-1, and Summerside just couldn't must the energy needed to draw the match. Not for want of chances, Summerside created more than enough, but tired legs made it difficult in the final minutes. .

Sunday Soccer saw Southend United Summerside take on Golden Feet on the same pitch at BMO Centre. The Summersiders generated 15 shots on goal, with none finding the back of the net. Thankfully, this Golden Feet team that defeated Summerside last outing, 2-1, were equally unable to score any of their 7 shots on goal. 

Jacob earned the shutout with his save saves. Andrew, Brewer and Atticus lead Summerside in shots and the team looked good enough to win if the Golden Feet goalkeeper didn't have golden gloves, dives and distribution for Man of the Match contention. 

NEXT UP: 

In what turned out to be a slightly lop-sided, albeit not total domination game, Griffons fell to Summerside 4-0 at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field, as the Gators continue to be undefeated in the new year, with one win, one draw. 

Your Gators goal scorers today included Mason, Jeremy, Zach and Carter. Adding assists to these goals were Erfaan, Mason, Carter and Jeremy. Finleigh came away with the clean sheet, thanks to steller play from Rylan, Jeremy, Aaron, Carter, Zach, Keegan, Erfaan and Mason in front of her, all keeping the Griffons at bay. 

Next up  Gators face off against the London Knights, sorry, no, that would be kick off against the London Optimist Knights. Phew, I'm not prepared for a hockey game. With these Knights, last time we faced them we drew 2-2; this time, let's shut them down and go for either Finleigh or Oliver's next Clean Sheet (Shutout). 

Southend United Summerside 2009-born male U15 Tier 1 and Tier 3 teams will be holding assessments to see who will join us in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League play this coming 2024 outdoor season. Currently, with a strong core of returnees, Summerside will look to fill a couple of gaps and build depth at all primary positions of Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder and Forward. 

Coaches Carl, Steve, Jamey and Duncan are all expected to return and we're open to supporting anyone (player, parent, sibling) looking to increase their role within the teams - be it admin, coaching or any other form of support you'd like to offer. We feel good about where the teams are at with drawing interest in both T3 and T1 teams and look forward to welcoming back current and past Summersiders, as well as new blood vying for a spot with our club. 

I have a couple of action plans for current and prospective players/parents: ;

1. Please attend all or as many of the assessment dates on Wednesdays Jan 17, 24, 31 and Feb. 7 at Cleardale P.S. 6:30 p.m. each night (if unable, we can make other arrangements where necessary - reach out to Carl or Duncan; I understand some are already being accomodated). These dates are for ongoing indoor training, coupled with Assessments for newer and current players to determine Tier 1 or Tier 3 level play. Attendance will play a role, so please be sure to clarify any absences. 
2. Current players are asked to please review and score each category below for yourself (new players can try it too, if they like): 
   • 0 = I never do this, 1 = needs improvement, 2 = learning this, 3 = satisfactory, 4 = pretty good, 5 = I'm the best at this
   • if you would like a copy of this sent to you individually, please feel free to reach out to Duncan or Carl, and we'll be happy to share
   • we would like to collect copies either printed from you at Jan 17 training session or via email, all filled in and we can update and compare to our own assessments - see how close or far off we might be ;)
   • we would like to have individual discussions about these with you, anytime, if or whenever you might like to discuss (no pressure, but I think it can be important to your development as a player)

Feel free to send coach Carl or Duncan (dsbjinglis@gmail.com) any questions you may have. 

Thank you, 

Coach/Team Manager Duncan Inglis

519-657-5998 (if you prefer to call or text)

It was a slow-build Saturday at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field for Southend United Summerside 2009 boys team, as they faced Alliance FC London's 2011 boys in both teams first game of the new year in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League competition. Your Summersiders topped Alliance 4-0 in the end, but it was just 1-0 at the half, and Alliance may have had more of the real chances, beyond Summerside's goal from Noah around 15 minutes in. 

Noah lead the scoring on a great finish from a Riyan pass and Hayden build-up play. The first half ended just 1-0 with Alliance being outshot about 7-1 by the half. Alliance 2011s seem to start off halves strong, but Summerside's bigger, stronger older boys are able to wrestle control and finish, despite some amazing stops from the Alliance goalkeeper. 

The second half added Marcus, Jaxon and Andrew to the scoring tallies; with Assists from Jake and Noah (correct me if I'm wrong, please, as that's what I thought I saw, and marked down). Final result 4-0, similar to our previous with this Alliance team at 5-1. 

NEXT UP:

With Owen D holding fort in goal, and Flora, Rylan, Jesse supporting positively defensively, Jeremy, Carter, Jeffrey, Aaron and Keegan all performed admirably going forward in the attack Saturday morning at BMO Centre, for Summerside Gators first point of 2024, as they drew with London Optimist Attack on Damian Warner Fitness Field. 

Jeremey scored first but Attack answered back with two to take a 2-1 lead, however, Jeremy was not to be denied as he slotted home another soon after, from a great Carter corner kick that caused havoc in the Attack goal mouth, allowing Jeremy to poke home the goal. 

Jaxon and Duncan hope to be back next week, in tip top shape to help support our ongoing positive progress in 2024's regular season SWISL Sophomore B Division play. Exciting times in the new year ahead - we look foward to working with all of you to improve our standing the rest of this indoor season. Thank you to coach Puype for stepping in and guiding the team positively and proudly.

What a great day for Southend United Summerside CSC - Sleighers, Nut Krackers and North Star. Big results, great goals, positive defending and lots of ups and downs all in about 8 hours of soccer - amazing we're all still standing after all of that - Well done Coaches Steve (#1), Carl (#2) and Duncan (#3). 

Some highlights for me included the amazing defensive play of Sleighers, with Ryan M's goalkeeping skills, Pierce, Noah's phenomenal defensive support and Nicholas coming away with the Summerside Golden Boot netting three goals over the course of the tournament. 

Nut Krackers standouts, included Matt scoring two in the final game with North Star and Nathan Kennedy showing solid defensive ability; I also notice AJ, Riyan and Sam connecting well. Emery and Riley were strong defending too for Carl's team. 

North Star lead the way to start, with Summerside's first win and first to score against Skibidi (London TFC OPDL) on an amazing break out play by Marcus setting up a rebound for Jaxon to finish with his left foot. Junsei was a standout for North Star with two goals, Andrew with his assists and perhaps a bit too much aggression versus Alliance, but he calmed down nicely for our Nut Krackers finale. 

I know things got tough for our North Star team as the day continued, but I do hope everyone looks back and realizes how much they learned and how much Fun In Football for All they really ended up having overall. It was quite an experience - and here are your Summerside boys U15 Sleighers, NutKrackers and North Star all together in the end.

Congratulations to Steve and his Sleighers for finishing third overall - Excellent work, with challenging teams this version of Scrooge 2024.

? ?

Shall we begin with the good news or end on the high note? Well if we go chronologically, we can end on the high note, so let's go there...

It was a challenging start to Summerside's Saturday soccer list of three matches: 

Summerside Gators fell hard to a lower-ranked London Optimist Rams Saturday, losing 3-0 despite having 2 or 3 good chances of our own, from Jeffrey and Mason and Erfaan. Oliver D saved the day again with upwards of 15 to 20 saves, but unfortunately had trouble with a couple of goal kicks going right to their start shooter, who was able to jump on the opportunity and fire home to the corners of the net. Jesse lead the team with full field pressure at all times, while Finleigh and Oliver G, along with Liam and sometimes Aaron held the back line. Rylan and Flora hustled hard, and just need more touches on the ball to break out and set up or score their goals, which are coming. 

Summerside Sonics dropped their top of the table clash to Debruindairy 2-1 Saturday evening, due to questionable referee calls, according to Coach Steve. As Ava scored on their goalkeeper with a shot from an inbound kick, this would have tied the match at 2-2.

Now, we all know if an inbound shot touches someone and goes in, it's a goal. This one, went in a certain trajectory where it was going to hit the top of goal, back netting and seemingly went through the GK's hands, dropping like a brick behind the keeper. So, goal right? It must have caught hands to drop like that. But no, the referee calls it a straight shot in, when there needed to be a touch. Robbed, but Sonics are getting closer though. They last lost to Debruindairy, 4-1, so that scoreline has been cut in half and that's the silver-lining here. 

Sunday, Southend United Summerside CSC took on a much tougher than anticipated London St. Thomas Croatia 2010 team at Damian Warner Fitness Field, BMO Centre, knotching a final score of 3-1 in the end. 

There was air of nervous tension at the bench, but that was likely just me, facing my first on-field assistant coaching duty in some time. Jaxon, is also still a touch timid, as he's playing with awareness of his now overcome clavicle injury. And so, the first half went by with no real result, score was 0-0 at the break; with shots at goal pretty much equal, at 3-2 slightly in favour of the Summersiders - all coming from Andrew. 

Shooting grew in the second to 7-3 for Summerside, and this is where all 4 goals came from the game. AJ opened the scoring with a brilliant back-heal shot from about a yard or two away from goal, assisted from Brewer on an inbound kick at goal. The next goal came from another inbound from Kyle to the back post area of goal, about 4 yards out, with Noah nodding the ball down and past former trialist for Summerside, Nathan Neff in goal for Croatia. Rounding out the 3 goal onslaught, all in the span of about 5 minutes, Marcus put away a nicely tucked in shot. 

Of course there had to be a touch of controversey, as the game wound down and it was looking good for Jacob's 4th or 5th cleansheet (I've lost count). Referee blows the whistle on a foul about 5 or 10 yards outside the goalie's box, ball spills to the left side and Croatia player shoots to score on Jacob. Referee gives the goal - wait, whistle went, how is that possibly a goal? Whistle blown, Summerside players play the whistle and stop playing. Yes, Jacob dives for the ball, but it would be delayed by reaction to the whistle. I think we have a good argument, but what can you do. You're rarely, if ever, going to change the referee's mind. 

NEXT UP:

 Junsei, Nicolas and Lennon Shawnessy...

Ali, Ryan M and Nathan Kennedy

Southend United Summerside CSC 2009 boys overcame they're Alliance equivalents on a single goal from Andrew, after some amazing build up passing through Riley and Marcus in order to open up the shooter. The goal came early in the second half, and Summerside never looked back. 

Jacob B earned the full match shutout, while Jake, Riley, Atticus and Ryan contributed positively to the Clean Sheet Defending. Noah and Andrew played their part with control of the midfield, winning many battles for the ball and game saving tackles or stops came late for Noah and Jake in the goal area too. 

Jaxon made his season debut upon return from a broken clavicle, and showed well up front, alongside Kevin, Kyle, Marcus and Riyan. Hayden and AJ showed real promise for goals up front, but this was meant to be a defensive juggernaut of a game, apparently.

All in all a good showing from all, though things looked like they were breaking down some in the latter stages, as Alliance took control, but ultimately couldn't finish in front of Summerside's goal. Objective for next time for Southend will be to keep that from even being a possibility, gain some quick smart possession, working balls deep and keeping them there. Maybe get the insurance marker just to put it to bed too. 

NEXT UP:

...Kevin, Noah and AJ Mensah ;)

With the arrival of Summereside CSC Gators jerseys, new life was breathed into a shorthanded crew, as they worked hard to lose just 2-1 to the number one team in Sophomore B Division in SWISL.

Oliver was stellar in keeping this game from getting crazy out of hand, while Erfaan added an excellent 2nd half goal from a great Jeffrey pass. Jesse, Mason, Rylan, Aaron, Keagan and Liam, all struggled a bit in the first half, only to perform on fire and phenomenally throughout the second - winning the second half 1-0.

And, did I mention there were jerseys, and they look soooo sweet after a longer than expected wait. Picture to come...

 Ali, Pierce and Nathan Kennedy...

Corbin, Cayden and Matt McDonald...

Jake to North Star, Ollie to Sleighers and Sam to Nut Krackers

Summerside Sonics, still shirtless, like their younger sibling team in Sophomore B Divsion, stifled London Optimist Huskies in a 6-1 stunner. Hayden lead the team with 2 goals, while Nick, Luke, Pax and Kevin rounded out the result. Nick earned the second half shutout, while Luke kept the Sonics tight with the opposition throughout the first half. 

On Sunday, Byron took on our Southend United Summerside A Team in EMDSL 2010 Boys Division. The Summersiders overpowered Byron with 7 goals - 5 in the first, from Hayden, Kyle, Marcus, Andrew and Marcus once more. The second half saw the final two goals, one from AJ and the other from Atticus. Jacob earned his third clean sheet of the season, while assists on all goals came as follows; Andrew, Brewer, Jake, Marcus, Jacob, Brewer and Ryan - this team really knows how to spread the wealth in goals and assists. 

NEXT UP:

Summerside Gators fell 4-3 to Scotiabank in SWISL Sophomore B Division play at BMO Centre's A&B Rental field Saturday, with their first loss of the season. 

After going up 1-0 and 2-1, Summerside struggled to contain Scotia's top scorer, who was plowing goals from distance and scored on a PK where Finleigh was unlucky enough to have her hand up to block from getting hit in the face. Oliver did well to try and put the striker off, but couldn't stop the bulle of a penalty kick. 

Aaron opened the game's scoring on a good Carter through-ball, that Aaron carried in on goal, firing past the helpless keeper and giving Gators the 1-0 lead. Carter and Jeremy generated the next two Gators goals on near identical plays. Jeremy dominating down the right side, to the corner area, firing a low cross into the goal-box for Carter to turn into the net incredibly well - what a tandem that was today. Erfaan played well and will need more playing time, along with Keagan, Aaron and Zach next go around. Better planned subs are needed, added Coach Duncan. 

Keagan had another chance, as did Mason, and Jesse from distance too. Rylan, Finleigh, Liam and Jeffrey did really well to keep offensive build-up goals from happening. Like I said all goals came from one player and 3 were long distance impossible to stops, 1 was a PK, equally impossible. 

Summerside Community Soccer Club, in partnership and co-operation with Southend United Soccer Club, SouthWest Indoor Soccer League 2009 Juvenile Division teams and coaches and Elgin-Middlesex Soccer Association registered players and their parents, are aiming to build two, possibly three or even four Summerside CSC teams for the upcoming BMO Centre Scrooge Tournament slated for January 5, 2023. 

Most players will come from current indoor Tier 2 Southend United SC 2009 Boys participating in EMDSL indoor 2010 Division. Here's a rough idea what three teams could look like: 

Summerside Sonics won 3-0 over London Optimist Bulls in Juvenile Division SWISL league play, Saturday at BMO Centre. 

Hayden earned a brace, while Nick M rounded out the scoring for Sonics, and Luke W got the cleansheet, despite Nathan K getting a blue card this game. 

In EMDSL action on Damian Warner Fitness Field, Sunday, Southend United Summerside A U15 Boys did well to move up in their 2010 Division, outplaying Portuguese Club London (PCL) 2010 Boys, scoring a 14-0 victory. 

Jacob lead the way with the shutout, followed by stellar defending from Atticus, Ryan, Jake, Noah, Kyle, Riyan. Offensively, almost everyone but Jacob B and Noah (despite being his usual incredible self) got in on the goals - Jake, from Hayden, Marcus from Noah (there his, still highly involved in the goals), Riyan from Hayden (lots of points for him today) and Kyle the 2nd assist, Brewer from Jake S (that's 2 pts for Jake), Hayden from Riyan (another highly involved in points player on the day), and all of that was just the first half. 

In the Second, more of the same, as Kyle scored from Atticus and Noah's inbound, Ryan found the top corner off a Hayden lay-off, then Riyan from Marcus, Riyan again, this time from Hayden, Hayden from Brewer, and closing it out was Atticus with the hat-trick of strong finishes - 2 solo-efforts and the first one from Hayden. 

Yikes, what a game! Very impressive on all fronts, though against the second bottom team, a year younger. 

NEXT UP:  

& 

Summerside Community Soccer Club's Sophomore B Division Southwest Indoor Soccer League 2013 Gators did well to come from behind in a solid battle with Puddle Pools Service Saturday night, earning the lead back in the second half, only to give way to a draw in the end. 

Carter P stood out today, playing a little centre-midfield in the first half, moving to striker alongside Mason M in the second. Both goals came in the second half with Carter scoring the first from Jeremy S, and Mason beating the keeper after good service from Carter. The team as a whole showed lots of improvement and guts to come back from behind. Our challenge for the day seemed to continue to be positioning. D and GK positions are excellent, Mids seem to end up a bit all over the place, and that's on the coaches to ensure they understand their roles. 

Next week's pregame training will be a 4v3 drill with cones dividing the field of play for everyone to ensure they are keeping to their slots on the field. We'll see how that goes, says coach Jaxon. 

NEXT UP: 

Saturday, Dec. 2, 2023 - Summerside CSC Gators vs. Scotiabank, 12:15 @ A&B Rentals Field, BMO Centre

Summerside Sonics crushed London Optimist Huskies 8-0 Saturday at BMO Centre despite having to play short the full game. 

Hayden tallied the hat-trick, plus one, while Pierce added a brace (2 goals), along with Sophie and Oliver rounding out the rally. Nick M earned the clean sheet. 

On Sunday morning, Southend United Summerside A U15 Boys Team kicked off against Alliance FC Purple U14 Boys, and after going down 1-0, this time rallied back to score a 4-3 victory. Goals from Andrew (2), Kyle and Marcus, rounded out the Summersiders scoring. It was a satisfying win for the team, although much closer than it really should have been. 

The three Alliance goals all came on poor Southend onfield decisions. First, Jacob passed a ball across the front of goal, barely a yard off the line to Ryan M, who was instantly pressured, and two Alliance players won the ball and worked it into goal past the scrambling goalkeeper.

In the second half, Ryan initiated a square inbound pass straight across the front of goal, intended for Riley, this time about 15 to 20 yards away, but still an extremely dangerous pass and unfortunate choice or decision. Ball was intercepted, giving the Alliance forward a 1v1 uncontested opportunity to score on Jacob, and score he did.

Lastly, Alliance earned a corner kick, fired low and hard hitting Jacob and Atticus and somehow finding it's way into goal, another defensive challenge to learn from and correct for future more positive results. Communicate who's in charge of what and take charge Jacob or Atticus in this situation, says Team Manager Duncan.  

Summerside Gators fought hard throughout and particularly in the final minutes Saturday morning to draw 1-1 with London Optimist Crush at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field. 

Oliver D was stellar in goal, as usual, with Oliver G and Finleigh demonstrating dynamic defensive duties, supported by Liam off the bench. Midfield troops consisted of Zachary P, Jesse O and Erfram S to start the match, with Jeremy, Flora and Aaron offering leadership on substitutions. Mason and Carter kicked off at forward, with Jeffrey and Keagan helping up front. 

Jesse's, and Gators', only goal on the day, came from a goalkeeper box launch from Jeremy, mis-controlled by the Crush defender, only to see Jesse break in on goal and find the right-side of the keeper in perfect dramatic fashion. 

NEXT UP:

Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023 - Summerside Gators vs. Puddle Pool Services, 1:15 p.m. at Damian Warner Fitness Field, BMO Center

Although likely to debut in January, AJ Mensah is a positive signing for Southend United Summerside A indoor soccer team in Elgin Middlesex District Soccer League play, as he helps fill gaps left by departing players Ryan Galloway, Matt McDonald, Ali Flynn-Rizk and Junsei Goda - the latter two to hockey and former two to London TFC Regional 2009s. 

Jaxon Inglis will join Ryan and Matt at London TFC, likely in January, maybe a little in late November, early December, once his broken clavicle is cleared for return to play. AJ slides in to the vacant spot, again, likely by January, possibly mid-December, if jersey gets in sooner than later. 

We wish all departing players best in their ongoing adventures and future endeavours, and who knows, maybe they'll be back for Summer 2024 season. And welcome AJ, who comes to us from Whitecaps T3 in 2022 and Condors FC 2009 boys from 2023 training and tournament play. Coaches Carl, Steve and Duncan look forward to supporting the newcombers development within Southend United Summerside CSC.     

In a game of importance in standings only, Summerside A struggled to retain the ball, use their strengths to out muscle and string passes at the same pace or better than their Golden Feet 2010 Tier One EMDSL opponents Sunday afternoon at BMO Centre's Damian Warner Fitness Field, losing 2-1 in the end. 

Golden Feet were literally that, with great footwork, particularly from their big strong centre midfielder #7, who dipsy-doodled, dangled and drained a beauty in the first five or ten minutes and soon after a poor distribution, communication situation lead to the opening goal, also for Golden Feet. 

Kevin G scored the loan goal for Southend United Summersiders, on a broken play, where defenders and goal-keeper rushed a clearance directly off Kevin's face and into goal. 

Other highlights, included Jacob stepping out at half time, after trying to deal with the very recent passing of his grandfather. Our thoughts continue to be with you Jacob B. Ryan M came in to start the second half, playing well and retaining a clean sheet until he injured his foot and had to depart too. Jacob B was back and finished out the game strong. 

NEXT UP

Alliance FC Purple T1 2010s vs. Southend United Summerside A T2 2009s, 10:15 a.m. at Damian Warner Fitness Field, BMO Centre

Summerside Gators powered through London Optimist Suns with a 2-1 last second goal from Mason M, scored just in time for the exciting victory.

Oliver D was stellar as usual in goal, with Oliver G amazing with his big boots, Finleigh was solidly clearing everything that came here way, while Jesse and Jeremy patrolled and controlled much of the midfield battles. Zach, Aaron, Erfam, Jeffrey, Flora and Keagan all did well to support the midfield strength of the Summerside crew. Carter and Mason dominated the Suns defenders.

Next up, your undefeated Gators get a chance at revenge against their preseason challengers London Optimist Crush, 9:15 a.m. @ Damian Warner Fitness Field, BMO Centre, November 18, 2023. 

In Sonics News, Coach Steve, lead Sophie, Hayde and Pierce and the Sonics to their second win in a row, with a second goal differential of 3, in a row, and a first clean sheet for Luke. Thanks to "Agressive Ava" (tongue-in-cheek comment, based on some controversial ref calls), the Sonics out-powered Puddle Pool Service. 

Next up for your Sonics is a match-up on Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023, @ 7:15 p.m. on Damian Warner Fitness Field at BMO Centre.

In EMDSL Indoor action Sunday, Southend United Summerside A U14 Boys scored a 5-1 victory over the U12B Alliance FC team - a dynamic unit with great talent, that if they had even years with Summersiders, they would likely have given a run for their money. And, if not for Jacob's penalty save and a couple of others, the 5-1 result could be less flattering. 

Noah opened the scoring and added another for the brace, while Atticus, Brewer and Andrew rounded out the scoring for Summersiders. 

In SWISL action Saturday night, your Summerside Sonics rallied for a 3-0 victory over London Optimist Lancers - Luke W with the clean sheet. 

With Keegan and Aaron celebrating birthdays, Flora and Finleigh unable to play due to illness, it seemed from the start it could be a bit of a see-saw sort of match. And it lived up to exactly that. 

Domenic scored first, putting the Knights on the board 1-0, when Oliver was unable to stop a scrappy goal that Erfan and Jeffrey also had challenges dealing with. Mason got one back on a good set up from Jeremy.  The teams went in to half tied 1-1. 

Mason added another on a good setup from Carter, only to be matched in the final 3 or 4 minutes with another scrappy Knights goal. With some continued work on early and late match defending these Gators could be tough to deal with. 2-2 in the end. But can you imagine what it would have been, had Gators had a full team for the full match? 

Selections in the POLL to the right on this home page can be made from the following options by Nov. 6, 2023:

Let us know what you think in the POLL to the right. It may or may not make the final decision for us easy. 

Thanks in advance for your participation everyone. 

Duncan Inglis

Southend United Summerside Community Soccer Club

Summerside Gators, Sonics of Sophomore and Juvenile SWISL Divisions and T2 Summerside A of EMDSL 2010s Division all performed well, with varying results. 

Gators, on the back of of Gurtaj and Mason goals, and solid Oliver D goalkeeping, played well enough to win my more, but pulled off a solid 2-1 victory on Saturday afternoon. Win #1 is in the books, let's see how many more can be tallied. 

Sonics fared differently on the evening, facing the Strathroy United-heavy Debruindairy; also bouyed by Riyan G of Summerside A's. Debruindairy went on to win handily over Sonics 4-1. 

In Sunday Soccer, EMDSL's Southend United Summerside A U14 Boys faced off with London Wolves in 2010 Division competition, scoring a record 12 goal victory, 12-0 in the end. Kyle, Hayden, Marcus all got the Brace (two goals), while Andrew, Brewer, Noah, Atticus, Riyan and Ryan all added goals.

To round out the weekend, in other news. The Canadian Premier League wrapped up it's North Star Cup playoffs with the final in Hamilton, in fron to f 13,925 at Tim Horton's Field and the home team lifting the hardware for a 2-1 victory off of goals from Benibanga and Tristan Borges (with the Olympico corner kick goal for the victory. Cavalry (of Calgary)'s Musse scored their only goal, with a banger that started the 3 goals off, in the first half of the extra time, following the 0-0 90 minutes.

South West Indoor Soccer League (SWISL) begins today, Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at BMO Centre London for Summerside Community Soccer Clubs with Meet and Greet, practice exhibitions scheduled for 12:15 p.m. (Gators - Sophomore B Division) and 9 a.m. (Sonics - Juvenile Division).

Coach Steve will welcome his Sonics this morning and potentially run training and an exhibition with London Optimist Bulls. Coaches Duncan and Jaxon head-up the Gators meet and greet, training and exhibition with London Optimist Crush this afternoon. 

Summerside looks forward to bringing Fun In Football For All (FIFFA) to all our Summerside teams this 2023-24 season, now up to 3 sponsored teams from two in summer's outdoor season. Summerside Gators in SWISL - Sophomore B Division; Summerside Sonics in SWISL - Juvenile Division; Southend United Summerside A U14B in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League - 2010B Tier 1 Division (Coaches Carl, Steve and Duncan)

See you on the pitch, 

Duncan Inglis

Site & Team Manager, Head & Assistant Coach

Summerside Community Soccer Club

A look at the EMDSL Standings across U14, U15 divisions, and teams our A and/or B Team has played and faired well against throughout 2023.

Golden Feet's U15B team should be highlighted too, as we drew 2-2 in our last game with them for the A Team: 

Southend United Summerside Community Soccer Club A and B Teams celebrate their 2023 summer season end at Fireside Grill & Bar Saturday, September 30, 2023 at 8 p.m. with a Trivia Night coupled with Awards Announcements. 

It's a time to mingle with parents, friends, fans and players throughout the two teams and club and enjoy some trivia fun, raffles for some great prizes, like Knights tickets, Forge FC tickets and much more. 

Be sure to get your tickets this week to ensure your spot and your chance to win one of the above prizes. Both teams coaches and Katherine Rocha, event organizer, as well as Fireside staff look forward to entertaining everyone at this wonderful 1st annual club event. 

Keep your SurveyMonkey votes coming in for some of the following awards - only those that weren't unanimous among coaches are being presented for voting by players, parents, fans, etc...

Prizes and Awards for Saturday - 

Enjoy a Trivia Night, Food and Drink and of course lots of Fun In Football For All (FIFFA) fodder. Prize possibilities include:

1.       4 x Lower Bowl tickets to London Knights game (EllisDon donation)

2.       2 x Club Seats to a 2024 Forge FC Canadian Premier League football match @ Hamilton’s Tim Horton’s Field (IngDun donation)

3.       Downtown London Gift Card (GC)

4.       Nova Era Bakery GC

5.       Junction Rock Climbing GC

6.       Hand-held Leaf Blower (Echo donation)

7.       Western hoodie

8.       Razors Gift Basket

Season Player Awards will be presented.

Southend Rookie of the Season A & B

Summersider of the Season A & B

Top Goalkeeper award A & B

Top Defender award A & B

Top Midfielder award A & B

Top Forward award A & B

Top Scorer A & B 

Sportsmanship A & B

Ironman A & B

Most Improved Player A & B

Most Valuable Player A & B

Playmaker of the Year A & B

See you SATURDAY ;)

Southend United SC Summerside A U14 boys Tier 2 team battled poor refereeing, coaching decisions and a tough as nails, smart possessing Goldent Feet soccer club Thursday night at North London Athletic Park's Field 1, coming away with a hard-fought 2-2 draw. 

Camilo V scored both of Golden Feet's goals, 1 on a well worked second half run of play goal that gave Jacob no real chance. Jacob also did well to stop a few good Camillo attempts from distance. His other goal came against Ali in goal, on a low free kick that appeard to go mis-judged and into the open low right corner of the goal. Only two in the wall, may not have helped. 

Summerside scoring came from Jaxon with a first half run-of-play goal on a long ball assist from Atticus down the right of goal, Jaxon fired to the far left inner, side-netting for the first of 2 game-tying goals. Second goal came from a free kick also, beating the keeper high. 

Matt, Noah, Riley and Ryan were stellar at the back, and in the first half Atticus, Andrew, Marcus and Jake all did a great job trying to shutdown Camilo. Unfortunately this approach broke down in the second, as Coach Duncan moved Atticus up, then nearing the end of game encouraged Jaxon to take Summerside's final free-kick, proving to be the wrong call, as Jaxon sailed it just over the goal. 

Hayden came out on the play leading up to that missed freekick on a scary few moments, where he took a free kick shot in his own end, straight to the head, bouncing back up and giving the thumbs up he was ok. A phone call and post-game discussions with parents afterwards said otherwise. Hayden did come out moments later, when he blazed down the left side passing his defender, who then caught back up, tripped him and accidentally hit him again in the head. . The result, a mild concussion.

NEXT UP for Summersiders T2 and T3 players, fans and families: 

Fireside Roadhouse Restaurant - Trivia Night Fundraiser, $20 per ticket, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023 6:30 p.m. on...

Southend United Summerside A Team topped Strathroy United Tuesday in a re-clash of U14 titans, at North London Field 3, after having their Aug. 23 game postponed due to lightning, and while SEU was down 2-1 in the early second half. 

In this rehashed version, the Summersiders scored early as Ali slotted home a ball he collected from Hayden inside the Strathroy 18 yard box. Andrew scored midway through the first half, making it 2-1 early. Strathroy scored on a corner kick fumbled into goal by Ryan M, making his first GK start of the season. He would go on to earn the victory, after the score was 2-2 at half time,  and Hayden had two chances, one on a PK, but only scored the one on a run of play goal. Likely should have let Jaxon take the PK, as he scored another in the Tilsonburg game last week, taking his total to 4 out of 5 PKs taken an 80% score rate. Scoring the PK may have iced the game. Matt assisted the Hayden marker. 

In Summerside B news on Wednesday, they took on #1 ranked St Thomas Soccer Club, a team they'd lost 7-0 to in exhibition back in May, then lost just 4-0 in District Cup play, in early July. This was the third match with this top team, most of who are significatnly bigger than a good number of Summersiders, and last game of the season. The Killer Bs took it seriously, losing just 3-2 in the end. 

The score was nil-nil at half time; an excellent start for the Summersiders. However, St Thomas scored in the 55th minute to take the 1-0 lead, and a couple of minutes later it was 2-0 and looking likely to follow the District Cup scoreline. However, Riyan took into his hands or in this case feet to lift SEU Summerside B back into the match, scoring his 3rd of the season. Soon after St Thomas made it 3-1, Sam scored to reach the final result. 

NEXT UP:

Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023 - T2/T3 Southend United Summerside A/B Team Training Session - Last of 2023 Outdoor Season - 6 to 7:30 p.m. @ White Oaks Park South Soccer Field

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 - T2 Southend United Summerside A vs. Golden Feet SC - Final EMDSL 2023 Outdoor Season Match - 6:30 p.m. @ North London Athletic Park Soccer Field 1

Southend United Summerside A team hosted St Columban on a rare Sunday soccer evening match-up at Meadowgate Park Soccer Field. This game  could separate 5th and 6th further on points or could see Summersiders take sole possession of 5th place. St Columban at 16 points, Summerside 15. 

Summersiders ensured a tight matchup to half-time, similar to their visit to St Columban a couple of weeks back, where it was 0-0 at half time. Here it was 1-1 at the half.

Hayden chalked up the first half goal, and continued his scoring ways with two more in the second half, now at 17 and the taking over the Summersiders A team scoring lead at 17. With the hat-trick, Summerside took a 3-1 lead, which was cut to 3-2 by St Columban soon after, on yet another controversial goal against. The St Columban striker plowed into Summerside goalkeeper Ali, hurting him on the play and scoring the goal that got it as close as it would get in the end.

Glencoe came to London Thursday night with dreams of beating Southend United Summerside A team on their home ground at Windermere Soccer Complex field 1.

Jaxon put the A Team ahead early with a great pass from Hayden, into the 18 yard box, far enough from the keeper to allow Jaxon to run in open his hips and slot the ball with his left to the right corner for a 1-0 lead. Glencoe scored about 10 minutes later to tie it up and put a bit of fear into Summersiders. Hayden scored the next two goals, assisted by Jake and Matt. Matt finished the half 4-1 on a corner from Jaxon, dropping off of Andrew to Matt's foot for the finish. Andrew scored a banger from distance early in the 2nd half, putting the game to bed. Ali played well in goal, unlucky on the set-piece that shouldn't have been, as a result of a weak foul call. Unfortunately, poor calls built up on Summersiders, as Jaxon was later ejected from the game for telling the referee to open his "f'ing" eyes. Unacceptable behaviour and the right call this time from the referee. 

Post game discussions saw the coaches and referee rescind the red card and Jaxon apologize directly to the referee. "Let's nip this in the bud right now," says Coach Duncan. Summerside's new stance on F-bombs, is immediate substitution when heard, and possible suspension for multiple offenses. To be determined by coaching staff on discussion basis, as needed. We've heard a bit too much of this going on in recent days/weeks. Let's put it to bed, especially if you're in a winning situation 5-1 vs. Glencoe, there's no need whatsoever for that, or the ensuing excessive tackles and arguments that followed. Those weren't soo bad, but shouldn't be necessary in scores like this one. 

In the Summerside B result Friday night at Byron Sports Complex lower soccer field, the Bs playing a little short-handed without Des and Nick P-H, as well as Emery and Sam, pulled off a thrilling 4-3 road win, on the backs of Nic M goalkeeping and Riyan's brace (2 goals). Brewer scored the winner, why Yahya scored the early goal. 

"Summerside started the first half strong with Yahya goal to start, then Riyan's laser of a goal next," put your Bs up 2-0. "Second half started in Byron's favour with a defensive breakdown, that Summerside were slow to respond. But with determination, Brewer bulled through the middle to snag a goal," to tie it up 3-3, "followed by another Riyan quick speed and laser finish. It was a bit of a struggle the second half, but the boys never quit," noted Coach Jamey. 

In a game Southend United Summerside A team somewhat dominated in attack for the first half, yet too often either hit the goalkeeper straight on or missed the net completely, taking a 0-0 draw in to half-time, St Columban came out scoring first. Hayden soon after tied the game at 1-1, also in the early second half. However, three unanswered goals, two of the high-shot from long distance nature, ended up being enough to sink Summerside's ship in this Thursday evening tilt. 

Jaxon scored the final goal of the game on a well-won penalty, of which there maybe could have been another one or two earlier in the match. Jaxon, having missed his last PK in the St Thomas tournament vs. LS Croatia, confidently stepped up to smash past the St Columban keeper's left side of goal, Jaxon's right side. Other positive highlights, included some good midfield play from Jake, taking his shots, Andrew and Marcus giving and going down their wing, and Noah and Atticus strong clearances. 

Goals were unfortunate let ups, whereby had we been more aggressive in the lead up passing from St Columban, prior to approaching the 18 yard box, we may have won and cleared more balls. Offensive support needs to track back too to assist in keeping central midfield support getting back and clogging the middle defensivewly, keep them wide, says Coach Duncan in post-game presser. 

NEXT UP: 

Sunday, July 30, 2023 - Mixed Tier 2/Tier 3 Training at Meadowgate Park Soccer Field, 3 to 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023 - Taxanadria vs SEU Summerside Killer Bees @ Taxandria soccer field, 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 6, 2023 - SEU Summerside A T2 Training Session, at Meadowgate Park Soccer Field, 3 to 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023 - SEU Summerside As and Bs T2/T3 Training Session at White Oaks Park South Soccer Field, 6:15 to 8:15 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. .10, 2023 - SEU Summerside A vs. Glencoe, at Windermere soccer field #1, 8:30 p.m. 

Friday, Aug. 11, 2023 - SEU Summerside B vs. Byron @ Byron lower soccer field, 6:30 p.m.

Short players due to a thrreatening thunderstorm prior to the match, where in Ilderton the skies opened up to a brilliant blue by 6:45 p.m. kickoff, Summerside A Team could not hold back Ilderton, nor present enough of an attacking threat to truly test the leaders of EMDSL T2 U15 Boys division last Thursday. 

Andrew scored the loan goal, Jacob made tonnes of stops, but a lost battle in the midfield, wings attacking and defensively, as well as a short-bench that shortened with injuries to Jake and Riley made it exceedingly tough on the 11 that needed to play almost all 90 minutes each. Flashes of brilliance abound, with Andrew's goal and another threatening corner that probably could or should have found net, Summerside just ran out of intensity and interest as Ilderton continued to add to their 3-1 half time with 3 more in the second. 

In B action, your Summerside Bees handled Whitecaps like they were well trained surfers deaking in and out and setting up Des for the hat-trick, Nick PH and Riyan both with a couple and additional markers from Junsei and Austin. Emery started and Sam finished the clean sheet/shutout (for hockey fans).

A great well-rounded game where Summerside Bs need to take away that they can score well against a very hard working team, and apply that with amped up pressure against tougher teams like DelKo, St Thomas, etc... play that way, but with increased intensity and interest, using space for runs to draw defenders away from other players so you can then pass it round the horn with supportive cast members helping you set up the next opportunity then defend like your life depends on getting that ball back, any time it's lost ot the opponents. These attitudes, turned into behavioural habits will win you bigger games too. 

NEXT UPS:

There aren’t many drills that ALL soccer teams do week in and week out.

But they do exist…

One such drill is the “rondo”.

If you’re unfamiliar, allow me to enlighten you:

A rondo is soccer’s version of “piggy in the middle”, where a circle of players pass the ball to one another while one, two, or sometimes three defenders try to win possession from within. Usually, there are more passers than defenders.

The concept is simple - but the compounding improvements are phenomenal.

Let's take a look at some of the benefits:

• Improves off-the-ball awareness
• Increases mental and physical sharpness
• Involves defensive communication
• Focuses on fundamentals like first touch, passing, and receiving
• Improves possession retention
• Gets the team into a rhythm
• Requires teamwork and intensity
• Gets competitive

Now...

While I’m a firm believer that even simple rondos -- like 3v1, 4v2, and 5v2 -- are highly beneficial, I often notice that coaches aren’t getting the most from their rondo practices.

So here are some simple tips.

Firstly, scale your rondos.

Start big and slow, with a large group and no defenders. Allow players to get some touches and a feel for the ball. Once warmed up, slowly introduce defenders and up the tempo. After the warmup stage, divide the team into smaller groups.

Secondly, always use a timer.

In traditional rondos, defenders switch with passers when they win the ball. However, this can cause the game to get frantic and lose flow. Plus, it doesn’t simulate a game scenario. Instead, set a timer for 30, 60, or 90 seconds. This ensures all players have equal time to work on the different skills.

Thirdly, make the rondos competitive.

Defenders should keep score, noting how many times they win the ball back. Attackers should set targets for consecutive passes. Take note of the scores and records and create a competition. You can keep this going throughout the entire season. Keeping score ramps up competitiveness, improves concentration, adds pressure, and makes training more fun. You can even add mini-goals for the defenders to shoot into when they regain possession.

Finally, focus on the passers and defenders separately.

Pay attention to the first touches, passing techniques, and receiving angles. Then, watch how the defenders move and communicate. Coach and guide your players through the session.

All in all...

Never underestimate the effectiveness of a rondo.Their compounding results will leave a smile on your face come the end of the season.

Southend Untied Summerside A Team faced off with Golden Feet in EMDSL Tier 2 U15 boys play on Thursday night, with Golden Feet coming out strong and scoring 2 early goals to set the tone. However, Summersiders were having none of that and had taken a 3-2 lead into the half. Only to go on to get topped 4-2 in the second half, on some unlucky bounces, both for and against on a free kick for Golden Feet that they pounced on and a hattrick for Camillo V. Hayden also had an unfortunate bounce, where he shot high, keeper was able to just barely get enough to parry it over the crossbar. Hayden, Matt and Jaxon combined to generate the first half lead. Atticus was a beast on defences clearing and winning balls left right and centre, alongside Ryan M and Noah much of the match. 

Assists came from Matt, Atticus, Hayden and Matt again. Goals were Hayden, Jaxon, Matt, Nic M and Jaxon once more on the solo effort. Logan participated and showed well in his first call-up. Nic scored in his call-up. Ryan and Riyan continue to show well as regular T2/T3 positive support. Jacob made some amazing saves as usual; and was only beat because of a couple of unfortunate bounces that the team needs to be covering and clearing whenever possible. Otherwise, this was likely the most exciting match-up of the season. And, it's great we can keep saying that week in and week out for this team of U14s playing up against primarily U15 boys teams in EMDSL T2 2023, adds coach Duncan, post-game. 

Summerside B Team missed out on a big opportunity to gain some points against a tough Byron team Friday night, as this game was postponed due to inclement weather and standing water on the pitch. 

NEXT UP: 

Tuesday, July 18, 2023 - Summerside Training Session for both T2s and T3s, 6 p.m. at White Oaks Park South Soccer Field

Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - Southend United Summerside B vs. Whitecaps London, 8:30 p.m. @ North London Field #1

Thursday, July 20, 2023 - Southend United Summerside A vs. Iltderton, 6:30 p.m. @ Meadowcreek Lower Field, Ilderton

Sunday, July 23, 2023 - T2 Training Session, 3 p.m. at Meadowgate Park Soccer Field

Southend United Summerside A Team participated in a powerhouse tournament Saturday in St Thomas Soccerfest, facing off against 3 of the eventual top four teams in the U14/15 boys group. 

Hamilton United went up fast and furious taking a 5-1 lead into halftime for these short 25 minute halves to 50-minute games. Hamilton went on to win 6-2 in the end, as Jaxon tallied two from, one assisted by Matt and the other by Hayden. Second half positive takeaway was a 1-1 draw for the 2nd 25. 

LS Croatia U15 Tier 1 EMDSL boys stepped up to play SEU Summerside A next, and what a game and result. The teams drew in the end 1-1, as Jaxon added another goal and probably shoulda, woulda, coulda won it on a Hayden-won penalty, taken by Jaxon, but powered of the crossbar, down and out. Jaxon felt the effects of the missed chance, but on a day like this there's no time to wallow. 

Norwest Tier 1 U14 boys, #1 in their EMDSL division came up against SEU Summerside As for the final match of the tournament it would turn out to be for the A Team. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be on this day, as Norwest went up equally fast and more furious in, taking the first half 3-1, second 3-0. Jaxon scored the lone goal once more, on a Matt set-up this time. 

In equally if not more so exciting form, your Summerside Killer Bees played last Wednesday night at St Thomas too, facing #1 St Thomas SC (in EMDSL T3 U14/15 division) at home at Athletic Park. St Thomas defeated your Bs just 4-0 this time out, this time in District Cup knockout stage play. 

Emery was a standout, as well as NIc, Nick and Logan, Ryan and Riyan were typically solid and Des, Wes and Yahya all stood out for this coach/reporter. Emery was easily man of the match though with his 15 shots against for only 4 goals against. 

SEU Fans, family, friends, players and coaches look forward to the rest of the second half of EMDSL T2 and T3 season play. Can't wait to see where our boys go from here in their proof positive push for rising in the standings. 

Last week started off in Strathroy, with your Summerside A Team taking on United at Henk Van Dyk Stadium on Wednesday. Summerside overcame road-nerves to prevail 5-0, earning Jacob the clean sheet, Atticus, Noah, Kyle, Riley, Ryan M and Jake S the defensive cleansheet. 

"After a bit of a jumpy start, the boys in blue settled down and got to work. Backstopped by solid defense and GK Jacob (on his way to his first shutout), goals were distributed amongst Matt (2 - in baseball shoes), Jaxon, Atticus and Andrew," wrote Coach Carl in his Heja post-game. This was a relatively dominant result, and with stronger finishing Summerside was able to prevail. 

Game at a Glance:

https://youtu.be/SSurrgTKBno

from the Galloways ;) 

Bees smoked out of Glencoe in a 6-1 topping, with Logan scoring the loan SEU Summerside B goal. Summersiders started this one strong enough to win, with a nice goal from Logan. Unfortunately, this was the only time they'd find the back of the net.

Coach Jamey and Carl both noted that this team is capable of pulling off a much better (i.e. winning) result against most of the teams in our division, and will be working hard to figure out the best way to achieve that. Coaches can't do it alone though, and need the players to "buy in" to a strategy involving strong (positive) communication on the field, a fighting spirit, and teamwork over individual play. This means solid passing and positional awareness. Summerside will win with a winning effort from everyone on the field. 

Ilderton vs. SEU Summerside A Team - First Ever District Cup

Southend United Summerside A Team faced Ilderton at Ilderton in their first ever Tier 2 District Cup match-up, and what an unfortunate 5-2 loss result it was. Hayden, the bright spot, scored a couple of great goals, first one picking out the far corner on a great build-up play between Jaxon, Andrew, then off Matt's head on the left to right side cross, where Hayden stood to take one touch and then finish to the far, inside left post. Hayden rounded out the brace in the second half on a similarly powerful goal, off another solid build-up and Andrew assist. 

Disappointing result, but the reality from the start was that we'd need to play a perfect game to compete against a team like Ilderton (U15), noted Coach Car. Hard work from the boys, and while I know it's hard to feel "good", but if everyone reflects on the game there were some real gems to celebrate. For example, our first goal resulted from really sharp and creative passing. Jacob had a tremendous save in the second. We all need to remember to stay positive during the game, learn from mistakes (and then quickly forget them). When this team is feeling good, they are really hard to beat! So, positive energy from this point forward! 

Tilsonburg vs. SEU Summerside A Team

Tilsonburg visited London to take on Southend United Summerside A Team Thursday night, and despite going down 1-0 early, Summersiders, prevailed to earn a 2-1 half-time lead, on two unanswered goals, one from Hayden assisted by Jake S, and the other from a perfect long free kick over and behind the last defender one-bouncing for the half-volley left foot shot short-side from Jaxon. Tilly's took the match 5-3 in the end. 

Hayden tallied, yet another brace, tying him for team lead in 2023 goals at 12, alongside Matt and Jaxon. Jaxon and Matt lead the league and team in regular season, but with Hayden's 2 goals in District Cup added to his 10 in season, there's your confirmation of 36 goals between the 3 striking stars. But these goals don't happen without the great supporting passes that land the ball where needed to finish - Jake, Andrew and Jaxon with the assists on this night. 

NEXT UP:

Training - Tuesday, July 4, 2023: Summerside A & B, 6 p.m. @ White Oaks Park South Soccer Field

Soccerfest Tournament - Saturday & Sunday, July 8, 9, 2023, 9 a.m. @ TBD this week ;) 

Your Southend United Summerside B team played cat and mouse Wednesday night at North London Athletic Soccer Field # 4, taking the game to Taxandria early to build a strong 3-1 lead by half time, only to go down 4-3 in the second half, and then finally, albeit barely eek out a 4-4 draw in the end, as Brewer scored a howitzer from just outside the top of the 18 yard box, over the keeper and under the cross bar. 

Nick P-H scored from Des to open the scoring for Summerside. Ryan M added a long free kick shot, looping up and seeming like it may go over, but dropping just where he wanted it, in the top corner out of reach of the Taxandrai keeper. Des, not to be out-done, seized his opportunity to do the same, but with a somewhat harder shot that again was just out reach of the keeper from a free-kick outside the 18 yard box. 

Taxandria proceeded to tally two well taken, though not-so well defended corner kicks, perhaps a training opportunity for the team to work on defending, clearing and ultimately setting up and scoring their own corner kicks going forward too, and or a transition from a defensive corner into an attack the other way. Sam saw only 1 goal, with 4 shots on target. Emery wasn't so lucky, allowing 3, as the team seemed to turtle a bit in the second half. Emery faced about 5 or 6 shots second half. Only Brewer could find the necessary splash of back of goal netting, with a strong, long shot from outside the 18 again, just over top the keeper and nestling behind him for the tying goal. Good perserverence prevailed for the B's in the end. A true tale of two halves, winning 3-1 the first, losing 3-1 the second. 

In A Team action, Southend United Summersiders faced off against Oakridge Oaks, one of two teams the As have faced twice already in this young season, having lost twice to Sarnia and now beaten Oakridge both on the road and at home at Windermere last night, this time 9-1, on the back of double-hat-tricks from Hayden and Jaxon, as well as a Brace from Matt and a single from Riyan. 

Assist were improtant here too of course, as 8 were recorded, Riyan's goal being the only unassisted, as he crept in to steal a short goal kick from the defender and easily beat the goalkeeper almost immediately - this one closing out the scoring for Summerside. Riyan also assisted Matt's opening goal, and the rest in order were assisted by Jaxon on Hayden's first, Matt for Jaxon's first, and in the second half, Matt, Ali, Ali again, Ryan M and Matt once more added to the scoring frenzy. 

Jacob continued to do his thing, lead at the back by Noah and Atticus, teamed with primarily Kyle and sometimes Ryan M. The lone Oakridge goal came from a set piece, where only two Jaxon and Jake were left to cover 4 at the top of the 18, the free-kick taker looped the ball over the wall to the feet of the 4v2 v Jacob, and nothing could be done, one more off the wall and in that top of 18 mix, would likely have been all that was needed to clear. 

NEXT UP:

Sunday, June 18, 2023 - T2 Summerside A Training Session @ Meadowgate Park Soccer Field, 3 to 5 p.m.

Monday, June 19, 2023 - T2 Summerside A @ Strathroy United 6:30 p.m.

Tuesday, June 20, 2023 - T3 Summerside B Training Session @ White Oaks Park South Field, 6 to 8 p.m. (T2 Optional Training, since day after game)

Friday, June 23, 2023 - T3 Summerside B @ Glencoe, 6:30 p.m.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summerside A Team travelled beyond Delko Brydges into Glencoe territory Thursday night, earning the full three points in a massive 8-2 victory over Matt's old team and with short-haired Hayden sporting his fresh new do, scoring the hat-trick and assisting two more. Not to influence polls, but Hayden is your coach's choice for man of the match for this one. Atticus captained the ship with another stellar performance alongside defensive dance-partner Noah. Jacob kept balls out of the net and Jake S opened his account, scoring his first goal of the 2023 EMDSL season. 

Glencoe opened the scoring with Callum winning an errand Atticus ball, approaching the right side of goal and firing near post for the 1-0 lead. Jaxon almost immediately answerd with a strong pass from Hayden down the Summerside right side, into left-centre of the 18 yard box where Jaxon touched back with his left and fired home the goal. Jaxon earned a brace scoring his second in the second half, this time on a long over top through ball from Andrew. Andrew added another assist on one of Matt's two goals. Matt added an assist on one of Hayden's many goals, as Hayden racked up 3 goals and 2 assists, assisting both Matt and Jaxon, and Jaxon assisted Hayden's final tally with a nice cross from the left end-line area, to Hayden's head to the back of the net. 

It's a good feeling to go into hostile territory like Glencoe, where you know some of the players that could have come to Southend, but stuck it out, and Matt gets his chance to show his old team what they are missing both with his play and the Southend Summerside soccer club, if they were to choose to play here, added coach Duncan, post-game. 

In Summerside Killer B Friday night football, the Bs travelled almost as far, but pit-stopped in DelKo Brydges to play a hard fought battle, losing 4-3 in an 80 minute match (that's right, 80 minutes, rather than the T3 EMDSL rule prescribed 90 minutes for U14 teams). This game was not without its controversy. 

First there was the phantom penalty that seemed only to be called as a result of an outbursting moan from the Delko coaching staff. This gave Delko the home lead of 1-0 early, about the 5 minute mark - foul was called on Eric, but was a weak one to say the least. Emery did his best to stop the shot, just missing it on the left side of goal. 

Second there was the 40 minute mark half time whistle, and this was not new to travelling Summerside, as the Glencoe referee tried to do the same the day before in A Team's win on the road. This referee wasn't budging, telling us we were U14, it's in the rules it's 80 minutes, he even showed us something that did seem to concur. However, Team Manager for Summerside Bs pulled up the EMDSL.ca Rules and Regulations page, downloaded the PDF for Tier 3 and showed the referee the other information that seemed to indicate exactly the same details, but 90 minutes for U14... Strange to say the least. Despite this being shown to the referee and Delko Coach, they were having none of it, and played out a 2nd half of only 40 minutes. It would have been a less bitter pill to swallow had the Bs lost big, at the time they were down 4-1.

Third, and adding insult to injury, a second poor penalty call was made when Simon slide-tackled, getting all ball and the Delko player flew over ball and Simon and to the ground in the 18 yard box, thus seeming to the ref that this was a PK - it should not have been. But Sam was up to the task and made a great save to keep the game close 4-2 at the time.

Nic P-H opened the scoring on a goal from Riyan. Ryan M later scored from Brewer, on what's now becoming a typical Ryan boomer. Nick M rounded out the scoring after the penalty save with a nice poke past the keeper, after receiving an excellent cross from Owen. 

All in all a good game, and who knows what 10 extra minutes may have brought, one way or the other...

NEXT UP:

Sunday, June 11 - Summerside A T2 Training, @ Meadowgate Park Soccer Field, 3 p.m.

Tuesday, June 13 - T2/T3 Mixed Training Session, @ White Oaks Park South Soccer Field, 6 p.m.

Wednesday, June 14 - T3 U14 Match: Summerside B vs. Taxandria @ North London Athletic Field 4, 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 15 - T2 U15 Match: Summerside A vs. Oakridge Avengers @ Windermere Park Field 1, 8:30 p.m.

For your Oakridge vs. Summerside A, 9-0 Summerside victory, in Match Week 2, your poll voted Man of the Match was Matt M, with two goals, two assists.

While your coaches agree Matt was one of probably 4 or 5 big stand out performances, with his low hard crosses to Jaxon, who scored 4 goals on the day, in addition to his brace on goals, and then Hayden tallying the same 2 g, 2 a in this one, and Noah clogging the central defensive zone, there were great performances abound. For our first coaches' choice, we all agreed that we saw Atticus as the standout, terrorizing any Oakridge wing-play, every time we started to see an Oakridge player looking like they were going to get round our back line, Atticus appeared, super-heroicly to help Noah, Riley, Ryan G, Ryan M, Kyle, etc... retain the clean sheet and limit shots to a premium. 

For your Summerside B vs. Byron 10-1 victory match, Ryan M won the online poll, perhaps for his stellar defending and positive progressive push forward, where he megged, not one but, two Byron players, and fired hard high and dropping in under the cross bar, about a 35-yard shot from the right side of the pitch. Definitely one of our favourite moments of this match, but our coaches' choice, as demonstrated with a call-up was the speed up front this time in Nick P-H - it was a tight one between he and Des who also had a brace, and then there was Riyan and Junsei with goals and multiple assists. Again, another tough one, and I'm happy to concur with Ryan M and/or sub in any of these other folks who were equally phenomenaly in the Byron match. 

NEXT UP

Ilderton, Sarnia, Whitecaps games Man of the Matches TBA soon...

Your Southend United Summerside A team were in tough this week, with Training Sunday, May 28, a game vs Ilderton that produced 12 total goals, 8-4 in favour of Ilderton, and a trip to Sarnia added to the schedule beginning of the week, with no real recovery to break down the Ilderton game prior to losing 2-0 to Sarnia at Norm Perry Park Thursday, June 2. 

The boys played amazing in each game, with Jacob putting on an excellent display in each, despite the losses, he likely faced upwards of 30 shots. In the Ilderton match, a Matt-trick was the order of the day, as Matt took first place in the goals' standings, and he and Jaxon helped Summerside jump out to an early 2-0 lead, that fizzled to a 2-2 draw by half time. Second half the wheels fell off as Ilderton added 6 more, to A's only adding 2 more. Noah played a stellar game as usual in the middle backfield. Andrew, Marcus, Jake and Junsei did their best to clog the midfield, but the much bigger stronger Ilderton boys were able to possess and beat Summerside primarily on wing play, as we lost most of our defensive wing battles, second half.

The 3-4-3 attack transisioning to a 5-4-1 defensive stance was choppy at best. The transition needs to be actioned faster, with more attempt to jockey and delay for these transitional formations to work for the As. Get behind the ball, goal-side and when they have it, and you will win far more battles, than if you let them run the wings, and you're playing catch-up, as we were much of Tuesday's game, adds Coach Duncan. 

In Sarnia, Thursday, June 2, the A's came out gunning, with various strong opportunities, that culminated in an unlucky trip on Junsei, who fell into a Sarnia player at the top of the 18-yard box, giving the referee a decision, where he chose penalty for Sarnia. Their striker converted the goal and took the 1-0 lead, as Jacob got finger tips to the ball, diving to his right to attempt the stop. Jacob continued to play stellar through the first period. 

In the second half, Jaxon was able to work about 4 shots on goal, but being double-teamed much of the time down his left side made it extremely difficult to keep balance when taking shots, as he beat two players one time, but having been knocked on his way through, leaned back on the shot to send it over the top. He also hit a crossbar on a free-kick in the first half. All in all, a decent showing against a now first place team, in Sarnia, and it's looking more and more like we've had 3 of our 4 games against two of the very top teams in this league. So, great practice for upcoming U14 games to come. 

In Summerside B news, there were some concerning moments in the match-up with Whitecaps London, but the Killer B's turned on their Killer Instincts in the second half to overcome and continue to overwhelm the young Whitecaps. 

After giving up an early pentalty on a bad bounce of the ball, in the first minute, to Eric's hand, Sam almost stopped the Whitecaps shot, similar to Jacob (above), diving right and just missing the shot under neath his out reaching arms. Summerside would dominate the ball, the possession, the balance of play in the Whitecaps end throughout the first, with no luck on shots. All shots looked timid, but maybe 3 or 4, and 10 or 12 were taken by Summerside that first half. Whitecaps had the one shot on goal, the PK. 

At last, in the second half the gates opened, and Junsei tallied a brace on two well passed into goal shots, very impressive finishes. Des rounded out the scoring with his 3rd of the young two-game season so far, and handed Emery the second half victory in goal. 

NEXT UP:

Tuesday, June 6, 2023 - T2 and T3 Training Session, White Oaks Park Soccer Field @ 6:15 p.m.

Thursday, June 8, 2023 - T2 EMDSL Match 5: Glencoe 1 U14B vs. SEU Summerside A, Glencoe Community Centre, @ 6:30 p.m. 

Friday, June 9, 2023 - T3 EMDSL Match 3 (first game was thrown out, as Tilly moved to T2): Del-Ko Brydges Yellow U15B vs. SEU Summerside A, Lions Park @ 6:30 p.m.

_________________________________________

Summerside A faced off against unknown entity Oakridge Avengers White Under-15 Boys Tier 2 team Thursday night at Oak Park, scoring a massive 9-0 victory on the road. 

Jaxon lead the way with 4 goals, 3 in the first 15 minutes and 1 in the second to close out the Double Brace. Matt added 2 and 2 assists, as Hayden was not to be outdone with his 2 goals and 2 assists too. The dynamic trio performed so well up front, it left Oakridge spinning their wheels, as the only time they were able to generate offense was in the final 10 minutes, when Hayden, Matt and Jaxon were pulled for the remainder of time. Adding to the SE Summerside A tally of goals, Riyan scored on a pass from Ryan G. Additional assists came from Andrew on Jaxon's third goal, and Brwer on Hayden's final goal.

Defending as a unit, with fluid 3-4-3 attacking to 5-4-1 defending getting better every match is helping; as demonstrated against Oakridge, with various defensive players getting time on the midfield wings. Ryan G and Kyle tracked back beautifully to support Atticus, Noah and Riley, who along with Ryan M, G and Kyle rotated phenomenally in their protective, and progressive roles, assisting Ali in earning the clean sheet, as well as generating positive movement forward through Andrew, Marcus, Jake and Kevin. 

It was a fantastic display of top-knotch football, that can only get better as serious possession round the horn of the 18 yard box starts growing into games. 

NEXT UP for Summerside A

Sunday May 28 - Tier 2 Training at Meadowgate Soccer Field,  3 p.m. - 13 confirmed attending, 4 unanswered as yet

Tuesday, May 30 - EMDSL Game: SE Summerside A U14B T2 vs Ilderton U15B T2, 15 North London 1, 8:30 p.m. - 14 confirmed attending, 2 unanswered as yet

In Summerside B news, the Killer Bs did exactly that with Byron  in EMDSL T3 action Friday night under the lights at North London Field 2, as they run rough-shot over the west london club, scoring a 10-1 victory, equalling their T2 brothers 9 goal difference.

The difference makers were everywhere on this T3 night, with Ryan M, Wes and Corbin defending the fortress for Sam in the first half and Emery in the Second. Wes captained the team to its first ever EMDSL victory as a newer team, when you recognize that last year's T3 team is now mostly participating at the T2 level. 

10 goals came from Des starting us off and earning the brace (2 goals). Nick P-H added his own share of spoils with a brace also. The rest of the gang pitched it with goals from Riyan (2 now in all competitions, having scored with the T2 team Thursday night also), Yahya (becoming our first 2010 to score with the 2009 boys team, playing in a 2008 boys league... hmmm, impressed yet?). Of course, Cayden, another 2010 boy, couldn't be out-done, and added one for himself. Nick M followed up with one of the more exciting goals on a cross from Eric, Nick M was able to head the ball past the defense and keeper for the 7th for SESummerside Bs. Last but not least Ryan M tallied perhaps the most dynamic goal, if you may. He won the ball in his own half, carried it over the right side on the wing, nut-megged one Byron player only to do the same to the next defender, found a little open space to launch a SpaceX shot from about 35 yards to goal, landing safely (unlike many of SpaceX venture) clearing the keeper and dropping just enough under the bar to nestle nicely into the back of the net's mesh. What a beauty! 

Assist tally looks like this: Ryan M x 3, Riyan x 2, Jake, Eric, Junsei x 2, Nick. And that's just the ones I was able to figure out and/or attribute. 

NEXT UP for Summerside B

Tuesday, May 30 - Tier 3 Training at White Oaks Park, 6 p.m. - 13 players confirmed, 7 unanswered (pls update)

Friday, June 2 - EMDSL Game: SE Summerside B U14B T3 vs Whtecaps London U14B T3, 6:30 p.m. @ Jesse Davidson Park (East Field) 

Despite the 4-3 loss in a game that looked good to win for Southend United Summerside A Team at North London, Wednesday evening, there were a lot of real positives to come from the match against Sarnia FC. 

Positive 1 - Summerside were winning 3-2 at one point, against this T2 U15 Boys team, we might add - that's 365 days more experience, training and life lessons for the Sarnia players

Positive 2 - Flashes of brilliance with passing and connection in the goal area with a variety of three different goal-scorers, is always good, as teams won't be able to ID one player to focus on - Matt, Marcus and Kevin scored for Summerside, with assiss from Hayden and Jaxon (Matt's was unassisted, as the GK gave it away to him for his finishing touch) .

Positive 3 - This result sets us up with a lot of good learning opportunities to bring to training

Focus 1: Aim to work on in-game controlled Possession, 2 or 3 touches max. If you're on four, they're taking it away soon, if they haven't already.

Focus 2: Heads up passing and field awareness. Look to get away from dribbling straight at or through 1 or 2 defenders, pass to teammates in open space around the defenders. Make the ball do the work and progress positvely, using your teammates to get into the 18 for the finish.

Coaches Carl, Steve and Duncan hope the team took these learnings away from Sunday training in order to put practice into perfecting in the Oakridge game to come this Thursday at Oak Park. 

In T3 news, Summerside Killer B's learned a few things about themselves and how challenging the season might be if we get away from focussing on coming up the soccer awareness, learning curve quickly. Similar to the T2s, focuses need to be on some of the basics, like passing smartly, 2 or 3 touches tops, getting that ball moving toward the other teams goal using space, width a and intelligent field space awareness. All do-able things with appropriate training. 

The game got away from us at Windermere Friday night, with Tilsonburg taking it 13-2 in the end. A couple of bright spots came in the form of goals from Brewer and Riley. Who's next to take the reigns on moving that ball forward to goal and into the net versus Byron U14s this coming Friday, 8:30 p.m. at North London Field 2. Let's go to Tuesday training with the goal to learn 1 new thing you can apply to improve your individual and team game for Friday. Byron lost 6-0 in their first game against Taxandria, so their training will likely be focused on defending and finishing, similar to ours, and we will look to set a winning tactic, as this is a good opportunity to measure our new team against the more experienced groups. 

Coaches Jamey, Carl and Duncan look forward to seeing your progress from game to game, as we grow into this short season.

Southend United Summerside B Tier 3 team got it's first taste of talent they will face in T3 for the 2023 EMDSL season this past Tuesday, as they were topped by St Thomas Soccer Club's T3s about 7-0 at Athletic Park in St Thomas. 

As lopsided as it may have been in result, there are lots of great takeaways. According to Assistant Coach Carl, "For the whole team, we can work on:

• Decision making and communication
• Positioning (understanding / execution)
• Vision / anticipation (on attack / on defense)
• Technical - passing / shooting

For me, Nick PH and Wes W seemed to "up their games" out on the grass.  Definitely two players who performed highly on the day."

Southend United Summerside A Team took on Condors FC U13 boys at Citywide Sunday afternoon, earning a hard fought 3-2 victory over the likely T2 level Condors team without a league for 2023. 

Some important lessons learned: 

1. do not take smaller players lightly, these Condors were tenacious and with their coach as referee, they were free to take some late game liberties.
2. Possession, there are times where Summerside presses powerfully, but there's limited pondering the next pass, the build up to a potential goal, it's a lot of run and gun, and sometimes it works, but it may work better to balance that with some positive progresssive off-balancing passing round the horn to build a potential opening for an easier break on goal
3. Jockeying defensively, will guarantee, slower breaks for opposition, Jockey to Delay; this allows your team to get back and support - in tandem, wing forwards and wing midfielders, need to be darting back to their respective defensive support positions in defensive wing mid and defensive wing back roles, i.e. the 3-4-3 formation, transitions back to a 5-4-1 on defending, but it starts with the jockeying delay, which requires slowing down the offender with the ball, taking away passing lanes, and not worrying so much about getting that ball, until you have support back defending with you.

Summerside goals were fantastic - i missed Logan's but sounds like it was a right place, right time finish. Andrew blasted from just outside the 18, maybe closer to 25 yards out, shoulders over the ball, getting to rising and dipping back down, off finger tips and still into the top of the goal, under the bar. Jaxon finished the eventual game-winner on a ball bounding away on the left side, wrapping his left foot round with just the right connection to get it to settle in the back of the net. 

Jacob and Ali shared goalkeeping duties, keeping Condors to just one goal in each half. Again, defensive team focus, would have prevented the 2nd half goal with stronger jockeying and delay tactics, as well as greater focus getting back in support. Condors speed of footwork, in attacking possession, and ease of short passes allowed, gave them the chance to beat the Summerside defender, just inside the 18 yard box and allowing enough space to blast the ball past the Summerside keeper. 

Elgin Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 2 and 3 regular season is fast approaching, as parents and players will notice on Southend Unitd Summerside A and B Heja app access points. But before we get to the business end of Regular Season play, we have at least one more Tier 2 preseason friendly. This one is against a likely T2 or T1 level Condors FC team, Sunday, May 7, 1 p.m. at Citywide Sports Complex Field #1. 

It's important the team takes technical, tactical, physical and mental skills and learnings from January through today, to tomorrow's training session at BMO Centre for both T2 and T3 Sifton Field, 4 p.m., in order to be prepared to play Condors FC, formerly of London Athletic Club, now unattached, but well trained in the art of soccer.

Southend Summerside A Team will need to be sharp, aggressive in the attack, attentive and applying pressure when moving forward and when tracking back defensively. Focus on delay with defending, allowing forward wingers to get back to their mid-field defending positions in the 5-4-1 defensive zone, while possessing the ball forward and wide in a 3-4-3 attacking mode. 

Please be sure to be there early for this 1 p.m. game, aiming for 12:30 to 12:45 p.m. latest if you're playing or parenting (getting them to the game). 

Next Up:

May 9, 2023 - possible T3 preseason match with St. Thomas (TBD); if not, possible first joint outdoor training session 6 p.m. at .... TBD (White Oaks Field or Meadowgate Fields) (reliance on weather and other team's planning makes these spring dates challenging to nail down sometimes)

May 14, 2023 - possible training, if Mother's Day allows for it ;) (probably not though.

May 16, 2023 - if above doesn't happen, this will be our first outdoor training session, not ideal, because we play next day, but we'll make it work. 

Meet the Team

We've already met the first 7 players of Tier 2 Elgin Middlesex District Soccer League Southend United Summerside A Team. Today, let's spotlight on 7 Tier 2 players in - Atticus, Brewer, Hayden, Jacob, Jaxon, Ryan G and Riley.?

Here are 10 players from your Tier 3 EMDSL SEU Summerside B Team, all returning, some from Summersiders 2022, some from Whitecaps London 2022: Owen D, Des D, Nicholas M, Eric M, Junsei G, Jake E, Logan F, Wes W, Simon D, Austin R... And here's what I know about some of these players - (more to come...)

Owen D:

Returns to Southend United for his second season with Tier 3 in EMDSL. Owen standsout for his midfield ball control, for me. You can always count on a thoughtful, smart, intuitive pass from Owen. Something to work on could be speed. An interesting point to note, as submitted from Owen's dad Scott, "?Owen has been part of these open tryouts once or twice a year since he was 8 yrs old. He must be at least 16 to have a chance to be picked to represent Canada. In the history of the program, the youngest to be picked to play for Canada has been 18 and that was a fellow Londoner, Nick Heffernan who was a student at STA. Presently, the team is preparing for a tournament in Barcelona this summer."? Talk about exciting opportunities.?

Des D:

Des joins Southend United for his first season with the Tier 3 team, but 2nd, perhaps multiple seasons under Coach Jamey's tutolage. It's only been a short stint with Southend, but Des has already impressed in both training and the T2 vs. T3 scrimmage match. We like what we see from Des on both attacking and defensive sides of the ball. One recommendation would be to take opportunities to shine as they come to you. This is how you develop your game and confidence. I look forward to great things from Des this season.?

Nicholas M:

What can we say about Nick, other than he's a Southend lifer so far, with this being his fourth season with this group, he's an original 5 alongside Riley, Jaxon, Andrew and Kyle. Nick's known for great attacking passes, often standout play in goal from this past indoor season with Forest of Flowers and a knack for missing sitters, as seen in our St Thomas match last week. LOL and JK, Nick. Nick has and continues to come along way from our Southend Rec days of 2019. And seeing him train under other clubs training can only help improve his game. We look forward to his being a leaders amongst the T3 group this season, and big things this year and beyond.?

Eric M:

Eric is an attacking player who will lead by example I suspect, when it comes to working with his former Whitecaps and newer Summerside crew at Southend United T3. I remember Southend Rec days with Eric growing alongside the group, and he's clearly made a lot of progress, and this step to T3 will only enhance that for his soccer development. I've seen good things in training, good ball control and an eye for the attack. Something to work on would be ensuring you're playing total football, attack to defend, defend to attack, support, support, support in both directions. I look forward to your progress with us this year, Eric.?

Junsei G:

Returning to Southend United for, I want to say Year 4, but with Covid, it's more likely 3 or 3 and a partial season(s) with the Summerside group. Junsei was scouted in the SWISL 2019/20 season when he played with a competitor. We attempted to start an indoor 20-21 season to no avail, playing one set of 3 games and then the season being cancelled. Junsei stuck with us, returning in the fall of 21/22 to join the SWISL Summerside CSC Maroon, who he helped support to a League and Playoff championship. Junsei is with our T3 crew to kick off this season, and will likely be a key call-up to our T2 team on various occasions, I expect. We look forward to ongoing positive progress, Junsei.?

Jake E:

Jake is first and foremost (family) coach Jamey's son. Secondly, I recall meeting up with Jake in various Southend Rec days, but particularly as the white team, I forget the name, but it was them, No Frills and our Shooters vying for supremacy in the rec leagues back in 2018 and before. It's great to see Jake still plugging away, and he has a definite attacking mind, always pushing forward and scoring in our T2 vs. T3 game recently. I look forward to working with Jamey and Carl to further progress Jake's leadership possibilities and ball control skills to the next level. Look out Jake, we're gonna make you work ;)

Logan F:

I'm excited to see what Logan brings to the table for EMDSL T3 Southend United this season. I expect leadership growth, continued speed down the wings and goals up front, as well as focus on getting back to help defend as needed. This could be a breakout season for Logan if he wants to see his game develop to the next level. We hope to be able to utilize his speed and skills on the wings when T2 comes calling from time to time. Something to work on for Logan, overall strength on the ball, i.e. being able to sheild bigger players off it where necessary to hold up and pass off, as well as working on your right foot control, shooting, passing.?

Wes W:?

Wes joins the Sounend United T3 Summerside B team journey for his first ever stint with us, and are we ever excited to have another (former) coaches son, as Wes' dad Jim used to coach with Jamey at Whitecaps London. Wes brings defensive acumen to Southend, and we hope to add value to his already in place skill set. From the little exposure I've had thus far to Wes, I like that he listens and digs in well. My advice would be to work on getting balls wide to your wing support and potentially joining in the rush, others will cover your spot, and I could see you setting up or contributing to lots of goals for that way.?

Simon D:?

Simon is yet another SWISL diamond in the rough find. He's known for his Karate kick clearances at left back, typically, but as this past season showed, he can play forward too, so long as Ryan M isn't bearing down on him to steal his thunder last minute on his one and best chance on goal for the 2022/23 season. I look forward to seeing Simon stepping up his game in T3 with Southend this year, his second outdoor, third overall with us. Simon will need to work on his weaker right foot too, the more he can incorporate both feet into ball control forward or defensively, the better chance he'll have stopping everyone without a karate kick to the chops ;) Let's see your greatness rise Simon.

Austin R:

This is another exciting opportunity for us and hopefully for Austin too. Being tight with Des, we think we may have our dynamic duo for T3 this year. From what I've seen so far in training, Austin brings that good strength and touch on the ball, with a solid left foot. I expect we'll see some call-ups in Austin's future. T2 has only 15 players, so there will be need from time to time. Will you answer the call, I hope so. Coach Jamey has had nothing but good things to say about you and was extremely happy to see that you were signed.?

More to come, but for those reading, please tip your hats and say thank you and offer a huge welcome to our Tier 3 EMDSL Southend United Summerside Killer Bees!!! The excitement begins... yesterday.?

St Thomas Soccer Club's U14 Boys T3 team visited Southend United Summerside A U14 Boys T2 team Sunday afternoon, meeting at CityWide Sports Complex, and both teams left with lots of great learning experiences. 

Summerside A won 9-2 when all was said and done, and that's with a biased referee, in Coach Carl, who it has to be said called a pretty good match all round. The only questionable call was on the first goal, which went to the visitors about 10 minutes into the match, and there was a hint of a possible offside. 

Summerside scoring came from various characters, with Jaxon leading the way at 3, Matt following suit with 2 of his own, Ali scored the most interesting goals on a low-hard cross, adjusting his body to be able to redirect in, and then a chip of the keeper in the second half too. Hayden and Noah scored a couple more bangers to ice the cake on this one - and St Thomas got a second in the second. 

The opening goal posed some questions for the coaching staff of Summerside A, but those were quickly answered and the rest of the scrimmage turned out more as hoped for a T2 vs. T3 competition. 

NEXT UP: 

April 30, 2023 - 11:30 a.m. Summerside A & B Teams' Training Session @ CityWide Sports Complex - We have the pitch for 1 hour from 12 to 1 p.m. Please get there early (11:30 a.m.), so we may use an endzone to get warmed up and ready. A professional soccer trainer/consultant, from J9 Training, will be on hand to observe our training session to help plan future sessions. Jade Kovacevic, of FC London-fame, Canada WNT and AS Roma experience will lead some supportive training sessions, monthly throughout our season for both T2 and T3 training sessions, as well as some solo T2 sessions. 

May 2,3 or 4, 2023 - Hoping to book BMO for a two team session, maybe half field if we can get it. (more information to come, if we can make this happen) 

May 7, 2023 - 3 p.m. Summerside A Team Preseason Friendly Match - Southend United Summerside A vs. Condors FC U14 Boys @ CityWide Sports Complex 

Southend United Summerside preseason got off to a phenomenal start, as the A and B sides from Tier 2 and Tier 3 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League came together for a first outdoor competition of the year. 

With Tier 3 lining up against Tier 2 there may have been some expectations going in. Some played out. But coaches were really watching for improvement from the separate teams in outdoor to everyone coming together and learning and growing and developing team dynamics, positions, defensive and offensive understanding, and overall transition between both to this outdoor session. This match-up was a great start for all of that.

Minor alterations were necessary to try to ensure fairness and no one team was achieving or experiencing any sort of crazy lopsided-ness, and it worked well. With coaches on-field as additional coaching and referee support, everyone was learning, even Jacob B in his first 20 minutes, when there were few chances. He learned to explore his goal area, while keeping warm and ready to pounce on any attack. 

Coaches got to see both teams working together, as well as against each other, and encouraged T3 mid's and D to join the attack, or at minimum move up in lock step with it, so you are there in support, should it be required for passes back and round the 18 yard box once side to the other, player by player - i.e. shot build-up possesion. T2's were encouraged to get back when opposition breaks on their team's defence. 

Hold-up play, defensive delay and visualizing and anticipating passing plays ahead of them happening will be important pieces to work on for both teams. General spatial awareness will be another important aspect. 

Overall, Coaches Carl, Duncan, Jamey and Steve were very impressed with what they saw and look forward to continued growth in confidence, skill and soccer IQ throughout 2023 summer season. 

NEXT UP: 
Sunday, April 23, 2023 - St Thomas SC (T3) vs. Southend United Summerside A (T2) @ Citywide, 3 p.m. (with cool down and debrief for T2s - post-game to about 5 p.m.

Sunday, April 23, 2023 - Southend United Summerside B (T3) Training Session @ Citywide 4:30 to 6 p.m. (warm-ups in endzone if St Thomas game is not yet complete)

Let's not dwell on a past that could have been. With three Summerside Community Soccer Club teams participating in South West Indoor Soccer League's winter season, it could be said, it was a dilution of Summerside talent. Had it been two or one, Summerside could very well have been Champions, similar to London Auto Source being made up of Strathroy players. Generals being made up of Delko Brydges players. At Summerside CSC, we prefer to share the wealth, and ensure all our outdoor players are playing through the as together as possible. And three teams was the way to go for that purpose - for Fun In Football for All. 

And, the results, although perhaps not where we would have dreamed of being i.e. 1, 2, 3 Summerside, Flowers, Rockets, were still filled with positives. Summerside CSC had the longest winning streak at 8, most consecutive shutouts at 4, 2nd and 3rd top scorers in the league. Forest of Flowers, 2nd in overall Goals Against at 31, better than the two finalists - probably the best overall defensive team in the league. Rockets swept their season series with the Spartans, on the strong play of Summersiders, and gave perennial top-dog (until the final game of the season) Summerside a run for their money in all games, including a tight 2-1 affair to close out their season series. They also scored 37 goals , right up there, with Flowers and Generals. All in all, if you look solely at these three teams in their season series together, you get the following standings, for a Summerside Community Shield competions of sorts, like a League Cup or Community Shield, if your familiar with the terms or these types of competitions: 

Summersiders Season Series Results: 

London Auto Source, winning the league on the final day, look to make it the double, as Summerside did in 2021-22 SWISL Season, as they play London Optimist Generals, after all three Summerside-related teams bowed out in tight playoff 2-1 losses each for Flowers and Summerside in the semi-finals; the Rockets were knocked out the week before by Generals. 

With Summerside Community Soccer Club taking second place, it sets up a more interesting setup for potential final pairings. 

Forest of Flowers defeated London Optimist Rockets 2-1 in the Quarterfinal Saturday at BMO Centre. This sets up a date with London Auto Source on April 1, at 5:15 p.m. London Auto Source, by finishing first, earned a bye week this week, and were off through March Break, and thus could be caught out of Southwest Indoor Soccer League specific readiness. We'll see. 

In the other quarterfinal, LO Generals topped the Spartans 4-1, entering the semi-final on a high, while Summerside rests again too, as the other bye earnee. This semifinal pits 2nd vs. 3rd, where Summerside holds the season-regular-season-record advantage at 3-0-1 (w-d-l). The playoffs are a different breed, and comes down to one and done. Score first, score often, take the points. Defense and goalkeeping can win you championships. Use your teammates in the playoffs more than ever. These are just some of the thoughts that can lead to victory. Aggresiveness, Bravery and Confidence - these are the ABC's of winning in tough situations. Who will prevail? Who wants it more? 

Perfect Finale : Summerside CSC vs. Forest of Flowers (All Summerside)

Next best: Summerside CSC vs. London Auto Source (1v2)

Other possibilities: LO Generals vs. Forest of Flowers (still very good)

London Auto Source vs. LO Generals (no thanks ;) )

In other news, here are your first few signings from our T3 Summerside B team (the Killer Bs, perhaps?): 

Ryan M, Junsei G, Owen D, Eric M, Riyan G, Sam S, Corbin T, Logan F, Simon D and Emery D.

These are your fully registered, signed and paid players for Summerside B so far. Looking forward to another fantastic T3 EMDSL summer soccer season of Fun In Football For All (FIFFA) with our Southend United SC parent club. 

Forest of Flowers has become the first official sponsor for Southend United's 2009 Boys U14 Soccer Teams, as a Gold contributor, earning them primary jersey space. 

Other sponsorship and fundraising efforts are in progress with London Auto Source and Fireside Grill. 

If you, as a parent, reader, follower, player or otherwise, have interest or know a family member or friend with a small business that would like to help support a small soccer club and it's teams grow and develop their players' game, please feel free to reach out to Duncan Inglis, Team Manager, Southend United Summerside CSC at dsbjinglis@gmail.com anytime. 

We're happy to add further Gold, Silver, Bronze or other sponsorship or fundraising options to help equip our team for the best and lessen the cost overall for our parents, where possible. 

More information may be found under Handouts and our sponsorship package found there. 

Seven Signed, Registered and Fully Paid Tier 3 players so far: 

Atticus C - new signing, registered and fully paid for the Southend United Summerside A

U14 Boys Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 2 summer season

Atticus joins Summerside CSC at Southend United from Londn Optimist Generals 

of the Intermediate A Division from the 2022-2023 South West Indoor Soccer League

Ryan G currently plays with Forest of Flowers, a Summerside CSC/Southend United Soccer Club coached 

South West Indoor Soccer League Intermediate A Division team. 

Ryan is an officially signed, registered and fully paid player

joining Southend United Summerside A in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 2 U14 Boys play this coming summer.

Brewer T returns to Southend United Summerside A from London Optimist Rockets of South West Indoor Soccer League Intermediate A Division,

as a fully signed, registered and paid for the 2023 U14 Boys Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 2 summer season player.

Welcome back to Summerside CSC and Southend United SC Hayden S, 

currently a strong forward for the Forest of Flowers team playing in SWISL's Intermediate A Dvision of Indoor recreational soccer.

Hayden returns to the Southend United Summerside A team that will play the 2023 summer season

in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League's U14 Boys Tier 2 division. Hayden is signed, registered and fully paid.

Queue AC/DC, as Black is Back, and so is Jacob B. Jacob returns from LO Spartans of the 2022-23 SWISL

Intermediate A Dvision season to re-affirm Summerside CSC commitment. 

Jake is a fully signed, registered, and paid goalkeeper with the Southend United Summerside A side

and may join us a little later than expected, with a recent SWISL injury, but will be a key team member in EMDSL U14 Boys Tier 2 play this season. 

Riley S currently plying his trade with the LO Rockets in SWISL play, and another original 6 player

with the Summerside CSC startups from 2019 in Southend Recreational Soccer returns for Year 5.   

Riley returns to Southend United Summerside A team who will play in EMDSL's U14 Boys Tier 2 Division,

as a fully paid, signed and registered Summersider for life. 

Jaxon I is back with Southend United Summerside A, as a 5-year verteran of Summerside CSC soccer teams, 

and will play in EMDSL summers eason U14 Boys Tier 2 division through 2023 season. Fully signed, registered and paid.

Jaxon currently supports the Summerside CSC team playing at the Intermediate A Division level in SWISL,

as they pursue back to back Playoff Championships this March in SWISL. 

March Madness may have fallen by the wayside for U14 Boys teams at other clubs, but this would not be Summerside's fate, as Coach Carl headed up creation of the new Summerside FIFFA (Fun In Football For All) Festival Tuesday afternoon at BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field. 

With about 26 players in attendance, for one field, the bigger group was split into pre-determined teams of 6 or 7 per team with Yellow vs. Dark Blue vs. Light Blue vs. Red... and 10 minute games were set up in Round Robin style, where each played each other to determine placement for a playoff round. 

Red finished first, with Dark Blue #2, Light Blue 3 and Yellow in forth. Every game was close - within 1 or two goals and plenty of draws, with games being just 10 minute spurts. 

In the playoffs, it all played out similarly, with Red and Dark Blue making it through having defeated Yellow and Light Blue respectively. In the end Dark Blue kept their heads after a 0-0 draw and finished almost all of their penalties, where Red struggled to find the net with their first 3 setting the tone for the Dark Blue to upset the #1 seed. 

All of the above was followed with a Blue vs. Red full teams with subs, playing about 15 minutes - just for fun. I believe Red one this one 2 or 3-0. The were combined Yellow Blue, and the others were combined Blues. 

Here's a collage of your first annual Summerside FIFFA Festival - looking forward to more in future: 

1. Tuesday's MarchMadness overrun by Summerside CSC's 1st Annual FunInFootballForAll Festival at BMO Centre
2. 6 Fully Completely - Signings for Southend United Summerside A Team announcement to come - six players officially fully signed, registered and paid
3. SEU Summerside first major sponsor beyond Summerside CSC itself to be announced...
4. Announcement of your first 6 Fully Completely signed, sealed, delivered Southend United Summerside B Team players - six players officially fully signed, registered and paid

These announcements to come tomorrow, leading into the weekend. 

"Just as attacking as a team is important...

Defending as a team is important too.

And when you break that down further, defending as a unit is vital to keeping conceded goals to a minimum.

Want to go even further?

How about making sure your centerbacks work well in tandem.

And your full back with their inside partner too.

"What am I getting at?"

That having these *defensive relationships* on the field are imperative to being solid at the back.

By communicating well and knowing where each teammate should be positioned, defenders will be able to stop attacks even when they're up against it.

"So, how do you coach communication and defensive positioning?"

Practice, practice, practice!

Set up multiple in-game scenarios in quick succession, so your defenders are up against groups of two or three attackers.

See how they react.

Do they keep diving in?

Are they being beaten by skill or pace?

Every outcome tells you something, whether their positional play could be improved.

Or they need to be more aggressive when defending.

Work on whatever weaknesses your defenders have and over time they’ll improve."

It's a tight race for the top spot in SouthWest Indoor Soccer League this 2022-23 winter season, as London Auto Source continues to remain just one point behind perennial top spot holders Summerside CSC right to the bitter end. 

And it will take one more week, and the final weekend in the regular season to decide the League champions. 

LO Rockets and Summerside faced off while Spartans lay down for London Auto Source, with an unfortunate 8-0 drubbing. Rockets put up a better fight, as Andrew scored to keep it close, but Matt had said throughout the game, "I'm not losing any more." And no more an appropriate statement was necessary, as he racked up the hat trick against Sam and Brewer in goal, and added an assist on Jaxon's goal, while Jaxon assisted Keagan's. Brooklyn came close a couple time, while Julia and Riley shutdown the midfield. Kyle Aiden and Simon nearly supported the shutout, if it wasn't for Andrew's perfect corner of the net placement. 

Riley, Noah, Peywand, Kevin and the rest of the LO Rockets crew played well despite the score. We look forward to maybe meeting again in the playoffs. 

NEXT UP: 

Saturday, March 11, 6 p.m. - Summerside CSC @ LO Spartans, BMO Centre's Airport KIA Field 

In Thunder news, it was a battle of goalkeeper, defenders and the odd goal-scorer, as only 3 were tallied, 2 for Lazers, 1 for Thunder, thus Thunder lost 2-1 to Lazers on the evening. Not from wont of trying. This game could easily have been 6-2 for Thunder, had the Lazers goalkeeper been even remotely off his game or a couple of the shots were opposite of where he went, i.e. bottom corner as he flew top. Adam scored for Thunder and we now look forward to playoffs for SWISL. Jack was fantastic as usual, with Charlie, Sofie, Callum supporting the low scoring affair. Nefi had chances with Thiago and Adam, as well as Owen and Liam up front, but to no avail, beyond Adam's score. Brooks wasn't well, so stayed home this week. 

NEXT UP:

Saturday, March 11, 10:15 p.m. - LO Blizards @ LO Thunder, BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field

We will start with some good, move to some bad and some ugly and try and finish the sandwich with some more good. 

Summerside Community Soccer Club finished it's season 2nd overall, after having retained #1 spot for a good chunk of the season on the backs of some serious good team play all year - lead by Matt in Goal-scoring with 25, Jaxon at 18, Keagan 9, Matt also lead in assists at 14, Jaxon 12, Keagan again at 9. In goal, Matteo lead the way playing 17 of 18 total games and earning 5 clean sheets on the season. 

This final game perhaps messed with Summerside mentally, seeing a 0 in the win column through 17 games for Spartans, perhaps it seemed a bit of a foregone conclusion that Summerside would ease into  the back to back league titles. However, this is where some bad comes into play for Summerside, mixed with Good for Spartans and Good for London Auto Source. "You take the good, You take the bad, You take them both and there you have, The facts of life." Although it was a bit of disappointing end of season for Summerside, having lost 3 of it's final four games, the team can come away from this one, having learned how to be even better in the playoffs, elevate their game. Spartans were the better team on the day, primarily from goalkeeping, and here's where the ugly comes into play.

Jacob B started the match for Spartans in goal, and was phenomenal, stopping everything Jaxon and Matt threw at him, and these are powerful shooters. Regrettably too powerful sometimes, as Jacob succumbed to an arm/wrist injury off a blistering shot from Matt's left foot about 2/3s of the way through the first half. Coach Duncan noted after the match that he was hopeful Jacob was alright and would continue to heal up quick for the upcoming outdoor season. It wasn't until afterwards that he learned the extent of the injury is a break to the arm, though it won't need setting, it will still take upwards of 6 weeks to heal, and then there's the mental support that will be needed to feel comfortable facing shots again, after that. Coaches will be shuffling and amping up goalkeeper training as a result for Southend United's outdoor season. The full Summerside and Southend families wish Jacob a speedy physical and mental recovery from this unfortunate injury. 

Pablo came in and shut the door almost completely - both he and Jacob only allowed 1 goal to pass each. Jaxon with both, assisted by Keagan and Matt respectively. A well-deserved victory was earned on Kia field for Spartans, 3-2 the final. And on Sifton, the dagger to Summerside's heart was a 2-0 Jaden lead defeat of Forest of Flowers. Lastly on Tim Horton's Field. Rockets fell to Generals 4-1 to cap a sad day for all Summerside teams. But now Jacob hits the road to healing and recovery and the rest of us need to elevate our games to Playoff fever levels. For there is still one more championship to be won - hopefullly by one of three Summerside CSC contenders (includes Forest of Flowers and Rockets). 

In London Optimist Thunder Senior A action Saturday, Brooks' Thunder fell hard to the high-testosterone Blizards 5 or 6-1, unfortunately, with how crazy these guys play, it was difficult to tell what the score was. But, kudos to Thunder for playing tthe game, not the players across from them. Various times Blizards players took exscessive liberties on Thunder players, particularly seeming to pick on Brooks - Gavin shoving Brooks unexpectedly from behind and some more ugly with Booth body-checking Brooks powerfully in the chest on another occasion in the first half. It was s demonstration of stupidy-galore from a team with IQs of 2 it seemed collectively. And then storming the field like they'd won the championship. They'd beaten a team that only had barely enough players to field a team, 4 players who'd already played earlier that day - Liam, Hayden, Owen and Makai and only three regulars in Brooks, Jack and Charlie. With that sort of display, we'll be lucky to entice anyone to come out March 25 for the final playoff game in Senior A play. The only good thing about it will be that we'd play Arthur and Michael Costa's team, one we've had good friendly games with. 

Fingerscrossed, Arthur's attempts to get Blizards knocked out of playoff play due to their lack of overall sportsmanship and respect pans out for Thunder, Lazers, Fusion and A&B Rental. 

NEXT UPs:

Summerside CSC experienced it's third loss of the 2022-23 SouthWest Indoor Soccer Leage Internmediate A Division Campaign, not from lack of effort but from luck once again. Each of the past two weeks looked like it would come down to the wire and we may be able to settle for the draw. Unfortunately, 1 and 2 goals were just short of what was needed. The Hayden show of last week turned to the Jaden show of this week. Although Matt offered a show of his own, equalling Jaden's effort with a brace too. 

Coach Duncan, without coach Brandy this week, clearly couldn't handle a full bench on his own, as he made dubious decisions throughout to over-play some, trying to match Source's approach, while underplaying too many. For that he regrets not better balancing, which typically is a strength of the Summerside Gaffer, just not this game, for some reason. The next two games promise to be much better balanced. 

Unfortunately for Summerside, and fortunately for London Auto Source, Jaden's late goal (phantom, albeit) was called a goal by the referee and of course all of Source on the pitch. However, as this reporter/coach reviews his own internal Head Memory Review (HMR), this is how it went down (remember, this is coming from the bias of the coach for Summerside, and does not represent the opinions of anyone from the Source). "I saw Jaden's powerful blast hit the bottom of the cross bar, bounce down to hit the left post, roll while spining along the line and nearly over, but then hit the right post and Matteo swat the ball out of harms way. I'm confident every Summerside player and parent would agree, my view was best," added Coach Duncan with a hint of sarcasm and knowing that clearly the players and parents of Source would choose the other opinion. Also, the referee admits he wasn't 100% sure it was a goal, which in those scenarios, a referee should err on the side of caution and say "no goal" (this is now an opinion piece, no longer a news story). 

It's over now, Summerside can move on to the London Optimist Rockets next, added coach and see where we go from there. A clinch of first place is still in the cards, should Source come down from the high earned from beating the current pinnacle of SWISL Intermediate A Division in Summerside CSC. Any combination of a Summerside win and Source loss produces back to back league champion finishes for the leaders. Or a Cinderalla story is created, as London Auto Source could go from worst to first, over the last two seasons. It's shaping up for an exciting finish either way! 

NEXT UP (League Champion clincing match): 

Saturday, March 4, 2023 - Summerside CSC vs. London Optimist Rockets, 6:15 p.m. @ BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field

Saturday, March 4, 2023 - LO Thunder vs. LO Lazers, 10:15 p.m. @ BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field

With a win, Summerside CSC would have put themselves in the excellent position of clinching first place for the SouthWest Indoor Soccer League Intermediate A Division season last Saturday. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for Forest of Flowers, the Hayden show flexed it's collective muscles, as Hayden alone tallied two beauty goals - one in the dying minutes to take the 2-1 lead. 

Jaxon fought hard in the final minute to get the ball deep against Brett, but got a little to agressive, knocking him on his butt for the final foul call, sealing the 2-1 final. Matteo was great as usual, and just very unlucky to have a bad-angle hard shot from Hayden hit off his hands and spill into goal. The second and late final winning goal, was a goal kick straight to Hayden, who carried the ball, barely contested by Summersiders, firing hard and past Matteo. 

Matt scored a lovely goal against Jake S in the second half, powering it low and hard past the keeper, after a nice back heel pass from Jaxon. It was yet another exciting game for the #1 Summersiders, who just came up short against a tough defense and an amazing first half goalkeeping performance by Nick in goal for the Flowers. 

NEXT UP (next chance to clinch first place):

Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 - Summerside CSC @ London Auto Source, 6 p.m. at BMO Centre's Sifton Field

In LO Thunder news, another exciting one for the Thunder, as we were able to recruit a player who once was in the Paris St-Germain system in Omar, along with his friends Yaaz and Rawa (of cource - the recruiter) and Ben. Adam was on fire, scoring 2 of the 5 Thunder goals, while Elena added 1 and Ben tallied the other 2. Final score was 8-5, but it was a flattering result for Fusion.

In the first half, after going up 3-0 Fusion couldn't stop an inspired Thunder squad, who cam back Fast and Furious (yes, that's a reference) to make it 3-3. It was 4-3 by half time for Fusion, and thus the second half was 4-2. So, all in all, not a bad result, playing without our regular keeper. Hayden and Callum did amazingly, considering we were playing the top team with two ridiculously skilled players and some really strong overall depth, including two Dewar brothers, of (Owen Dewar T3 Summersiders fame). 

Looking forward to another good one - not this week, but next...

NEXT UP:

Sat. Mar. 4, 2023 - LO Thunder @ LO Lazers, 10:15 p.m. at BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field

In Summerside CSC news, London Optimist Generals took a 1-0 lead in the first half, as Gavin broke in and chipped the ball past Matteo, but Matt was having none of that as he was able to tie it up before half time, with a cannon of a low shot through the keeper into goal. In the end Summerside prevailed when a ball shot from the right flying in high was touched by the Generals player. Jaxon stepped up to take the penalty kick and scored bottom left corner. 

A very proud coach notes that we won this one 2-1 with the added challenge of missing three of our strong defensive players in Luke, Riley and Zach. Kyle, Aide, Simon, Noah, Jaxon, Matt, Julia, Brooklyn and Keagan, in front of Matteo, all stepped up to ensure the victory and to shut down Atticus, Pierce, Ada, Leah, Josh, Enson, Rihan, Ollie and Gavin the rest of the way. 

In Thunder news, went to a soccer match and fight almost broke out. This one ended 4-1, but that seemed almost meanial in comparison to the mouthy finish from both sides of the bench, as A&B goalkeeper took exception to Brooks shooting at the buzzer, well wide and opposite top corner from where the goalkeeper had already walked a good 15 yards the other direction. Someone had a chip on his shoulder from the moment the two Brooks and GK somehwhat collided at the top of the keepers box, challenging each other for the ball. Brooks challenged again later in the game, and the same result, but this time GK gave fair warning he would go after Brooks if he did anything again. The late shot nowhere near hitting the keeper at the end of the game was his last straw and the F-bombs flew. Brooks gathered his stuff and stormed off, as this is not how he battles, only on the pitch for Brooks. Nefi stood up for his teammate, getting in the face of A&Bs taller speedster, with floppy hair. It was clear no one was in the mood for shaking hands. 

Thanks to Owen for the call-up goal of the night. Everyone played really well second half, but the game was already in the bag for A&B, thanks to some over support of drafting call-ups from coach Duncan and team. I think in future, we need to stick with just three, added coach Duncan post-game in this write-up ;) 

Coach Duncan offers his humblest apologies for the over-feisty reactions of his team and himself at the end of this match and hopes all water is under the bridge and we can get back to our game next week, winning against the #1 Fusion for our first time. 

NEXT UPS:

Summer 2023 registration for Southend United Summerside T2 and T3 A and B teams respectively, is moving along nicely, since Feb. 1 registration portal opening and after a couple of good T2 and T3 training sessions to start preparations for the Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League season ahead. 

Ryan Galloway earns the #1 spot for first non-coach's player to be registered officially for the Summerside outfit and first Tier 2 player signed. Ryan McKechnie was the first T3 signing. Of interest both are Forest of Flowers indoor competitors on the defensive side of things and Coaches Carl, Duncan, Steve and James all look forward to working with each, as well as all 22 registrants so far. 

Currently, the numbers are very interesting, as 8 players are paid, 22 are not yet started, 22 have registered and 8 have not. Hopefully we can turn that into 30:30 in the coming week or two. Southend United Summerside offers a great payment plan, where parents can choose to pay fully up front or take advantage of a 3 payment plan over February, March and April, starting with just $50. 

What else... ? Big games in SWISL today - Summerside CSC @ LO Generals, 6 p.m. BMO, Airport Kia; Forest of Flowers @ LO Spartans, same time, Sifton Field; and London Auto Source @ LO Rockets, 6:15 p.m. on Tim Horton's Field

Take your pick whether it's Alaina from LO Thunder or Jaxon from Summerside CSC with the Hat Tricks, or Matt from Summerside and Matene from Thunder with the Brace(s), players about for players of the match on Saturday for both teams. 

Starting with the early game, Matt set up Keagan for a beauty opening goal against LO Spartans of Intermediate A SWISL play Saturday evening at BMO Centre's Sifton Field. Keagan later helped Matt get one of his two goals on the night, the other assisted by Jaxon. On top of all that Jaxon recorded a hat-trick, albeit helped with a penalty kick in the second half, where Jacob seemed to jump out of the way of the scary blistering shot. Matt also added another helper on a Jaxon goal soon after, where Jacob was too honest giving Matt the inbound kick. Matt rounded out scoring with a first half double, one being from the left side of the pitch finding the back of the net with a right-footed shot. 

An that was just the offensive punch, Luke, Kyle, Zach, Riley all dominated the back end of the pitch, passing and clearing almost everything that came their way. Matteo, as magnificent as he can be, didn't really have to be much in this one, as Summerside went on to beat Spartans 6-0 on the day. Great team effort all round in this one. 

On the Thunder side of things it was like Zen FC vs. Testosterone FC, as the Thunder took on Blizards respectively. Thunder went down early in the match to big Wade, who was given just enough time to blast one far post, through traffice past Jack for the 1-0 lead. Thunder almost immediately bounced back with Alaina scoring from a Matene pass. Then it was the Alain a show for the next 15 mins or so, each time she switched back on for Brooks up front, she'd tally another strike for goal. Score was 3-1 Thunder at half. 

Next up the Matene second half show, as he netted two to seal the deal and the victory for Thunder 5-1 in the end. Nigel and his mates were flabbergasted by the defeat, but that's what happens when you get a little to cocky for your own good. Now, having said that, coach Duncan will work to ensure that doesn't happen with Zen FC (Thunder) going forward. Jack, Charlie, Callum and Hayden all helped out beautifully at the back. Again, blocking, clearing, passing their way out of trouble any time anything might have been brewing. 

NEXT UP: 

London Optimist Rockets, lead by Riley, Brewer, Andrew, Noah, Kevin, Owen and Peywand of Summersiders fame, broke the half-time duck (0-0 score) early in the second half, when Andrew finally found the low corner with a strong shot and the only one magic-man Matteo missed all game. Magic Matteo had stopped about 8 shots first half, and about 5 or 6 second half. 

Ali, a Summersiders prospect, earned the first half shut out for Rockets, demonstrating very good form. But, Matteo's heroics throughout the first half and after Andrew's goal in the second continued to impress both team's coaches. And, his save provided enough inspiration for Matt to score the tying goal mid-way through the second. 

Although Matteo may have been the Player of the Pitch on this day, Summerside could only win with Keagan's hot performance, after a quick minute of coaching, he was back out there for the final 2 minutes of the game, tearing it up, and scoring falling down between two-defenders, very Mario Lemiuex like, if you'll pardon the NHL player reference; poking the game-winning-goal just out of Sam's reach.

An excellent come-from-behind 2-1 victory for Summerside, who are making their mark this year as a second half team with which to be recond. 

NEXT UP for Summerside CSC:

In London Optimist Thunder, Senior A SWISL news from Saturday, with both Coach Duncan and Brooks sitting out for illness and back rest this week, the team was able to recruit enough to have one sub, going out there and scoring a couple goals, only to go down 3-2 and in the end come back to win 5-3 in the end over Michael and Arthur's Lazers, sans Michael. 

Matene described the game as follows, "It went well, we actually had a sub which meant people could rotate breaks. We went up 2-0 then they scored 3 (classic). I tied us up and we scored another 2 after that. They didn't have Micheal which was a bonus for us."

All in all two great results for our Summerside-related teams Saturday night. Double Ws!

NEXT UP for LO Thunder:

Working backwards, London Optimist Thunder fell 3-2 in a hard-fought, short-handed match-up with London Optimist Fusion Saturday night at BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field. A tale of two top teams over the past two weeks and "short-handed, hard-fought" battles, seems to be becoming the norm for this Thunder squad, as it seems there are always just enough injuries to keep only a core group of actual jerseyed teammates showing up week in and week out. It's challenging, but those who do show up put in the best possible effort, coupled with some great supporting cast recruits. 3-2 loss this week, in team's mind is a victory, playing Jagger and Antonio, and really not looking far off from making this a tie or even a Thunder victory. If not for a couple of Antonio howitzers, this could've been very different, as both Nefi and Matene had at least 3 or 4 chances beyond Nefi and Hayden's goals to score a few more. Last week the loss was harder to take, 4 core players, 5th was able to make the last 2 minutes, and it was just too tiring to create enough chances. Matene scored the lone goal in only a 4-1 loss, which is pretty damn good, with back-up keeper Callum in goal, a make-shift defence with Brooks and Adam, who both unfortunately came away with back injuries, keeping them out of the Fusion match. Otherwise, two performance to still be very proud of and to take into the next match on a high note. 

In Summerside CSC news, Matteo, Kyle, Luke, Aiden, Noah and Simon were defensive heroes, with phenomenal support from Julia, Riley and Zach in the middle, and forwards Jaxon, Keagan, Matt, Brooklyn, Noah, Simon and Zach threw everything but the kitchen sink at Nicolas M and the Forest of Flowers defensive unit. Scoring only one, from Jaxon after some tremendous effort from Simon. But with 7 posts and 1 cross-bar, things could've been very different. All said, final score was 1-0 for Summerside, as London Auto Source and LO Generals drew 4-4, and Rockets beat the Spartans 2-0. 

Last week, Summerside topped the Generals 4-0 in another defensive juggernaut, until the final 10 minutes or so, when Keagan and Jaxon scored a plenty on various assists from Matt and each other. Matteo started his clean sheet drive, with some awesome saves, and support from the same defensive group noted above, minus Simon. 

Next Up: 

Saturday, January 21, 2023

Three games in a row with a shutout for Matteo, Aiden, Kyle, Luke, Noah and Simon - that's 150 minutes of indoor soccer clean sheets. The Summerside Defenders of the winter season dominated and shutdown Jaden, Omar and friends from London Auto Source. Sometimes a little aggressively. 

Speaking of first halves, it was tight and tense as have been the last three weeks, with every first half ending 1-0 for Summerside. It was the Keagan show for the first 25 minutes, as he scored on a falling toe-poke past another brilliant goalkeeper, in London Auto Source's 2009 Girl - didn't catch her name, and she doesn't appear to be on their rosters on file. Keagan picked up a 2-minute penalty for knocking Omar on his butt in the first half, and coaches mix ups, had us down two players for a good 30 seconds or so. Once discovered, we were down one for another minute and a half and gave up nothing. 

Second half saw a two goal performance from Matt, with one goal coming from a corner with Summersiders crossing in front of the keeper to put him off and he lost control of the ball into the net. Kyle earned his 5th assist of the 2022-23 campaign on a inbound on target, off the shoulder of Julia and then Riley and into the goal - very well executed, even if mostly by accident. 

Final score Summerside 4, London Auto Source Nil or 0. 

Thunder had a bye week in Senior A action. 

Next Up:

Summerside Community Shield and Regular Season match-up:

Saturday, January 28, 2023 - Summerside CSC @ London Optimist Rockets, 6:15 p.m., BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field

Summerside Community Soccer Club entered two teams - Falcons and Wolverines, in Tuesday's U14 boys annual Scrooge Tournamentat London's BMO Centre with the goal to see where we stand in preparation for outdoor Tier 2 play - playing teams like Alliance Grey, Southwest, Condors FC and each other.

Each team was step in step with each other losing 3-1 and 1-0 in a couple of games. In the derby, Falcons came out on top 3-1, taking 4th spot to make the semifinal playoff against number one, Condors FC. A team that Wolverines got their best result against, earning a 1-1 draw.  

Jaxon and Matt lead each team in scoring at 3, while Hayden, Ali and Andrew all added to the tallies and Jacob earned 1 shutout. To knockout #1 Condors, Jaxon, Marcus and Ali scored their PKs, while Andrew played goal stopping 1 allowing 1 and seeing 2 wide for the win.

Unfortunately, tired legs set in for the final versus Southwest, as Summerside CSC Falcons fell 2-0 this time.

Summerside Community Soccer Club enters the winter break Scrooge Tournament with two teams - Falcons and Wolves, and some tough competition from Alliance Grey, Condors FC and Southwest. Scrooge will be a fun one, and Summerside hopes that it has what it takes to compete with the bigger competitive clubs out there, and hopefully has enough talent to avoid diluting talent for this round-robin, one-day event at BMO Centre on Tuesday, January 3, 2023. 

The Table followed by the two Summerside CSC schedules follows below: 

Being first to the ball can be broken down into two different sections:

a. Positioning

Positioning in soccer is EVERYTHING.

Do you ever watch a game, either with your team or on TV and think...

"Man the ball just keeps falling to that player's feet!"

This isn’t some sort of magnetic power they possess... it's about being in the right place at the right time.

Sure, positioning isn’t a skill that’s as glitzy or as glamorous as doing a rainbow flick or being able to run quicker than any other player on the pitch, but it’s definitely more important!

Because if you can teach your players where to position themselves and build up their ability of anticipating where the ball will drop, then they already have a head start on your opponent.

b. Hunger

Secondly, your players must have the hunger to go after the ball.

Without urgency and desire to be first to the ball, they never will be.

This is one of the harder things to coach because it comes from within.

Which of your players are there every week, ready and hungry to train?

I bet they’re the players who also get to the ball first more often!

To make your players hungrier, encourage them even more, and when they do get to a ball first, celebrate it like a goal!

All good things must come to an end, and often new good things begin as a result. And the streak of Summerside named indoor teams going undefeated has come to a close at 32, dating back to Covid shutdown South West Indoor Soccer League season 2019-2020, as demonstrated in the below charts.

In good news, Summerside CSC had an amazing run of 32 games without a defeat, when factoring in Summerside CSC Blue Team and Green Team from 2019-20, then Summerside CSC Maroon 2021-22 Regular Season and Playoff undefeated champions, and Summerside CSC Green from this 2022-23 season, currently second only to London Auto Source. What an exciting ride it was. Unfortunately, on Saturday evening Summerside couldn't get that one goal needed to tie London Optimist Generals, falling 1-0. Everyone played fantastically, and just needed to get quicker forward passes off, as well as better ball-control along the sidelines. Control or improve these things and the game would likely have been ours, as passes would have gotten to open space or players open to shoot on goal. A little too much head-down soccer made it difficult to beat strong defenders. 

In London Optimist Thunder Senior A SWISL news, it was a battle of top and bottom where David (Thunder) ended up taking down undefeated Goliath (A&B Rental - Senior A version), as a result of the same reason we tied them last time, despite leading 5-1, their tiredness this time. Thunder went up 5-0 in Saturday's match-up and never looked back, finishing A&B Senior A off 9-0, with 4 recruits from A&B Rental's Senior B team - Yann(2), Gerson(1), Adam-2(1) and Sam. Thunder-specific goals came from Ledger(2), Brooks(2), Charlie(1), and Jack earned the clean-sheet thanks to everyone in front of him, and some phenomenal saves throughout, including a last minute, seemingly sure-thing goal that he saved for a corner from point blank range. Great result for Thunder!

2019-20 Summerside CSC Blue

Summerside CSC Green

2021-22 Summerside CSC Maroon

2022-23 Summerside CSC Green Again

Summerside CSC made up ground on London Auto Source toward top spot in the South West Indoor Soccer League Intermediate A Division, with a win over Forest of Flowers 1-0 on Saturday, Dec. 10 at BMO Centre's Sifton Field. 

Matt scored the game's lone goal midway through the first half, with a positively forced goal past the Flowers keeper. Jaxon also scored midway through the second half, only to have it called back, due to a second ball being in the goal-box for the Flowers - a bit of respite, and something that made the final moments a bit scarier than they needed to be. 

Matteo and the defenders of Kyle and Noah shut Flowers down in the second half, earning the clean sheet for everyone - well done - and thanks to lots of Luke's first half work, until he tweaked his back. Great overall defensive teamwork put the team in great position. Riley and Zach, clogged the middle the full 50 minutes, alternative and Centreal Defensive Midfield throughout - Great play by all defenders. 

In Thunder news, ufortunately recruiting this week, was only slightly off from last week's 9-0, giving the team a 6-1 overall loss. Lone goal scored by Xander. The passing game was lacking, as much as precision shooting and tikitaka passing from Fusion was on for them on the day. 

Makai had started the match for Thunder, and Coach Duncan made the mistake of changing things up too much with a new keeper mid-second half. Coach should have put Jack on D or CDM, as he had agreed he could do, and left Makai doing his thing, which was working, as Thunder were only down 3-1 at the time.

When you come into a game of different calibre than the one you came from, it can be challenging to get caught up fast, and that's of no fault to the regular keeper being subbed in, that's something the coach needs to know and recognize and continue to support the current flow of the team, added Coach Duncan. Lesson learned, and with Jack starting next match, Duncan will ensure he has all the confidence in his abilities that he deserves and has always earned. 

NEXT UP:

With London Optimist Thunder having a bye-week off, Summersice Community Soccer Club were the only game in town for the Inglis' family, this past Saturday at BMO Centre. Summerside took on London Auto Source, #1 spot heading into the match, but leaving at #2, as Summerside, lead by a hat-trick from Matt M, and a supportive marker from Jaxon I, topped LAS by a score of 4-3 in the end. 

It was a championship style game, played by two teams seeming to be front runners, with Generals and Forest of Flowers nipping at their heels and Rockets and Spartans rounding out the table so far this season. Who knows what the second half of the year holds. It's a tight race and anyone can win, any given Saturday. As usual Kyle, Luke, Aiden, Riley-Anne and Zach held down the defensive fort, with Matteo making his usual 2 or 3 big game savers. 

Brooklyn's hold up play and smart passing supported the offensive efforts, as she assisted one of Matt's goals, as did Jaxon and Keagan, the speed demons. Simon switched to a midfield role and performed admirably. 

NEXT UP:

How can two draws at varying levels bring on such differing feelings?

Soccer Saturday at BMO Centre brought feelings of defeat as first place Summerside CSC drew 2-2 with winless Spartans in Intermediat A Division play. Matt M scored both goals, assists by Jaxon on the first and Keagan on the second.

Ultimately it felt like a loss as coach Duncan erred in some switches putting the team in a tough spot. In addition, Summerside was equally unlucky, as the winning goal from Matt was called back for a hand ball  and lots of other shots were well defended, or right at the Spartans keepers Jacob and Pablo.

A few hours later, and after going down 3-1, LO Thunder worked themselves back level with Blizards, earning a solid 3-3 draw in Senior A action. Xander lead Thunder with a brace, while Nefi scored the other goal. A great comeback, and equally great defending and goalkeeping from Jack in goal and Charlie, Callum and Adam performing defensive duties. Positive result.

NEXT UP

Soccer Saturday was a tale of two results, as Summerside CSC topped LO Rockets 6-2 in the battle of coaches Carl and Duncan. In the end it was Matt (2), Jaxon (2), Andrew, Keagan and Noah that all stood out with goals and assists ranging from 2 to 4 points. Matteo, Kyle, Aiden, Simon were all super solid on the defensive side too for Summerside. 

On the Thunder front, Matene opened the scoring against Arthur's Lazers. When it was 1-1, Brooks scored the next goal for Thunder to take the 2-1 lead. Lazers answered back with 2 unanswered goals to win the game 3-2, on some unfortunate lapses. All Thunder needs to do is eliminate the 5-minute team defensive breaks throughout the game and they will win and win handlely going forward. Player of the Game for Thunder was Nefi who knoctched two assists in the losing cause.

NEXT UP:

Summerside Community Soccer Club topped top team London Auto Source 2-1 to take a share of top spot with Forest of Flowers who also won 2-1 over London Optimist Rockets Saturday night at BMO Centre.

Matt and Keagan scored for Summerside, while Omar added the lone Source goal. Matteo was eqaul to every shot before and after Omar's goal, making some really great saves. 

Kyle, Aiden and Luke did amazing to clear as much traffic around the Summerside goal as possible. A great effort and win in the end for Summerside.

NEXT UP:

Beware of bugs this early fall season, as Summerside CSC and LO Thunder both suffered deep cuts to their teams this week being down a combined six players - two out for Summerside (one being top scorer Matt M) and four down for the Thunder Senior A team. Here's how they fared, despite such a challenging week: 

In Summerside Community Soccer Club news Saturday, CSC took on sister team Forest of Flowers FC, chalked full of Southend United Summersiders from 2022 outdoor Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League tier 3 boys play, and Summerside lead 2-1 until the final five minutes or so.

The lead was gained on some great poke-passing plays from Matao O-B and Brooklyn M to set up Jaxon I for Summerside's two goals. Unfortunately a small lapse in defending allowed for a steal in front of the Summerside goal, with Marcus S scoring the game-tier. An exciting match, where chances were there for it to be one on either side. A finish here or there would have made all the difference, and in Coach Duncan's assessment, Matt may have been a difference maker in this one, with even just one goal to possibly take it 3-2.

Summerside looks forward to Matt's return, and connecting him well with Jaxon, Keagan, Noah, Julia, Matao, Brooklyn, offensively, and supporting case of defenders Simon, Kyle, Luke, Aiden, Riley and Matteo in goal - next week is a big one against the current top team. It's time to topple them, adds the coach. Zach continues to be out a bit longer with an unfortunate foot injury from our first match. 

In London Optimist Thunder news later Saturday evening, the team took on London Optimist Fusion, losing 5-3 after an interesting night to say the least.

The story was similar to Summerside's, with illness impacts, but compounded by the team being a smaller number and a greater number and percentage of the team being out. Four players ill or injured on a nine player team can be devestating, and the work behind the scenes was on to almost the 11th hour, both figuratively and literally, as Coach Duncan was able to cobble together 5 regulars, 1 add-on in Charlie's brotherr Makai, to have 6 that could play 1 short of a full team by game time. Luckily when Brooks and Duncan arrived, they were able to recruit three additional Senior B players to help support the team - Zacharia, defender, Hayden and Ibrah forwards. The three were excellent fill ins supporting the depleted Thunder. 

The game itself started off disjointed to say the least - players just learning to play together. The Fusion looked like they've been playing together for years, and one player was just ridiculously fit and generally a talented player. Brooks was pummelled in goal with 3 goals in about 6 minutes. He went on to keep a clean sheet for the remaining 20 minutes or so, with players starting to figure each other out on Thunder, and Coach still striving to figure out names he was calling on and off the pitch.

Xander got the comeback started with a goal in the first half, in typical Xander style, showing great athleticism and finding the back of the net after a great run, some jukes, and a hard shot. He added a second in the second half to cut the Fusion's lead to 3-2. 

Enter the Brooks show, as he receives a great ball bouncing toward keeper and goal, he's able to lift it over the keeper toward the right-side of goal, only to hit the right post. Moments later, Xander sends a low hard cross to the left, back post this time, and doesn't Brooks just hit the post hard with the ball again. Third time's a charm, shouted Coach Duncan (dad) from the bench. And like the stuff of Disney movies, ala Might Ducks, but for soccer, perhaps, doesn't Brooks get another chance fires it low and hard off the right posts, oh no not again, then the left post, oh this is just rubbing it in, and finally spinning "properly" back and nestling into the goal netting - game tied 3-3 - just WOW! Xander shouts, "Coach, what do you call that?" "No idea, 'Crazy'?" was coach's response. 

Unfortunately, through all this Thunder resurgence, Fusion seemed to be just saving themselves to show their first 5 minutes all over again in the last 5 minutes, scoring twice to take the lead and insure it at 5-3 as the time drifted and buzzer went. A sad way to lose, but a great game, demonstrating Thunder's resiliency and that we can expect to compete. Can you imagine if we had our full squad that knew how best to play with each other, and didn't have to add four likely already tired younger guys from previously playing teams. Crazy, but fun! 

South West Indoor Soccer League's regular season for Intermediate B Summerside Community Soccer Club and Senior A London Optimist Thunder kicked off with an undefeated weekend - Summerside CSC winning 4-2 over LO Generals, and later that Saturday evening LO Thunder drew 5-5 with A&B Rental. 

In Summerside news, the Bendig led Generals took a 1-0 lead, Matt responded with his first official goal of the season. The Generals made it 2-1. Matt responded with an awkward goal, scoring as the keeper tried to clear the ball, hitting Matt and the ball bounced directly back at goal and in. Half-time score was 2-2. Team talk was to keep building opportunities and taking those shots, per Keagan. Coaches encouraged players to see teammates in good positions to score and get it to them for those open shots. Shots came and both Jaxon and Keagan scored the next two goals to carry the victory home. Kyle, Aiden, Simon and Luke did well in the second to shutdown the Generals attack. Riley and Brooklyn marshalled the midfield with Julia's wing support, while Jaxon scored a good ball from Matt, through three defenders up the middle. Jaxon beat them with speed, then slotted the ball past the flailing keeper for the game winner. 

In Thunder news, what a game that was, 7v7, and Thunder only had 7, and started without 1 for a couple minutes, going down 1-0 quickly, Xander, Adam, Charlie, Callum, Matene, Jack and then Brooks once he was able to join, all did amazing to find speed, space and targetted shots, taking a 5-2 lead into the half. A&B had an advantage though. Thunder left it all on the pitch in the first half and Coach never made the adjustments to properly defend the rest of the way out. "In hindsight, I would've encouraged the boys to park the bus smartly, staying in blocks of threes to clear everything for the next 25 minutes. Instead, I let them further gas themselves with runs forward and dragging to get back. With no subs, and that sort of lead, again, in hindsight, that's you're only real solution. Next time for sure, and we'll get that win." 

NEXT UP - JERSEY / Picture Day: (20 mins early, so we may have jerseys on ready for a quick Team Picture)

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Summerside Community Soccer Club's four related teams kicked off their South West Indoor Soccer League Intermediate A and Senior A Division preseason openers Saturday night at BMO Centre. 

First off, in Intermediate A Division Action - Summerside CSC lead by co-coaches Brandy Stinson and Duncan Inglis, supported their group lead by Matt M (3), Jaxon I (2) and Keagan C (1) to a 6-2 victory over Jacob B's London Optimist Spartans. Matteo, Aiden, Kyle and Simon lead the backfield unit, while Riley-Anne G, Brooklyn M, Noah W, Zach H clogged the mid and supported the attack. Sooo much good passing, despite players only starting to learn the team dynamic, was phenomenal to see from a coach's standpoint, coach Duncan pointed out after the match. 

Meanhwile on Tim Horton's Field. London Optimist Rockets lead by Riley, Noah, Andrew, Owen, Peywand, Kevin, Ashley, Cassie, Kaitlyn, and a near full cast, narrowly lost 1-0 to London Optmist Generals, in a hard fought battle. Coaches Carl and Marc were surpised by the defeat, but see a strong future for the team as they battle the rest of the field toward end of season league supremacy. Forest of Flowers fended off London Auto Source to share in the spoils of a preseason draw nil-nil. Steve Smith, Nathan Fry and Walter Miglirano were equally surprised by their result, but enjoyed the opening match of the season. Hayden will look to work with Matteo and Logan to grow goals, game in and game out, going forward. 

In other news, trade talks continued with Brandy and Steve austensibly agreeing to move Brett W from Summerside CSC, so Keagan can have another friend on his team in Luke W. On paper, this trade looks like an even split, based on Steve's first game assessment of Luke's play, and co-coach Duncan has somewhat reluctantly agreed to let Brett go (a player who'd been sought after for at least 2 previous seasons by Duncan and Summerside teams). At least with Brett going to Forest of Flowers, it's still within the Summersider group, added the CSC co-coach.

On the Senior A front, Brooks made his re-debut with London Optimist Thunder, starting in goal for the first half, as general regular keeper Jack S also plays Senior B and his game tonight was overlapping timeframes. Brooks supported the Thunder to a 1-0 going in to the half. Nefi scored the opening goal slotting the ball to the corner of the net, on a great through pass form Adam. Thunder's second goal came late, after a free kick was called on a play that could have been advantage Thunder, that lead to a goal anyway. On the ensuing free kick, Matene received the ball, and sent a relatively week shot in fumbled by the keeper through his legs and into goal. 

The second half went a little lest swimmingly, as LO Blizards started piling on the pressure, shooting more and more. The first of 3 goals came from a low pass that with time and getting to know each other, would likely be gobbled up of cleared by the Callum in goal. The second came from a hard shot, headed for the top right of goal, then deflected off the back of a Thunder defender ony to fly to the left of Callum, leaving no chance at all. Jack joined us with about four minutes left, got thrown right in and unfortunately came up against it almost immediately, as Bahige for Blizard headed home a great cross top left, Jack diving couldn't get enough hand to ball to push it wide and deflected off the post and in for the Blizards 3-2 victory. 

NEXT UPS: 

Brooks returns to South West Indoor Soccer League play this 2022-23 season for a kick at the Senior A Division, and has been assigned to London Optimist Thunder, who start their season Saturday, Oct. 22, at BMO Centre's Tim Horton's Field, 10:15 p.m. 

Exciting times ahead for the five team Senior A's, as teams will be tight, only nine per team, on just five teams. London Optimist Thunder, Blizard (first Thunder opponent), Fusion, Lazers and A&B Rental Centre. Thunder management were only able to view half the full contingent at the showcase held earlier this month, but indicated that they feel very good about their signings - Adam L, Matene P, Callum R, Charlie G, Xander B, Nesfi I, Victor K and goalkeeper Jack S all join Brooks on what appears to be a solid top-flight team through and through. 

NEXT UP:

It's been a busy week or two - starting Oct. 2 with the Showcase for South West Indoor Soccer League Summerside Community Soccer Club affiliated recreational indoor socer coaches for Summerside CSC, Forest of Flowers and Rockets participating in reviewing players they were interested in picking up for their teams in the ensuing Oct. 3 SWISL Intermediate A Division Draft. 

Once the dust settled on these couple of busy days, here's what the resulting lineups ended up being: 

Oct. 16, about 22 of the above players and 6 coaches were able to gather parents and players out at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field for a kickabout amongst all 3 teams' players. We pitted Carl and Marc's Rockets, alongside Carl's Intermediate B division team against a mix of Summerside and Forest of Flowers teams. The result was interesting to say the least, as Summerside jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead on goals form Hayden and Logan, then the Andrew-Noah show opened up Summerside/Forest's defensive challenges, as Andrew and Noah scored or contributed to the next 7 goals for Rockets/Gators. Taking the game on balance 8-4 in the end. It could've been much more if it weren't for some positive defensive team clearences and Matteo stopping the other half of their barrage of shots. 

Thanks for a great start to the SWISL calendar year everyone! See you Oct. 22 6 p.m. for our next round of real league matchups. 

Southend United Summersiders toppled Byron, after a tight first half at 2-1 Summersiders, turned into a 5-1 victory in the end. Goals from Andrew (2), Nathan (2) and Jaxon (1) were more than enough to finish Byron once and for all, and give the Southend side a 9-2-0 Win-Loss-Draw record overall with 27 points and 69 goals for, only 26 against. 

Nathan ended up just shy of tying and or reclaiming the lead, but on goals per match and a game in hand, due to Lucan's inability to reschedule their postponed, now cancelled and forfeited game, wins the scoring title in the hearts and minds of all Summersider players, coaches and fans. Nathan had 4 goals in the cancelled Lucan game, which would have easily propelled him to beyond the 35 needed to win.

Andrew who struggled to score in the beginning half of the season, and was feeling cursed at one point, overcame it all with about 5 goals on the season in the end. He was also dominant on the assist front, tallying upwards of about 20 assists.

Jaxon with his 1 goal in the Byron match, showed some solid consistency on both the scoring and assists front, Jaxon also tallied 17 goals and 15 assists. Peywand was next in scoring, third overall on Southend with 8 goals on the season after going on a strong run early in the season. 

Jacob and his defenders - primarily Riley, Kyle, Kevin, Noah, Brewer and Simon, racked up 2 clean sheets on the season, while Jaxon truly earned the only Yellow Card of the season, in that last game versus Byron. After the match, when asked what happened, he commented, "I just had enough of their pushing and pushed back." 

Here's the stats for your Southend United Summersiders U13 Boys Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 3 division team :

What do you get when you mix 15 Summerside Community Soccer Club players, with their parents and siblings at Meadowgate Field, Sunday, Sept. 11? You get, perhaps the most fun game of the entire season. 

Highlights from the match included:

• warm-ups for the parents, pre-game - all followed instruction very well, like their player sons
• goals from Steve (Hayden's dad), setups from Duncan (Jaxon's dad), Nathan (Logan's dad) and much more, up to 7 total
• In goal for the parents were Owen's mom, a brother (not sure whose ;) )
• Defending was stellar from the likes of Keagan's mom Brandy, Brewer's dad Matt, Scott (pre-injury keeping him out much of the rest of the game) 
• Simon's mom and dad ruled the midfield, alongside Katsu (Junsei's father), Nathan and Mark (Noah's dad)
• coaches Duncan and CArl double-dutied at referee and forward/defender, respectively

NOTE: I'm sure I've missed a few, but the goals came primarly from Steve, Nathan, Mark and Coach Duncan with one. 

Player highlights included:

• leading their own warm-ups, following captain Andrew
• enforcing their own subs (and might I say they did a fantastic job of it - no complaints, from what I heard) 
• exciting play from Jacob to Riley, Brewer, Kyle, Junsei, Simon, and Noah, Hayden, Owen, Keagan, Logan, as well as Andrew, Marcus, Peywand, Jaxon
• Jaxon, Andrew and more scoring up to 7 goals; Brewer scoring a PK
• Drawing the match with a FreeKick and a PK to close it out
• Drawing again in PKs in a fierce battle that saw Marcus' dad Sergio both score and stop his boy; Andrew's dad battle hard with Andrew
• Jaxon stop Duncan and Coach stop striker; Hayden stop Steve, Hayden hit over the net; too many to count and recall here

What a day it was - supported from Brewer's family with Costco's Kirkland (gatorade) drinks and Hayden's family cookies, served up by Sophie and did I mention the youngest player to play was Ronan (Hayden's little bro). There were girls, I cannot recall who's they were, but they were really good too, and Brewer's brother participated strongly too. Can't wait until the Indoor season starts up and we can do this all again in April, post-SWISL season. 

NEXT UP:

Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022 - Intermediate B Division Showcase, 12 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. @ BMO Centre London

Summerside Public School arrived at BMO Centre Thursday afternoon with one purpose - become Champions at the end of a 4-game, round-robin, regional, one-day tournament, with a 5th game if you make the final. Jaxon said as much, as he left for school that morning "I'm going to bring home Summerside's first trophy for the school trophy case today."

On paper Summerside looked pretty decent, in their list of Tier AA schools for Southeast Region of the Thames Valley District School Board's tournament grouping. Princess Elizabeth, White Oaks, Ashley Oaks, Glen Cairn and Summerside public schools were all grouped together.

Summerside has two recent Ontario regional champion girls from LS Croatia in Lauren and Sophie. Add Jaxon to the mix from Southend United Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League play and last year's South West Indoor Soccer League champion Summerside CSC, and that's a strong trio for co-ed play. On top, when you mix in Amren and Landen, and various other solid level players of varying strong abilities, from goalkeeper on through grade seven players, and positive coaching from Coach K and Assistant, Summerside may do alright. 

Alright they did, with a 4-1 win over PE Panthers, in what setup as an exciting affair for Jaxon, as he faced his former school, where he attended from JK to Grade 7. Jaxon scored all four goals, most assisted by Sophie and/or Lauren, Amren and Landen. The second match pitted Summerside against White Oaks Orcas, where they commanded victory with a clean sheet for the goalkeeper and another hat-trick, this time for Sophie, with Jaxon and Lauren being primary setups. Summerside matched up against Glen Cairn next, and it was no contest. It was, however, a good balance of scoring for the Summersiders. Sophie lead with two, and two assists. Lauren finally got her goal. Depsite playing defender the whole tournament, she was booming scary shots in form about 30, 20 and 10 yards out. This one went right over the keepers shoulder. Armen got one of similar skill and talent to Lauren's, add in a bit of finesse, juking and deking. Jaxon rounded out the scoring, with a sitter from the back side of the left area, where Sophie set him up. Next up was Ashley Oaks Aces, and they put up a good fight, after going down 3-0 in the first 10 minutes on Jaxon's second hat-trick of the tournament. Setups came from Sophie, Landen, Lauren and secondary assists from Armen. It was looking dicey as the Aces put on pressure and looked to try and tie the game and make it close, but could only muster one against stellar goalkeeping. 

4-0-0-15-3-(+12)-12 [w-d-l-f-a-gd-pts) were the final standings for Summerside after the round robin stage, placing them first in the group and into the final against White Oaks Orcas for all the marbles. With Orcas having been one of Summerside's only shutouts, this one should be easy, right? White Oaks jumped out to a lead of 1-0 about 5 or 10 minutes into the game, off of Hayden P's (London TFC product) talented moves, as he slipped one past the keeper. Jaxon missed a sitter early to take the lead prior to Hayden's goal and another later in the match. Summerside peppered and crashed the Orcas net on various and many occassions only to fall short too often. They looked tired, but not yet defeated. Hayden was clearing balls for fun off his head, probably somewhere form 5 to 10 of those on his own. Finally, in the last two or three minutes of play, still down 1-0, Summerside prevailed. Sophie battled three or four defenders and Orca's goalkeeper shielding, with her back to goal, and just inside the top of the box, controlled and chested the ball to the ground. Jaxon was with her, facing goal, with those 3 or 4 Orca defenders and the keeper all in the goal area, protecting the net from Sophie possibly back-heeling the ball toward goal. The ball spilled slightly to the right right in front of of Sophie. The wall of Orcas stood helpless, as the Jaxon was able to poke his right leg and foot forward to the ball, and got enough on it to send it to the only open spot at the far right corner, inside the post for the game-tying goal 1-1. The place errupted with jubilation for Summerside fans and players and coaches. The clock ran down with no more goals to be had. The Orcas and as yet unnamed Summerside PS were all dead-beat and still dead-locked. But clearly, as the penalties unfolded as follows; Summerside, Jaxon - Goal, Sophie - Goal, Amren - Goal, Landen - Goal, and White Oaks: Hayden - Goal; 2nd shooter - Goal, 3rd shooter - Saved, 4th shooter - Missed; Summerside prevailed overall, winning PKs 4-2! Lauren never got to take her final PK, but the whole team again errupted in excitement and happiness as the second miss soared over the net clinching the win.

What a game, what a tournament, what a team - Summerside Public School - First Trophy, First Champions, First Goal in school history to Jaxon, Last goal in tournament game play to Jaxon - Leading the penalty charge - Jaxon - I gotta give my boy a shared MVP with Sophie and Lauren and the goal keeper (also if he didn't make that one save, in the White Oaks finale, it may have all been a very different write-up. 

Congratulation to Summerside PS Coach K and all the great players that participated in the day's events. 

Southend United Summersiders U13 Tier 3 Boys upended Lucan Irish 8-0 in Elgin-Middlesex EMDSL soccer Wednesday night at North London Field #4. 

Summersiders jumped out to an early lead on an opening goal from Jaxon, and then it was basically back and forth between the two, with an nice volley each, many attempts and most crosses coming from the foot of Andrew. Andrew added a goal of his own, while Nicolas rounded out the scoring in the dying embers of the match receiving an excellent through ball to run on to from half, getting in behind the last defender, only for them to somewhat catch-up, but Nic shielded well and chipped the keeper to earn the final goal of the game. 

Jacob comes away with a much sought after Clean Sheet, only almost spilling once. and distributing strongly to the wings on goal kicks with regularity. Defenders Kyle, Brewer, Simon (captain on the evening) and Kevin all fought hard to win balls an clear them as early in Lucan's attack as possible. 

All round a well executed game plan and lots of intelligent play by our group on all fronts. 

NEXT UP: 

Wednesday, Aug. 30 - @ Lucan Irish, Lucan Community Centre (TBD)

Wednesday, Aug. 31 - @ Glencoe, Glencoe Community Centre, 6:30 p.m. 

U13 Boys Tier 3 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League champions were crowned Wednesday evening (Aug. 31) at Glencoe Community Centre, in a winner takes all or draw makes it complicated event between Southend United Summersiders and Glencoe Soccer Club. Glencoe had a 4-point lead in the standings, with Summersiders having 2 games in hand, with one unlikely to be rescheduled versus Lucan. 

Glencoe dominated the match early on their thick grassed, poorly-lined pitch, earning a commanding lead at 3-0 by half time. Brewer stepped in to goal for Jacob about 2/3s of the way through the first half, as Glencoe got away with a stamp on Jacob's foot, with no card, no foul, nothing.

This was the other tale of this match - poor and defiant officiating through the first half. It only seemed to even out after some vehement shouts from Coach Duncan and Carl - not their best display, but all in the name of player-protection. It all began quite early with Glencoe star player and now league leading goal scorer pushing Noah down from behind, and the first goal came soon after. That set the first half tone for the Summersiders coaches vs referee. After the stamp, non-call on Jacob, also from #29 MacDonald, calls seemed to start evening out. 

Riley and Noah put in a full shift at the back, doing their best to protect against the speed of 29 and 19, and the intelligent shielding play of 21 for Glencoe. Nathan tallied the only Summersider scores with a hard fought battle for the second goal in the 18, near the six. and the first came from a deft touch from Jaxon to Nathan with the one touch and blast past the Glencoe keeper. Unfortunately scoring turned out to be too little too late for Southend, as their battle for #1 ended in Glencoe taking the crown. Congratulations are deserved, despite their rough play and some early uneven officiating, they definitely still earned the result, says Coach Duncan afterwards. 

NEXT UP:

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022 - Southend United Summersiders vs. Byron Yellow @ North London Field # 2, 6:30 p.m. 

If you’re one of the brave coaches that goes in goal during your practice sessions, you’ll know firsthand how tough it can be.

So imagine what it’s like for someone completely new to the position…

===

“Hey, I am a recent graduate from highschool. One of my old teammates reached out to me and asked me to give him private lessons.

I am a goalie and since we do not have a specific goalie program at our high school, I am the next best option. I am more than willing to help him progress as an athlete, how ever I am not sure where to start. He is new to this position and I would like some guidance on how to make him the best athlete he can be.”

===

Here’s what I would tell a goalkeeper just starting out:

1. Practice catching (anything).

As you’ll know, being able to catch the ball is vital for rookie goalkeepers.

Hopefully your new goalkeeper has good hand-eye coordination — but if not, it’s time to improve it.

I suggest getting your keeper as comfortable as possible with catching anything and everything.

You name it — soccer balls, tennis balls, drinks bottles, bibs — working their basic catching skills will come in big when they start facing shots in goal.

2. Work on positioning.

You can have the best shot-stopping goalkeeper in the world, but if they're standing in the wrong positions, then they’ll still ship goals for fun.

By working closely with your goalkeeper and getting them familiar with the correct angles and distances, you’ll increase their chances of making more saves.

Like all things in soccer, this will improve over time.

At first your keeper will have to constantly scan their surroundings to check where they're positioned — but over time they’ll develop a sixth sense of where to stand.

3. Always communicate.

Goalkeepers are the only players on the field that have the privilege of being able to see everything that’s going on.

That’s why it’s so important that they’re vocal and take advantage of this benefit!

By communicating with your defenders, they can bring a sense of calm and order to your team — so help them with the basic shouts that you want them to get familiar with and go from there.

These are 3 nice and easy pointers to get you started, now I suggest you go away and put them into practice with your rookie keeper in your upcoming sessions.

For a couple of great drills (click on Forms, then Handouts, look for Goalkeeper Activities) that can be used in private sessions, I suggest heading to pages 4-7 and 40-42 of my ‘15 Soccer Goalkeeper Drills’ booklet.

Southend United Summersiders have the week off for the week of Aug 15. Returning to training action Aug. 21, then with a busy week of Lucan rematch, times two - likely Aug. 23 and definitely Aug. 24. Likely, as we await final bookings details for the Aug. 23 game. 

In other news, registrations have begun for indoor 2022-23 season, and although the option of EMDSL is there for our club, Coaches Carl and Duncan have come up with the best plan for the currently T3 EMDSL Summerside team. They could risk jumping in head first to EMDSL as was once done in 2020, where only three games were played and the team struggled to get rolling, with limited scoring punch and team cohesion at the time. Currently, the scoring piece appears to be rectified with additions of Jaxon, Nathan and Peywand since then, and others really growing into their scoring punch, like Hayden, Logan, Keagan, Andrew, Marcus and Noah.

However, to feel 100 per cent confident about making the jump, the coaches have agreed that the team needs 1 more indoor season in SWISL enjoying the game, and coming together again in January for Training and Assessments, to build for the Tier 2 move from Tier 3 for the 2023 Summer Outdoor EMDSL season. By then the coaches, players and all involved will be that much more prepared to take on the trials of Tier 2, where they will likely play equal numbers or so of both Tier 2 and Tier 1 level teams. The challenge is real, and Summersiders will build toward meeting it come April/May 2023, we look forward to it, says Coach Duncan. 

Enjoy the week off Summersiders and we'll see you back at it on Sunday, Aug. 21, 4 p.m. @ Meadowgate Park Soccer Field. 

Southend United Summersiders overwhelmed Whitecaps London with a 14-2 victory in Elgin Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 3 play at Meadowgate Park soccer field on Thursday night. 

The first half opened up a 4-0 lead, which became a 6-2 score by half time. The second half was better or worse, depending upon your allegiance. Whitecaps played stronger, more physical, but couldn't buy a goal. In addition to their 2 first half goals, hitting the cross bar was likely they're next best highlight, as the ball bounced friendly for Summerside, in front of the line for Jacob to knock aside for the corner. For Summerside, Jacob, Riley, Kyle, Brewer, Kevin and Simon shutdown any and almost every attack, while Jaxon and Nathan lead the team in scoring, Andrew, Noah, Marcus and Hayden lead with assists and Peywand balanced both. Keagan impressed throughout the second 40 minutes, with powerful, darting wing runs into space, finding a nice perfect low cross through the 18 and 6 yard box to Jaxon for an excellent left foot one-time finish. Every goal was just soo on point. 

It looked a bit like Andrew's "scoring-curse" may continue, as Southend one a penalty in the second and coaches called out for Andrew to take it, thinking this would be an easy way to collect that first goal that opens the flood gates. Unfortunately, for Andrew, the divot monster got the best of him, as he didn't quite connect as he would have preferred and it basically ended up a hard pass straight to the goalkeeper. Fair enough, but Andrew wasn't to be held back on this day as he was able to collect both his first and second of the season. Let the goals begin ;) 

Next Up

Summersiders Training Session - August 14, 2022 - 4 p.m. @ Meadowgate Park Soccer Field #2

POTENTIAL RESCHEDULED Game - August 18, 2022 - 6:30 p.m. @ Lucan Community Centre vs. Lucan

In this week's instalment of "Should it Rain or Should it Pour Now," Southend United Summersiders poured it on going up 3-0 before their Wednesday night kick off at North London Field #2 came to an abrupt end. Lightening encroached at about the 36 minute mark, just after Byron scored their 2nd goal from a penalty kick, in the midst of their own pour-it-on comeback. 

It seemed that the rain and the 3-0 lead contributed to Summersiders' team defense shutting down for the remainder of that first half. Jaxon scored first on a nice redirection. He soon after fed a nice ball to Nathan, who continued to beat a defender to his strong left side, and then fired a line-drive that started left, curling just inside the post for the goal. Hayden rounded out the Summersiders scoring on a shot from well outside the 18 that deflected strongly enough and high enough to beat the keeper and low enough to float under the bar for the goal. 

Then the onslaught of rain came and the onslaught of Byron offense insued. It was like they were trained for the rain game and Summersiders were sunk in the flooding field. Too easily they sped past overcommiting midfielders and defenders, leaving Jacob hanging out to dry (well wet in this case) for the first goal, slotted to just inside Jacob's far post. Then on a free-kick, Brewer doing his Glencoe-goalkeeper impression from the Summersider wall, sticks a hand up to block the ball from heading into Jacob's welcoming hands. The ensuing PK, also not easy to take, earned the goal for Byron nonetheless. 3-2 was the score at cancellation, but we needed to get 60 minutes in for the game to count. 

COACH NOTES: Never let a 3-0 lead slip away, play smart team defending from front to back, and in a flood-drenched midfield always clear to the wings or sides of the field, rather than up the middle, where the waterlog kills the ball and you over run it and they take control. Stay goal side as defenders, that's between their offense and our goalkeeper's area. Jockey their offenders back toward the 18 and do not challenge until you and they are hitting that 18 yard box. Give them what they can shoot outside the box. If they score from there then they earned a nice goal. If they beat us outside the 18 and get in free and clear, then we're gifting them goals. 

NEXT UP:

Training - Sunday, August 7, 2022 - Meadowgate Park Soccer Field @ 4 p.m.

Southend United Summersiders overcame demons of last meeting with Glencoe; finding form, fury and passion for overcoming the monkey on their backs since the original Glencoe match-up only 4 games ago, and winning this one 6-3 at North London Field #4 Wednesday evening. 

Nic and Brewer manned the goals outstandingly for half one and two respectively. Andrew came in all fired up and ready to throw everything he had at Glencoe (and did). Nathan pushed his parents to ensure his participation. Noah stepped up as captain and lead the team in minutes, playing the full match at Centre Back in Riley's absence, and with superlative support from Kyle, Kevin, Simon and Brewer, they cleared almost everything Glencoe threw at them. Kevin was a secret weapon of speed, placed up front to beat their defenders and at back to catch their strikers, where necessary. 

Jaxon racked up four goals on the night, from general tenacity, will and out of goal setting ahead of time. He had stated matter-of-factly to his parents beforehand that he would get 2 or 3 goals on the day. Nathan scored a beauty to the top corner, and Peywand finished from inside the 18 to round out the six goal tally for Summerside. All three goals were earned from Glencoe's standpoint too, not much Nic or Brewer or the defenders could've done differently on most of them. Their top scorer, in fact, tied Nathan for the league lead at 21 goals each. WOW! Jaxon jumped to EMDSL fourth spot in scoring, doubling his 4 prior to this game, tying him with Posada of Byron with 8 total to-date. 

Assists were earned by Nathan, Andrew and likely more. Coach Duncan states that every single player deserves an assist from their listening to coach, and actioning suggestions throughout the game. They were instructed when Glencoe's top couple players get the ball, for one to jockey and another to agressively pursue the ball. Others mark space, and the ball part worked fantastically, with players like Marcus, Hayden, Mateo, Owen and Keagan all supporting the pack of two hunting for the ball and jockeying and covering space where possible. A few things to work on are the space marking, or off ball runs and covering passing lanes. Once that's added as part of the repertoir, there'll be no keeping the ball for other teams. 

NEXT UP: 

Training Session @ Meadowgate Park Soccer Field # 2, Sunday, July 31, 2022 - 4 p.m.

EMDSL Match Week 11 - Game 9 for Summerside & Game #: 1963: Under 13 Boys Tier 3

Although they’re in a bit of a sticky situation nowadays, a few years back Barcelona were known as the kings of turning defence into attack.

They had a team full of technical magicians, but what set them apart from the rest was their intensity when winning the ball back.

And the cool thing?

It all started with their coach…

Pep Guradiola told his players they had six seconds to win the ball back from the opposition.

This stifled teams and didn’t allow them to build up any sort of momentum in games.

Barcelona would win the ball back by hunting in packs and spring into attack once they’d done so.

Although that Barca team is known for its tika-taka approach, the intense ball-winning tactic was arguably just as important in leading them to two Champions League wins in three seasons.

So, how can you take a leaf out of their book?

Well, there are lots of different drills to choose from, but they all basically boil down to the two concepts we’ve touched upon.

1. Winning the ball back quickly.

2. Moving the ball quickly with one or two touches.

In your sessions, set two teams up against each other with those two objectives in mind.

Don’t worry about having goals set up for your players to score in, instead set up a zone where teams have to be in possession.

This helps your players focus on transitioning the ball to a certain area rather than thinking about getting shots off.

The focus is all about moving the ball quickly…

If they can become experts at that, then the chances will follow.

Thanks Coach Watson ;)

This story writes itself with just mentioning Andrew scored. Although I thoroughly don't subscribe to curse theories, I could be swayed to making an exception, but only if the full season goes by the wayside and Andrew has still not collected at least 1 goal. It's borderline ridiculous that he's been called offside errantly twice, then for a foul a third time, and then when he scored to bust the duck, we all should have known the storm clouds would change trajectory and aim straight for us, shouldn't we have? 

Well, unlucky Summerside were to have to see that game postponed on what was proving to be a bit of an offensive juggernautu, where Nathan had tallied 4, Andrew had his hat-trick and Hayden, Marcus, Jaxon and Peywand rounded out the 11-1 score after 30 mins. That's almost a goal every two minutes. It is a goal in less than every 3 minutes. My goodness... The one goal they got, I wholeheartedly believe that Jacob and the Defenders were still in a state of shock on how many had gone in up front; that's it, that's all. Noah was captain and will be again, next time Summersiders face Lucan, so he can get a full game in, as it clearly was working, and he started things off receiving the kickoff from Nathan and proceeding to beat everyone down the right wing to work it back in to Nathan for the opening goal. And Hayden, Noah and Peywand continued this trend of destroying the right wing multiple times, in fact, Keagan and Jaxon started to copy the same format from the left wing. It was a coaches dream come true, now let's bottle that and take it in to our next match versus Glencoe, add in a little communication and continued agressive defending and Summerside are sure to come away victorious. 

NEXT UP: 

Southend United Summersiders 2009BT3
Game #: 1772: Under 13 Boys Tier 3

1. Don’t dive in

Heard of the saying ‘patience is a virtue?’

Well it rings true in soccer too — especially in the wide areas.

You need to make sure your defenders stay on their feet as much as possible and don’t overcommit.

This’ll give them the best chance of staying in control of the situation.

Let the tricky winger do their thing and be patient, and when the timing is right, then go in for the challenge.

2. Don’t get caught on your heels

Your defenders need to be primed and ready to jockey their opposite number.

If they’re caught flat footed with all the weight on their heels, they’re going to be easy pickings for the skilful wide player they’re up against.

They need to be light on their toes and facing sideways.

This will enable them to react and move in any direction quicker rather than being caught out.

3. Show them down the line

My last tip is simple…

Show the wide player down the line.

Why?

Because you want to send them away from your goal and the danger zone.

This will also limit the space they have to operate in and make their next move more predictable.

That’s when your defender should pounce.

Coaches Note (Coach Duncan):

Practice these in our Lucan game in preparation for putting them to even stronger action versus Glencoe the week that follows ;) 

It was a stifflingly hot July day, and players had lots of water, had to train on a dry, hard pitch at Meadowgate this past Sunday afternoon/evening. But with some light Dynamic stretching, into some positive pass, follow, dribble, shooting, saving, scoring drilling, and then a small-sided game of offense v defense with alternating positions, an activity of passing, finding the wide player for an attacking cross, with defending and goalkeeper cross claim attempts, all had a fun afternoon in the heat. Once all activities and training were aside, the team put it to practice in a full-field scrimmage of 7v7, after losing Brewer and Peywand to other commitments. 

NOTE to Parents and Players: Post-scrimmage discussions surrounded the season to-date, as coach Duncan asked the boys to consider how well they're doing so far. A sort of mid-season self-assessment, if you will. "I asked the boys to think about what they're both individually and as a team doing well, and what they feel they could work on, then come up with a Goal for the rest of this season. What do you want to achieve by season's end and consider a plan on how you/we get there?" For planning purposes, the hope is the boys can take a look at Strengths and Weaknesses to this point in the season and discuss how they specifically will measure their attainable and realistic goals over the remaining timerframe. "I asked them to be prepared to discuss over the coming days - training or game days." 

NEXT UP:

Training Session - Southend United Summersiders U13 Boys @ Meadowgate Park Field #2 from 4 p.m. to about 5:30/6 p.m. Sunday, July 17, 2022

Southend United Summersiders hosted Whitecaps London at North London Field 2 Wednesday evening, and provided a master-class demonstration of their soccer skills in shooting, defending, passing and goalkeeping, rallying for a 10-0 win on the backs of Nathan's double hat-trick (6 goals) and Jacob's clean sheet. 

Sharing in the scoring were Peywand, Logan, Hayden and Noah. Sharing in the clean sheet, with Jacob in goal, on defense were Simon (phenomenal match, with multiple saving clearances), Brewer (leading large at the back, similar numbers in clearances), Noah (potential man-of-the-match, outside of Nathan's 6-goal performance, with a goal, an assist and a clean sheet defended strongly). Kevin performed admirably protecting the clean sheet by stopping anyone coming his way and once catching the Whitecaps likely best breakaway chance), and Andrew, another possible man-of the-match performance playing defense, mid, scoring another called-back goal (unfortunate to say the least). Honestly the whole team deserves player-of-the-game, man-of-the-match, whatever you wish to call it, for this performance. 

Partaking in assists on the evening (I'm going to miss a few here, I'm sure, and for that I apologize in advance) Hayden, Peywand, Logan, Brewer, Jaxon, Noah, Andrew, Marcus, if there were more, I likely had turned my head or blinked and missed it, but please feel free to let me know ;) 

A great result, notes Coach Duncan, and there's still lots to work on to prepare for Lucan over the next two practices and bye week next week. We'll look to have a mid-season review talk at our next training, identifying who wants to work on what and aiming to incorporate as much of our individual and team development goals in over the coming couple weeks. 

NEXT UP:

Training Session @ Meadowgate Park Field 2, from 4 p.m. to about 6 p.m. Sunday, July 10

BYE WEEK - no game Wednesday, July 13

Southend United Summersiders 2009BT3
Game #: 1587: Under 13 Boys Tier 3

Southend United Summersiders struggled to get things going early against Byron Wednesday, June 29 at Byron Lower Field, as Byron took an early 1-0 lead, bouyed by recognition that they're own result against Glencoe was better than Summersiders recent match-up with Glencoe, and that Byron could probably give the Southend United outfit a better challenge this time around. 

Challenge they did, both by scoring first, playing hard and never giving up to the bitter end, and by keeping Southend's scoring to a minimum too. It didn't help Summersiders that the referee called back a 3rd goal where Andrew and Nathan were able to time their Free-Kick to perfection and any Video Assistant Referee or even sideline assistant referee would have been useful to call this one correctly in favour of Andrew being onside for his first goal. Unfortunately, as luck would have it refereeing was consistent with their calls in favour of Byron throughout.

2-1 was the final score on the backs of a Byron own-goal, creditted to Jaxon by the referee and then Nathan scoring the winner in the 2nd half, as he was unmarked for a perfect corner kick cross from Marcus - third time's a charm, as each time Marcus' crosses got closer and closer to finding a player in the six. Nathan's was the cherry on top. 

NEXT UP:

Southend United Summersiders 2009BT3
Game #: 1278: Under 13 Boys Tier 3

Check out this article at EMSA Site, if you're interested in additional training at a small cost this summer: 

Elgin Middlesex District Soccer League: View News Article (e2esoccer.com)

Date: July 11-15, 2022
Time: U11-U14 9-11AM, U15-U18 11AM-1PM
Ages: Players Born 2011-2014
Location: BMO Centre 
Register: www.croatiafc.com.
Limited Spots Available!

It all started with Coach disorganization and poor communication of plan and tactics, admits Coach Duncan. There was an idea, and it was poorly communicated as a proper plan prior to gametime and equally poorly executed at all levels. 

Southend United Summersiders 2009 Tier 3 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League boys U13 team fell hard at Glencoe Soccer Club's home field, losing a massively lop-sided 8-1 match Wednesday evening. 

If not for a goal, basically at the death of the game, from Nathan's hard work and battling to get round the keeper, the clean sheet would have been well earned. Southend were not without their chances and this game certainly could have been atleast a little closer, i.e. perhaps 5-3 or so; which would've looked a lot better on paper for the Summersiders. This result makes Southend United Summersiders appear vulnerable now to Whitecaps, Lucan and Byron. 

Jacob was phenomenal, considering the scoreline and number of shots faced. Were there opportunities to avoid or stop 2 or 3 of the goals sure, but that relies on appropriate team positioning and team defending from the front to the back. That's where Coach Duncan comes up with the 5-3 scoreline. If the team effort's there all round, another couple goals should be had on the corner and free kicks Jaxon took. If no onelines up in front of goal, i.e. there were likely 6 or 7 Green, 2 or 3 Blue... that's just not enough to put any pressure on the opponent's goal area. If one is taking the kick, 8 should be in the box, and 1 at half; maybe 1 of the 8 far deep and another 1 of the 8 just outside the top of the box's semicircle, adds Coach Duncan. You've got to off-balance, out-number your opponent at every opportunity, like they were with Nathan. It was often a 1 v 3 situations for Nathan, this is where Summersiders off-ball need to call for the ball, then Nathan makes the pass and boom, 2 of their defenders are out of position trying to recover. Southend then works it to the open-est player for a chance. 

"The team knows they're better than this result. They felt bad about the game overall and want to get back to that good feeling of winning again, ASAP," commented Coach Duncan. Wheels are already in motion to work on things like fitness, decision making, awareness and agression, per Coach Carl's assessment and working on team defending and improving positioning for goalkicks, and overall team defensive structure. There's lots to work on post-game Wednesday night, heading into Sunday's training session. Support coaches may be called upon amongst certain parents that have expressed interest in assisting on working on improvements. A plan will be ready for Sunday. Scrimmage will limited. We need to be ready for Byron for Wednesday. 

NEXT UP:

Wednesday, June 29 - Southend United Summersiders vs Byron Yellow @ Byron Lower, 7:30 p.m. 

Lucan Irish B2009T3 team came to London with one purpose, knock Southend United Summersiders off their pedestol, and it was looking like they may actually do it, when it was 1-1 at half. However, Nathan, Andrew, Jaxon, Peywand, Nic, Marcus, Hayden, Mateo, Logan, Keagan, Owen, and most of all the back line of Noah, Riley, Kyle, Simon, Junsei, with the cherry on top, Jacob were all having none of it! Summerside though tied 1-1 at the half, were able to unleash Nathan to score two more goals, there were multiple chances, with standouts from Keagan, Hayden, Nic and of course Andrew. 

When Andrew asked "Coach Duncan am I cursed (to not score)?" The immediate and clear response that came from coach, without hesitation, was as follows, "absolutely not, so get that out of your head right now, let that go. You are creating so many chances that they are bound to start rolling in in bunches, when you do knick one. Just keep taking them." Worst case, Andrew creates a rebound or continues on his tear as leading Assist player on the team - and all of that is equally important to scoring. 

Nathan scored on a coaching moment at the bench, so it wasn't seen but, it was assisted by Andrew. Nathan later scored a nice high shot in the second half just under the cross bar and over the keeper. A corner kick rounded out the scoring, as Jaxon drove-lobbed a ball right to the centre of the six-yard box finding Nathan's head, and he steared it perfectly to the side of the keeper, off him slightly and in to the back of the net for the 3-1 lead at the time. It would end that way. 

And kudos to Lucan, for their strong defensive battling. Learnings, when a team is this strong defensively, and tries smothering a strong scorer like Nathan, both the players around need to find good visible space to call for the pass and Nathan will keep his head up and if he's unable to shoot, he will find you so be on your front foot ready to hit the ball first time. There were a lot of extra touches at time, when it should be one and shoot or sometimes just shoot first time. Also, with a good defensive team like Lucan and their ability to win a ball in their back third of the field, all midfielders need to show they can go both ways, at all times offensively and defensively, there were a number of 4, 5 on 3s and that's how they scored their only goal was in a transition from our offensive to theirs and not enough midfielders back to help the defenders. Aim to practice your transition game from Offense into Defense mode (like from Attack to D-Beast mode). 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for Next Game details, or visit www.emdsl.ca, under My Team, select Southend United Summersiders from the drop down and Schedule from the left side menu. 

Nathan dominates scoring once again with a special free kick on top of his hat-trick. Peywand and Jaxon add regular scoring punch, while Hayden gets his first of the early 2022 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League Tier 3 Division outdoor season at Meadowgate Park Soccer Field 1, Wednesday evening. 

An improved team defending structure aimed at controlling the midfield through a 3-5-2 formation, with Captain Andrew, Marcus, Jaxon to start, supported strongly with Mateo, Hayden, Junsei and wingers Logan and Keagan, backed up with a great defensive network of Kyle, Kevin, Riley, Brewer, Simon and more... Jacob solid in goal throughout, all of this together with Nic making the plays up front made the difference in an overall well executed match. 

Only next time for Summersiders at this point would be to level-up against upcoming stronger competition and shoot for the clean sheet against Lucan Irish, Wednesday, June 15, North London at 8:30 p.m., under the lights.

With Jacob (1st half) and Simon (2nd) leading the charge in goal, Kyle, Riley, Simon, Brewer, Junsei, Noah contributing defensively, the midfield patrolled and controlled by Andrew, Marcus, Mateo, Hayden, Noah, Owen, Kevin, Logan and Keagan, and the assist passing prowess of Andrew (4), Marcus (2) and Nic (2), this opened up the goal-scoring flood of opportunities for Nathan (5), Peywand (3) and Jaxon (2) to find the net for a total of 10 goals in this 10-4 goal-fest with Byron Yellow at Windermere Wednesday evening. 

It all began with a Draft day for the ages, with Coaches Carl and Duncan not believing their luck to already have Jaxon and Riley and be able to draft Andrew and Luke early and easily in the top four rounds. Andrew ended up missing the season, and still Summerside stood tall. 

It all continued with a draw in exhibition play with Southwest Defenders, sans Yanis, Peywand and Reese, and they were able to catch Summerside in the early match-up 2-2. 

It all went perfectly from there throughout the season, as Summerside went 12-0-3, and were eventually crowned League Champions with the number one record in the standings - fully undefeated - the near-perfect regular season. If not for those pesky ties.

It all became more challenging with the playoffs and Dynamo taking a 2-0 lead in the semifinal only to see it slip away to Summerside's 4 unanswered goals in the second half for the 4-2 semi-final playoff victory and another step into the final. 

It all became real as #1 and #2, Summerside CSC and Southwest Defenders, matched up after Defenders took out Bandits with a 3-2 win taking them to and winning in penalties to qualify for the Playoff Championship Final. Summerside took the lead off a goal from Nic in the Final game, assisted by Luke, only to see the lead lost later in the first half, as Reese tied up the game on a scramble for the ball, where he was able to finish it off.

It all became Summerside's Playoff Championship with 3 unanswered goals this time, one from Luke off a Jaxon and Hayden build up to shot. Then Kevin scored to make it 3-1 on a pass from Luke to the back post for the shin-in goal from Kevin. with 2 minutes left Coach Duncan pulled the last goal scorer, Kevin, to give Jaxon his chance to get goal #28 on the full season plus playoffs, and as Kevin came off, Jaxon runs into the space vacated, toward the right post, as Luke sends him in Jaxon fires, low, hard and off that post and into the net... All of 5 seconds maybe? 

It all became the emphatic victory only Summerside could pull off, like the story had been written on Draft Day, to be released April 30, 2022.

Your SWISL 2022 League and Playoff (Double) Champions are Summerside Community Soccer Club, and now on to Outdoor 2022 for Southend United Summersiders Boys 2009 Tier 3...

Sunday, May 1, 2022: 

Southend United Summersiders got together for their first training session Sunday at Centrefield Sports on a small pitch the team came together for a meet and greet, followed by some dynamic stretching, into some footwork and speed drills, followed up by a little passing, dribbling, deking and shooting; winding down with a little game of 5-aside, where there were all of that - solid goalkeeping, top-knotch defending, super midfielding involving great passes, dribbling and leading into chance creation and excellent finishing for goals.

Coaches Carl, Duncan and Tier 1 U14 coach Wayne were all very impressed with what this new, bigger and improved group of Summersiders are going to bring to the EMDSL Tier 3 table this coming season - it should be a tonne of fun! 

South West Indoor Soccer League playoffs began Saturday, April 23, at BMO Centre's Norwest and Airport Kia fields, with Dynamo facing off against a short-handed London Auto Source. Source did their best with the little they had, but could only pull out a 3-0 lost to Nathan, Logan and company for Dynamo. 

Next up was the Semi-Final matchups, which brought far more drama, as Defenders and Bandits battled to a nil-nil draw by half-time in theri 4 p.m. match at Airport Kia Field, then see-sawed back and forth through the second half ending on a 2-2 draw and forcing a penalty shootout, which called for its own thriller. A change of keepers after the first PK, seemed to do the trick for Bandits, but Defenders prevailed winning 3-2 on 6 PKs each, if my count was right. There seemed to be a lot of confusion and some thoughts it was still tied, but Ref Mike, pointed to Defenders and they flipped out, excited to meet the winner of Dynamo/Summerside in the SWISL Cup April 30, 5 p.m. at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field once more. 

That leads us to the Summerside CSC match of the day, where Dynamo got it's best shot at making the final, after dumping LAS earlier in the day. Nathan started in goal for this match, a bit of a different wrench in Summerside's typical options for the firing squad. And it looked like a brilliant move first half, as Dynamo took a 2-0 lead into half time. Nathan was standing on his head in goal and Noah got unlucky from and own goal off of Luke's leg in front of net, and an earlier low goal, I believe may have been either Enson or Logan who scored. Julian was playing defenesively for Dynamo, and that made for big challenges trying to figure out the best way round him. 

The Halftime talk consisted of "if Nathan's still in goal, we need to shoot less direct and more for corners or low crosses pinged in," Coach Duncan told us what was shared at the half. Noah earned a cleansheet in the second half as Luke and Jaxon and supporting cast of Nic, Junsei, Hayden, Leah and Julia, but most of all at the back Riley and Kyle who played basically the entire match, started to build-up some goal-scoring opportunities. Luke scored first and second, tying it up and when Jaxon scored once more on Nathan, Dynamo switched keepers to try and get Nathan and Julian together to re-tie it up, but it was for not, as Jaxon and Luke were on fire. And on an inbound from Riley to Nic, flicked over to Junsei and in to Jaxon, they put the game to bed with the 4-2 insurance marker - what a game, what a team! This one will be remembered in SWISL Intermediate B history.

How can the final top this one? Well, Defenders and Summerside have played to a 2-2 exhibition game draw in October, a 3-0 Summerside win, a 4-4 and 3-3 March pair of draws again, and now must meet once more - could this be even more exciting that the Dynamo game? We'll see - NEXT UP: 

The 2021-22 South West Indoor Soccer League regular season came to a close at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field with Summerside taking a big 3-0 lead in the first half against Southwest Bandits Saturday. They went on to close it out padding the lead to a 5-0  toward the end of the 2nd half, when Luke P tallied two goals for the Bandits to make the final 5-2. 

It was the game of Braces; as Luke M and Jaxon both scored two goals each for Summerside and Luke P added two late for Bandits to break the shared clean sheet for Noah and Nic in net. Junsei rounded out the scoring with a banger from the right side to the far top left corner. Hayden and Riley provided the assists on Luke and Jaxon's goals; Riley offered two helpers, while Hayden added one. Lea played the Ironwoman role, playing all 50 minutes up front, creating chances and putting solid pressure on the defenders, teamed with Noah, creating multiple scoring opportunites with head and feet, and Nic and Kevin offering much help to keep the ball in the Bandits zone for much of the match. Kyle and Riley continued to kick butt on defense, often winning balls early and clearing or passing out quickly. 

The playoff picture is now painted, and sees a week off through Good Friday and Easter Weekend April 16, and then back at it for 5 p.m. April 23, Summerside vs. either Southwest Dynamo or London Auto Source, at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field.

Coaches Duncan and Carl look to book a practice at BMO Centre sometime within the coming two-week-off period between April 10 and April 22. This will be a combined Southend United Summerside CSC training session, and thus will help boost other players in the league, and we're excited for that, says Coach Duncan. 

Int. B 2009 Standings
GP   W   L   T   GF   GA   PTS   GD   WP  SUMMERSIDE CSC 15 12 0 3 54 23 39 31 0.800 SOUTHWEST DEFENDERS 15 7 3 5 36 31 26 5 0.467 SOUTHWEST BANDITS 15 6 9 0 28 33 18 -5 0.400 SOUTHWEST DYNAMO 15 4 7 4 34 43 16 -9 0.267 LONDON AUTO SOURCE 16 2 12 2 19 41 8 -22 0.125

Int B Bracket

Semi-Finals	Round Of 8	Championship
	5   Team 01  4/23/2022 5:00 PM  BMO-Airport Kia Field     Winner Of 2
2   Team 04  4/23/2022 3:15 PM  BMO-Sifton Field     Team 05
		7   Winner Of 5   4/30/2022 5:00 PM  BMO-Airport Kia Field     Winner Of 6
	6   Team 03  4/23/2022 4:00 PM  BMO-Airport Kia Field     Team 02

Int B Schedule
Date Home   Away Time/Status Venue Game Type Officials Sat-Apr 23   Team 04  v  Team 05 3:15 PM BMO-Sifton Field Regular   Sat-Apr 23   Team 03  v  Team 02 4:00 PM BMO-Airport Kia Field Regular   Sat-Apr 23   Team 01  v  Team 01 5:00 PM BMO-Airport Kia Field Regular   Sat-Apr 30   Team 01  v  Team 01 5:00 PM BMO-Airport Kia Field Regular

3 things Summerside Community Soccer Club: 

1. First game for our 2009 Boys U13 Tier 3 Southend United Summersiders is posted at Elgin Middlesex District Soccer League: My Team: Next Game (e2esoccer.com)

2. Full South West Indoor Soccer League - Intermediate B Playoff schedule is now posted and accurate to time of writing, and available here: https://london-optimist-sports-centre.ezleagues.ezfacility.com/leagues/407869/Int-B.aspx

3. Final Registration Funding to be collected over the coming weeks - emails to come on that point.

• • First official training is scheduled for Sunday, May 7, Meadowgate Park soccer field @ 4 p.m. (subject to further updates)
  • First official outdoor game vs. Byron T3 EMDSL 2009 Boys at North London, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 25

Who's getting excited!!!

Southend United Summerside 2009 Boys Tier 3 team registrations, deposits, uniform orders and numbers are all well under way in Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League play for this 2022 Outdoor season. 

Summerside has signed 19 total players, eight previously unattached all-stars from the South West Indoor Soccer League 2021-22 indoor season. Because the team is moving from U12 indoor, where they played 7v7, to 11v11, on the bigger, full fields, almost double the roster was needed to field a team with subs and coverage for summer holidays. Everyone will play and play regularly, and take turns on and off the pitch. 

The core group of Andrew, Hayden, Jacob, Jaxon, Junsei, Kevin, Kyle, Nicolas, Noah, Peywand and Riley are all back together again, with recent addition from last summer in Marcus, and topped off with completely new to the crew - Brewer, Keagan, Logan, Mateo, Nathan, Owen, and Simon. 

Coaches Duncan and Carl are excited to announce these re-signings and new signings and here are what the numbers look like (where there were multiples, Random.org was used to randomize lists of players - top of the list got the number in question): 

NEXT UP for Southend United Summerside:

Finally Booking some April training - that will be our objective in the coming days. With the goal of having at least 3 or 4 weeks worth of meet and greet and coming up the training-for-outdoor curve, prior to Match Week 1 in EMDSL T3. 

In the interim, keep training in your Saturday matches, working on your goalkeeping, defending, midfielding and whatever role your coaches are playing you in.

Best of luck in the SWISL playoffs too, and we will be in touch with a Preseason schedule very soon. 

Soccer Saturday SWISL style saw Summerside sink Source 3-1; scoring started by Junsei, from Julia, at BMO Centre's GoodLife Fitness Field. 

London Auto Source scored second on a defensive lapse, where Kyle thought there was enough bounce for the oncoming ball, up the middle, to get to Nicolas in goal. A speedy Source striker swept in to make it 1-1 going into half time. 

Half-time team talk consisted mostly of ensuring supportive positioning on kick-in's, according to Coach Duncan, i.e. two short and two long, and with that guidance shouted out in reminder from time to time, it seemed to work well in the second half. Summerside generated the bulk of second half chances, scoring on a corner kick from Jaxon to Junsei then to Riley, who fired it home hard and back against the play, to the goalie's left side. 

Jaxon finally tallied the insurance marker to make it 3-1, firing from the left side of goal hard across goal, off the crossbar and down into the net and out almost as quick as it entered. Earlier he had chances, hitting the corner of the cross bar/post and one right at the keeper, from a header he looked to put behind himself to Nic, but then swept in taking the chance for himself. Coach suggested after the game, there may have been a goal there, had he let Nic take that chance - next time for sure.

NEXT UP: 

Covid strikes again, for second time in four months for Jaxon and Coach Duncan having to sit out a Bandits forfeit game Dec. 18, due to family member proximity protocols and this Saturday, Mar. 19, 2022, for actual covid-positive rapid test results. 

And in bigger news, 3 ties in 3 weeks, none bigger than this last one, yesterday at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field, under the leadership of Steve Smith, Hayden's father. Coach Steve tells us the storry of the Defenders-Summerside tie, as follows: 

At about the 12-minute mark, Luke took a pass from Hayden and scored the first goal of the game. About two minutes later, there was a scramble in front of their net and Julia kicked the second Summerside goal. After that, Defenders put a lot of pressure on Summerside and scored two goals to tie it up. Nick looked great saving a lot of shots and giving our team a chance going into the second half.

Second half game summary: There was a lot of back and forth action and a lot of great saves by Nick.

At the 10-minute mark, Kyle passed to Hayden running up the right side and Hayden scored the 3rd goal of the game for Summerside. With seven minutes left of the game, off a corner kick, there was a short give-and-go play and Defenders tied up the game. Summersiders showed a lot of heart and determination as Defenders started pressuring again and again.  Nick made some big saves at key moments including an in-close shot with two minutes left to keep the game tied.

Player of the game - "I would say would be Nick, but everyone played hard against a tough team.  There was no quit by anyone. Lea, Kyle, Junsei shut their offense down and Luke, Hayden, Melina and Julia kept closing up the midfield."

Coach Duncan added, via post-game zoom call and under strict Covid-protocols, "hopefully this game incents everyone to push their play to the next level, as we're really starting to see exactly that from other teams heading closer and closer to the playoffs. And equally, hopefully this doesn't mean Steve is so enamoured with coaching that he wants to start his own team. We would much rather add him to our layered support system in co-coaching within the Summerside group, where possible ;) Thanks Steve, and great job by the team and coach!"

NEXT UP:

Sat4/2/20223:15 pm TBP London Auto Source White  Summerside CSC Maroons  BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field

Southend United Summerside CSC by the numbers and more...

Uniform Fittings/#selections in progress = 9

Initial Deposits received = 12

Deposit to EMSA via Southend United Club made = $500 (securing our spot in EMDSL Tier 3)

Potential clubs at Tier 3 meeting = 11 (including ours - Taxandria, Lucan, Whitecaps, Byron, Dorchester, St Mary's, South Huron, St Columban, SUFC, Strathroy, Southend United - these were the representative that attended the meeting for these clubs, doesn't necessarily mean they all have a Boys U13 team, some will, some may not)

Registration Pictures submitted = 9 (learned at Tier 3 meeting, these may not be necessary, might be good to have if we were ever offer call-ups to Tier 2 teams. Will run this by Southend United to find out for sure)

IMPORTANT NEXT STEPS (if you have already completed the above: fittings, deposits & pics) -

Review Online Registration here : https://www.southendunited.ca/reg (after READING this page, click this box on the same page (not here)): 

You will be taken to SportsEngine Registration, the 2022 Outdoor Season is now Live @: 

https://southendunited.sportngin.com/register/form/426008143

(READ, then action this page, by scrolling to the bottom, clicking Continue and action the pages that follow (via the above noted link, not in the pictures below, they won't take you anywhere ;) )

I hope you and your boy are as excited as Coach Carl and I are to get this season kicked off, soon after our Indoor season and playoffs. 

Please reach out for any registration support you may need, to the registrar for Southend United at the above noted email from the Sportsengine page or through either coach at: 

cschroeder.eng@gmail.com for Carl

dringlis@rogers.com for Duncan

Thanks and see you soon, 

Coaches Duncan and Carl

Southend United Summerside CSC

With the score 2-0 at half for Summerside CSC over Southwest Dynamo, you would be forgiven if you felt complacency might set in, but you'd be right in a sense. 

Summerside's Luke and Hayden combined for two great goals for Summerside in half number one, and Nicolas carried a clean sheet into the intermission. However, Nathan and Julian were not to be outdone with equally telling goals between them in the second half, beating Nicolas twice on tough shots. Julia, Jaxon, Luke and Milena all had wonderful chances, with Julia's likely being one of the best on another cross from Luke that she directed just off the post. 

Unfortunately for Summerside, they couldn't beat the second half keeper to reinstate winning ways, and ties continue to be the order of the week. Now, with back to back draws, Summerside heads into a battle with Defenders Mar. 19 at BMO Field's Airport Kia field once more at 5 p.m. next Saturday. With a victory Summerside clinches first place and keeps their undefeated season pushing on toward the potential record for Summerside teams in indoor play. 

NEXT UP:

Southwest Defenders scored two second half goals against Summerside CSC, mounting a 4-2 lead into the final 10 minutes. It was looking more and more likely to be Summerside's first loss of the season.

Peywand scored the final Defenders goal, while Cassie opened the Defenders scoring. Summerside goals cam from Jaxon and Luke first half and Riley and Julia topped off the comeback late in the game to tie it up 4-4. Luke scored an apparent game winner in  final 3 seconds, but it was waved off by the referee. He had apparently blown the whistle for a foul, just before the shot.

"It's dissappointing, but just added to the roller coaster ride of excitement that this match-up offered," commented coach Duncan afterwards.

NEXT UP:

Five things Fun in Football for All today: 

1. Summerside Community Soccer Club drops $500 to join Tier 3 EMDSL today!
2. Full Commitments signed sealed and delivered from:
   1. 1. Jaxon Inglis
      2. Riley Scrhoeder
      3. Coaches Duncan Inglis and Carl Scrhoeder
3. Secondary commitments in principal reached with:
   1. 1. Andrew Rocha
      2. Kyle Mills
      3. Hayden Smith
      4. Junsei Goda
      5. Noah Buckle
4. Likely commitments coming from:
   1. 1. Jakheal Marshall-Rutty, wait, no that's Jakheal Morris
      2. Brewer Thorne
      3. Nicolas Montanez
      4. Kevin George
      5. Jacob Black
      6. Gavin Carver
5. Possible interest shown from:
   1. 1. Brett Walker
      2. Logan Fry
      3. Keagan Stinson
      4. Peywand Mihvan
      5. Nathan Matos
      6. Marcus Sousa
      7. Matteo & Owen from Bandits... and much, much more... 

If you were accidentally omitted from the above list, please feel free to reach out, whether you're already part of the team or not. 

We also talked about securing time at BMO Centre for scrimmages etc... and they may still come in coming days or weeks, but right now, they are booked pretty solid. If you think you and/or your player may be interested in some BMO Centre time during the March Break week, please feel free to reach out to Coach Duncan at dringlis@rogers.com, as Carl is away those coming weeks. In the interim, for "tryout" purposes (which are only needed if we exceed 22 players, otherwise everyone makes the team, and we work to develop great leaders on and off the pitch), we will monitor SWISL games and keep in touch. 

NEXT UP:

1. Fuller Commitments, as Registrations and Money Collections come
2. Training Sessions
3. Uniforms fittings for outdoor season
4. SWISL Season and Playoffs....

Summerside Community Soccer Club (SCSC) returned from a week off with a victory Saturday afternoon at BMO Centre's GoodLife Fitness Field, topping London Auto Source 6-1 by the final whistle. 

Hayden opened the scoring, receiving a pass form Jaxon down the left side of goal, and slotting it home past Matteo, in goal for LAS. Leah scored her first of the season, on a cross form Luke that bounced in front to her on the open left side of the front of goal, for the open finish. Luke rounded out the first half scoring, inbounding direct to goal, hitting an LAS player in front as he tried to clear and put the ball in his own goal. Unlucky for LAS was lucky for Luke and SCSC - 3-1 at the half.  

The second half saw Kyle go in goal for Nick, who was only beat once in the first half, on a great turn and shot by Marcus of LAS, that hit Leah and spun awkwardly high out of Nick's reach and into the far top-left corner.

Jaxon rounded out the second half scoring with a nice open-bodied, curled pass-shat poke to the far right corner, assisted by Luke. Jaxon added a goal, crossed in perfectly from Luke and finding  Jaxon's head, then nestling nicely into the left side of the goal. The nail in the coffin came from some excellent passing round the horn, from Luke in the midfield to Hayden at the top right of the LAS devensive zone, he sent a perfect pass to Nick in the far right corner, who then saw Jaxon and slotted a great ground pass for Jaxon to fire past Matteo for the hat-trick. 

A great game by all, as Mileina showed a real aptitude for being able to contol the ball in the offensive zone, shielding and turning for a shot in the 2nd half. And Julia, made some excellent wing passes working with Junsei and Hayden often. Kyle, and Riley working with Junsei and Leah were typically excellent at the back and Kyle equally strong in goal as Nick was in the first half. A great allround team result. 

NEXT UP for Summerside CSC: 

Side Note:

For those 2009 boys, looking forward to outdoor training and Tier 3 Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League play with Southend United Summerside CSC this 2022 spring/summer season. Communications will be coming out later today to invite the 10 to 12 regulars to train and others to join assessment sessions to be scheduled soon.

We will be looking to recruit, as we are going up to 11 v 11, full field play now, and will need a roster upwards of 20 U13 boys. So, if you have friends who want to join us and you think they can play at a level just above House League, considered Recreational, please feel free to let us know and provide coaches Duncan and Carl with their contact information. 

Southwest Bandits certainly made for an interesting challenge Saturday night at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field, taking an unexpected 1-0 lead, relatively early in the gamel. Unexpected, in that they were short players starting with one less because they had no girls and no subs at all.

Noah B set the tone for Bandits, while Luke P maintained a clean sheet through the first half. However, it wasn't enough, as Summerside awoke at half time, coming out and scoring quickly after Kickoff, with Luke M sending Jaxon in up the left-middle to slot home past the keeper. Julia and Luke followed up with the next couple goals. Julia's came from a shot Luke fired, the Bandits keeper bobbled through his legs, then scooped it out, right to Julia for the finish. Luke scored from a Hayden pass, and Jaxon finished a deflected cross in from Luke, volleying the shot directly in,  what foot-eye coordination.

Next up:

Agents are working overtime to bring back players past and present, while scouts and management seek added reinforcements to bolster Southend United Summerside Community Soccer Club's attack, midfield, defending and goalkeeping game. 

To-date, winter house league continues with Summerside CSC playing in SouthWest Indoor Soccer League, leading the league with 8 wins, no losses, no draws and 24 total points. Current Southend United Summerside club members Hayden, Jaxon, Junsei, Kevin, Kyle, Nicholas and Riley are working hard alongside 2021-22 team members Julia, Lea, Luke, Mileina and Noah to rise to the top. 

Next up - Indoor: Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022 - Summerside CSC @ London Auto Source, 3:15 p.m. at BMO Centre's Goodlife Fitness Field.

After this game, Southend United Summerside ramps up recruiting beyond interest expressed already from paused club-members Andrew, Jakheal and Peywand. Total club members, with strong and/or reasonable commitment expressed so far, equals 10 presently. If Summerside can get 8 to 10 more 2009 boys to round out an outdoor team for 11 v 11, Summerside will position itself well for the summer season.

Management plans on sending out an email blast inviting a limited number of boys to join us on our 2022 journey.

Summerside CSC dusted off the boots and rust in a game where they lead the Dynamo 3-0 at the half, only to end up tied 4-4, and then earning back the lead with 2 more goals to seal victory 6-4 last Saturday at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field.

Luke pulled off the early heroics with 2 first half goals alongside Junsei's opening goal, probably the fastest of the year about 40s in. Luke tallied one more for the hat trick, while Hayden scored the game winner and Jaxon finished with the insurance marker.

Noah earned the 1st half clean sheet, while Nick faced more chances as Nathan stepped up his shooting for the Dynamo in the 2nd half. At 4-4 , the D woke, strengthening their agression to see out the game positively.

Next Up

It's time to dust off the indoor soccer boots after more than a month and a half without an game to play. Saturday, February 5, 2022, BMO Centre opens its doors to welcome back Summerside CSC and Southwest Dynamo on BMO Airport Kia Field at 5 p.m.

More exciting times have there never been for Canadian Soccer and Summerside CSC fans. Canada is top of the CONCACAF Qatar 2022 World Cup Qualifying after beating Honduras in Honduras 2-0, also for the first time in 37 years. Coach Duncan was all our players age when we last beat Honduras in Honduras. 

And Summerside continues to hold the #1 spot in the South West Indoor Soccer League - Intermediate B 2009 Division, with the three postponed games scheduled on to the end of the season Mar 19, April 2 and April 9.

Coaches Carl and Duncan look forward to a strong Summerside CSC in SWISL finish to this second half of the indoor season, and are excited to continue preparation for the outdoor season for  Southend United Summersiders 2009 U13 boys through February too.

NEXT UP: 

Summerside Community Soccer Club (SCSC) and London Auto Source (LAS) faced off in a one-sided 5-1 result for the guests (Summerside), despite positive play and strong goalkeeping from LAS, at BMO Centre's Goodlife Fitness Field, Saturday afternoon.

Following a first half brace (2 goals) and clean sheet for Jaxon and Noah respectively, with Luke setting up two goals, as well as a tonne of saves from LAS' Mateo, LAS stepped up their chances, finally scoring on a long high shot from Brewer, just beyond Nicholas' reach. Jaxon potted his 3rd for the hat-trick immediately after. Riley scored the next on a high, long shot past Mateo. Jaxon rounded out the scoring with a sneaky reception of a well-placed Kyle inbound pass, bounding in as Jaxon approached and sent the ball into the low right corner.

As much as Jaxon scored the bulk of goals and Luke multiple assists, the play of Hayden, Julia, Mileina and Junsei helped create various chances, as shown by Mateo having faced about 15 to 20 Summerside chances. Kevin and Hayden also added serious value toward the winning result from the defensive end too.

NEXT UP:

Southwest Dynamo came out firing Saturday at BMO Centre's Airport Kia field. After a 6-1 defeat in the first meeting with Summerside Community Soccer Club, Dynamo racked up about 10 shots I the first half; some off posts, others off the goalkeeper (Noah, 1st half), and the remainder off target. Dynamo struggled to finish against Summerside's Noah and Nicholas (2nd half goalkeeper), falling 2-0 on two second half Luke and Jaxon goals for SC squared.

Hayden was coach Duncan's player of the match, with ferociously aggressive effort at every opportunity. Shoot more score more, would be coach's only advice. Eventually he'll be rewarded with goals. 

Julia, Lea, Mileina did well to win balls in the midfield and push forward at every chance. Defending was suspect through the first half, but strong enough with Riley, Junsei and Kyle making the difference when Noah wasn't corralling balls in goal.

Defending shored up second half with Nathan moving to goal for Dynamo, and without that outward, aggressive offensive punch, Summerside's Luke was able to find space down the left wing and fire a hard, high, top right corner-finding shot for the opening goal.

Despite some minor Dynamo opportunities later in the half, Jaxon was able to find chances and finally put away the insurance marker, firing almost straight at Nathan, slightly to his left and too hard to handle as the shot found back netting.

NEXT UP:

Defenders have added two players and lost 1 since Summerside last faced them in a 2-2 exhibition match. And today's result, 3-0 in favor of Summerside shows Defenders have work to do to get the team playing together consistently.

Lea, Junsei, Riley and Hayden won lots of good balls and progressed those wins forward often. Kevin and Hayden earned assists on the day and Kyle maintained a solid clean sheet in the second half for the Summersiders, thanks in big part to Riley, Junsei, Kevin, Hayden and Lea's backline support. Luke roamed the entire pitch masterfully, as usual too.

On a day where coach Duncan and leading scorer Jaxon were beyond a half game late, joining Summerside CSC at BMO Centre's GoodLife Field about the 22:00 mark of the second half, Summerside earned the result. After a first half 0-0 draw, the arrival of some scoring support or influence seemed to help turn the tide in Summerside Community Soccer Club's favour. Nicholas scored the first of the day, his first of the season, following his first half clean sheet as goalkeeper. Luke added some insurance to make it 2-0, and showed lots of great skill in build-up play. Jaxon rounded out the scoring with a hard shot saved off the crossbar, ball falling and spinning back into the net. Had Julia charged the fall of the ball she may have scooped her first of the season. It's coming.

NEXT UP: 

Southwest Bandits gave it their all in a hard fought 2-1 loss to Summerside Community Soccer Club (CSC) Saturday evening at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field. 

Summerside opened the scoring in the first half with a nice goal from Luke. Later in the first half, the Bandits fought back to score, as Emma plowed a ball past Noah on defense and Kyle in goal. The second half continued a tough, tight match-up, with Bandits and Summerside trading chances. Summerside had the more challenging chances and finally broke through when Jaxon poked home a goal, setup by Hayden. 

Kyle and Noah maintained a strong 1 goal against result as keepers in the first and second halves respectively, and equally on the defensive side, supporting Riley, Hayden and Lea in defending the victory. Closer to a clean sheet, but will really need to buckle down to earn that shutout against Summerside's next opponent - Defenders, next Saturday. 

NEXT UP: BATTLE FOR TOP SPOT - 

Looking forward to another Challenge to earn a Clean Sheet for our Goalkeepers - Noah and Kyle from Summerside's own Defenders: Riley, Junsei, Kyle or Noah, Mileina, Lea, Hayden, Julia, Kevin, Nic, Jaxon and Luke... Look for a strong D approach next match... maybe even a practice, if we can book it. Coaches will let parents know if a practice gets booked this week. 

Midway through the first half of Saturday's match between Summerside CSC and London AutoWorks, no one would've predicted 8 goals were to come. All was knotted as each team figured the other out. But, 8 goals was the order of the day, in this 6-2 drubbing of London AutoWorks, by Summerside CSC, Saturday afternoon at BMO Centre's GoodLife Fitness Field. 

Jaxon opened the scoring on a solo effort placed in the corner, past GK Mateo for AutoWorks. This was followed by an own-goal from a lot of strange play in the goal area for the second Summerside tally. Jaxon received the ball from Kyle deep, popped it over Brewer who's hand was up. He accidentally touched the ball and a penalty was about to be called. However, the ball fell to the keeper who spilled it back to Jaxon, who hit it off the defender again, past the keeper and in the back of the net.

Noah stayed in goal for the full game, looking to seal a clean sheet, and despite allowing one goal in the second half on a low shot, made an amazing tip over the bar on another. Luke went on to score the next goal, deking the keeper to Luke's left and firing across goal to the back of the right side of the net. Jaxon, not to be out-done (by his teammate, nonetheless), scored the next in similar fashion winning the ball deep, and with the goalkeeper challenging Jaxon up the middle and top his box, Jaxon juked left past him and slotted it home with his left.

Next up was Luke on a beautiful redirected header, facing away from goal, after Riley punched in a strong ball up the middle from a side-in ball. Luke got enough to redirect the ball perfectly over the keeper and under the crossbar for the 5th Summerside  add another on a similar play as their first, and this time a result of Summerside allowing an overload of 4v2. Not much defenders or keeper can do when forwards and mids don't get back to help consistently every time. 5-2 was enough to win the game, but an "!" was added late, when Jaxon took asideline kick-in, shooting toward Hayden or Nicholas, knocking it off a defender to win another kick-in/maybe a corner. Taking that quickly, he pinged it off an unsuspecting AutoWorks defender and into the back of the net once more. 

What a game everyone! COACHING Point - we will work on defending to win the clean sheet as a team. Also, anyone who scores 2 goals in a game must start setting up every possible teammate.

NEXT UP: 

After week two's 6-1 victory over Southwest Dynamo, coach Duncan requested player feedback, and planned to post the Saturday we were off. At long last here are my three top feedback coaching points from players on what we as a Team Did Well, the Player Did Well and a Team Next Time (I've bolded some standout points): 

Julia's feedback:

1. I think our team was really good at passing the ball around
2. I was good at getting the ball from the other team
3. I think our team can talk more and that we need to jockey more, so we can keep the ball :)

Kevin's feedback: 

1. One thing that the team did well was defending our side of the field
2. I did well always staying in front of the rest of the team because if someone booted it upfront, I would be ready to control the ball
3. One thing that the team could do next time, is pass the ball to someone on our team when you are being challenged by the others

Hayden's feedback: 

1. We were able to find a spot that was open for passes and we had nice passes
2. I think I did pretty good on defence and passing
3. I think we could communicate more in order to find better positions

Upon re-reading all of these, similar stories prevail, more clear communication with each other, like Noah did when he called Kyle off to clear a ball in the first half of our 6-2 win over London AutoWorks this Saturday. More of these above things worked into our game days, and you'll start seeing even more concise victories, including shutouts/clean sheets. 

Looking forward to our continued positive progress, Summersiders!

Summerside Community Soccer Club (CSC) opened up it's South West Indoor Soccer League Intermediate B Division regular season emphatically Saturday evening at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field, scoring a 6-1 win over Southwest Dynamo. With the hat-trick from Jaxon, alongside opening and closing goals from Kyle and Luke and then Kevin rounding out the Summerside scoring, put on a clinic in setting up and scoring goals. 

Lea, Hayden, Riley, Luke, Kyle and Noah all did amazing at defending the lead once it was wrestled away from Nathan and his Southwest Dynamo. Nathan, who once played with Jaxon and Coach Duncan on past Champions Southwest Fusioni, scored the goal that put the Dynamo in the lead. But thanks to Riley, Kyle, Luke, Kevin and Jaxon all earning assists on six unanswered Summerside goals, victory was snagged back from the Dynamo.

Julia, Hayden, Lea, Riley and Luke were all standout components in their various midfield, defender roles, all played agressive on every ball that came to their zone. Clearing and passing forward strongly and regularly. It was particularly exciting to watch from the sidelines. Even when balls were lost to the other team, there was immediate recovery from everyone to get back and help win it back, only the odd time was sideline encouragement required.  

Nathan opened the scoring on a smart diagnoal dribble where he beat Noah low on his left side, after a seriously good deke.

Kyle tied it up with a volleyed shot off his leg and in on a great inboud ball from Luke toward Kyle at the back post.

Jaxon then scored from a Kevin pass through traffic, and Jaxon finished similar to his last week game-tying goal where he had to stave off close defenders and finally the keeper to tuck it home. Jaxon scored again before the end of first half, with Kyle sending in a booming pass, that seemed overhit and out of reach, but Jaxon caught up to it took it toward the left corner area, then to the goal line, cutting back after beating the defender he saw daylight on the shortside and smashed it home from the bad angle. Next up was Jaxon rounding out his hat-trick with a nice high, bounding ball in to the penalty area from Riley, the ball bounced high again to Jaxon's left and he volleyed it with his left beyond Gavin in goal for the Dynamo.

Kevin scored the next one from a similar area, beating his defender with speed and then receving a nice lead pass from Jaxon. Kevin seemed to slow down but then realized he could reach the pass, burst again and placed the ball in the bottom left corner. The finishing touches on scoring for Summerside came from an inbound from Noah to Riley, who thumped a shot from distance at goal and Luke stepped in with the header to redirect it past the keeper with ease. Great team goals today! 

An all round great game for everyone involved. We look forward to seeing the great things this team can do. Towards the end a couple of players were dealing with minor injuries, both knees - Jaxon and Hayden. Hopefully it's just that, minor, and we'll seen them next match in two weeks against London Auto Works - it's going to be a Sponsors Cup Derby match up! And we look forward to getting Junsei and Mileina back into the fold Nov. 6. 

Next Match is: 

Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021 - Summerside CSC (Home - White: jerseys may or may not be in by this date, so wear white just in case) vs. London Auto Works (Away - Black) at BMO Centre's GoodLife Fitness Field, 3:15 p.m. 

Summerside Community Soccer Club (SCSC) opened up its first game of the Southwest Indoor Soccer League (SWISL) 2021-22 fall, winter season with a 2-2 draw against Southwest Defenders at BMO Center London's Airport Kia Field Saturday evening. 

Luke and Jaxon lead the way today with goals for Summerside, while Yanis and Jack worked hard to show the Defenders' strengths. Noah did well in goal, making about a half dozen stops, on challnging shots on target. Riley, Kyle, Hayden, Julia demonstrated poise on defense, with Riley and Kyle crushing balls on first opportunity, Julia picked out precision passes and Hayden chased everyone he could hard and smart. 

Kevin came out of his shell setting up both Summerside goals, along with Luke on Jaxon's goal. Mileina, Lea rounded out the solid Summerside midfield, that included Hayden, Luke and Kevin, while NIcolas lead from the front every other shift. Nicolas showed strong mettle winning balls and making solid passes, "Thought he might have had his first goal of the season, when he pinged one off the left post," Coach Duncan notes.

Luke's goal opened the scoring, coming up the middle, splitting the Defenders' defenders, using Jaxon as a bit of a decoy as he dribbled past him into the penalty area to beat the keeper low. Jaxon received a ball in from Kevin and took a short, close shot, that was blocked, then stopped by the keeper, but spilled once more. Jaxon still grappling for the ball, pops it beyond the keeper and defense to his left foot, sweeping it over the line. 

A Great Game to set up the new season that will see your Summerside CSC follow-up with the following: 

And, wearing white as the home team in this one. Looking forward to it. 

The week that was in Summerside News: 

1. Wednesday welcomed coaches back to BMO Centre, to discuss new rules, expectations and the creed of making it fun for all - similar to Summerside Community Soccer Club's motto "Fun In Football For All" (FIFFA)
2. At the coaches session Wednesday, a trade was also discussed, agreed upon and finalized with Mourad, coach of the Defenders sending Nicolas M to Summerside in exchange for Ryan W. We'll miss not getting to know Ryan, but with the acquisition of Nicolas, coaches Duncan and Carl have a familiar face to make the team dynamic strong for Summerside. 
3. Last but not least, game time is upon us on Saturday, Oct. 16, 5 p.m. at BMO Centre's Airport Kia Field - technically a meet and greet for coaches and kids and parents, that will likely involve a short practice and scrimmage with Defenders

Be sure to wear black shirts/jerseys (Jaxon's got it planned out already to wear his black away Argentina jersey - he's so excited!). Bring a white alternate shirt or jersey, just in case the other team forgets the Home and Away expectations for the first couple weeks or so. See you all tomorrow evening. 

What a fun in football for all day at BMO Centre Saturday afternoon for all Summersiders and the rest of the 58 players that showed up to participate in the SouthWest Indoor Soccer League 2021-22 Showcase for Intermediate B 2009 Division. 

It was an interesting, albeit relatively easy registration, by Covid standards. Show your Vaccination at the door, scan the QR code, enter your sign in information and you're in to the next round, where you give your name grab your numer and then off to the pitch. 

Jaxon, Jacob, Junsei, Nicholas, Noah B from Summerside present and past were all out there representing and showing well for the new and old coaches, on Field 5. Coach Duncan parked up top to observe mostly players he hasn't seen before to ensure all the right choices get made at draft day Sunday. 

Riley, Andrew, Kyle, Marcus, Kevin and Luke M all represented Summerside from Field 3, as most did in 2019-20 indoor season, some a bit too well, as it definitely made for challenging nerves come Sunday Draft Day. 

Draft Day has now come and gone too, but not without lots of excitement and a few close misses.  Unfortunately, Coach Carl and Duncan regret to inform that Summersiders Marcus, Jacob and Nicholas were unable to be secured for our Summerside CSC indoor SWISL team this time round, but not from lack of trying, just from lack of luck and timing in the draft.

We were third pick overall, and we were able to pick Andrew with our first pick after Jaxon and Riley were already assigned the first and second picks for our Team 3 in the order. As the draft snaked to team 4, then 5, then 5 again, we were looking good to get Marcus, and then Team 4 stepped in and got him. At this point, probably one of the best picks possible was still outstanding in Luke M. And with his history with Coach Carl's past teams and our Summerside Greens in 2019-20, we had to snag him.

Coming back round to team 2, then team 1, team 1 again and then what does Team 2 do, but pick Jacob B - OMG, there goes our goalkeeper! Now what, well we have to find a GK to replace him, (still o/s whether Noah W may be assigned to our team, along with Hayden), and so we picked a guy we saw that played well in goal and on D on Field 5, with Jacob - Ryan W. This selection was made to ensure others don't need to play goal much, if at all.

Coach Carl and Duncan then went through two rounds of female picks, where we were able to get Lea M, Julia T and Mileina R - a fearce group, from what we recognized from each, and from my history of playing soccer with Lea's mother through TD tournaments, and indoor coed leagues, etc... So excited to see how these 3 picks pan out. 

Next up, team 4 picks, then team 5 and then 5 again, and 4 again. It comes to us, and since we only saw Ryan a bit in goal, and are only confident he can tandem with someone, we set our sights on and acquired Kyle for this round. Team 2 up again, and what do they do but take Nicholas. Then Team 1, and 1 again, followed by 2 and we were able to get our next Summersider selection in Junsei. Once through 4 and 5, 5 and 4 once more, we wrapped up the draft with a huge steal getting Kevin - unreal how he went so late in the draft, but we got almost everyone. Thankful for that, and we look forward to continuing to work and play soccer with Marcus, Jacob and Nicholas on the regular for training purposes, as we progress with our team, aiming for future participation together in outdoor soccer.

In other news, the reveal of the third Summerside CSC SWISL jersey - we've had blue & white and green & black in 2019-20, and now we will have this....

Can't wait to see our classy club in these new jerseys soon, sponsored by Summerside Community Soccer Club, with logo to displayed across the front. 

Excitement in the Summerside Community Soccer Club camp is peaking. And, it's all about to culminate this Saturday, as we finally hit the pitch for the first time since a Covid-19 cancelled 2020-21 indoor competition that never made it past November 2020. 

BMO Centre's South West Indoor Soccer League (SWISL) Showcase starts at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. Coaches will be drifting from field to field assessing potential players. And, Coaches will return to BMO Centre Oct. 3, to go through the process of drafting players to each team. 

Coach's players (i.e. Jaxon and Riley) are automatically protected, and then the 5 teams draw 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th picks from a hat. So, if as a coaches we were to select the number 1 spot from the hat, Jaxon or Riley would take up that first pick. Then it would go through one by one to 5th pick, and then start back around from 5th, to 4th, 3rd, 2nd, and then 1st pick again. At this point 3 or 4 players will already be gone (outside of coach's players), and we would get Riley or Jaxon as our 2nd pick. It then snakes back around, starting with us. Ultimately, if we were 1st pick, the best we can get is the 11th choice overall.

Coaches Carl and Duncan look forward to the process and scooping up as many SCSC players as possible, along with a couple of the best female players we can get too. I already have a couple that I know and would like to have on our team. We'll see how that goes. 

Summerside Community Soccer Club met under grey clouds, rain and rainbows Wednesday night for a fun, damp training session, which everyone seemed to enjoy very much. 

Dynamic stretches into agility sprints, followed by lead passing that built to shots training activities were the order of the day. An improvised set piece round the world set-up came from Andrew's request to try some free and corner kick practice. Points were awarded to most accurate crossers able to hit their target striker, not necessarily scoring the goal. Marcus got 4 points of a possible 6, to Andrew's 3 and Hayden and Kyle earned a solid 2 each. Nice job on first attempt everyone. Game time wound down the final 10 to 15 minutes, with Marcus and Andrew squaring off against Kyle and Hayden. Yet another fun closer. 

With summer winding down, we understand vacations will be taking place in the coming weeks. Do your best to try and make it out each Wednesday 6:30 p.m. at Meadowgate Park fields, rain or shine (cancelled for lightning only from now on). Let's continue to enjoy preparing for the fun of BMO Centre's South West Indoor Soccer League play, once again as Summerside Community Soccer Club.

Coaches Carl and Duncan are planning for some fun intra-squad training / scrimmages this summer, to replace a 2nd lost summer season, due to Covid-19.

We haven't set anything in stone, as yet, but my personal hope is to get 6 to 10 players out per week, likely starting late July, through August, September and October. In the interim, over the coming three weeks or so, I will be trying to get Jaxon and Brooks out to kick a ball with me Sundays and/or Wednesdays at Meadowgate around 6 or 6:30 p.m. Feel free to join us. We likely will pass if weather's not great. 

Please keep in touch throughout the summer, and let us know as we invite your child out for soccer fun, if they'd like to come out. We will continue to follow provincial standards and expectations as closely as possible. And we look forward to everyone being closer to fully vaccinated by end of summer, early fall, as that should allow for a real indoor season of fun in football for all. 

Welcome back Summerside Community Soccer Club players and parents. 

It's been a long month of unrelated to soccer activity at the Inglis' household. Usually by this time we'd be a week or two into South West Indoor Soccer League play, and climbing the scoring and standings charts as a team or two. Instead we're hearing constantly changing news about our constantly changing world.   

All we want to do is coach, train and play soccer, and now we're going to get our chance. In Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League, Southend United Summerside CSC will get to play 3 games per date, starting Nov. 22, then again Jan. 17, Feb. 21 and finally April 11. There are two pods and the spacing of replay is to ensure all is healthy from date to date, and is in line with Ontario Soccer and EMSA guidelines. 

Here's what our schedules in each Pod (A & B) will look like (assuming no changes): 

EMDSL 2009 Boys Pod A Standings

GP   W   L   T   GF   GA   PTS   GD   WP  Calendar Sync London TFC 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Norwest 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Byron Yellow 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Sounthend United 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Lambeth FC 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Germans 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL LS Croatia 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL

Sounthend United 2009 Boys's Schedule
Date Home   Away Time/Status Venue Game Type Officials Sun-Nov 22   Byron Yellow 2009 Boys  v  Sounthend United 2009 Boys 9:00 AM BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field Regular   Sun-Nov 22   Norwest 2009 Boys  v  Sounthend United 2009 Boys 10:15 AM BMO-Tim Hortons Field Regular   Sun-Nov 22   London TFC 2009 Boys  v  Sounthend United 2009 Boys 11:30 AM BMO-Tim Hortons Field Regular

 

Southend United 2009 Boys EMDSL 2009 Boys Pod B

 

EMDSL 2009 Boys Pod B Standings

GP   W   L   T   GF   GA   PTS   GD   WP  Calendar Sync London TFC 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Norwest 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Byron Yellow 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Southend United 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Lambeth FC 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Germans 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL LS Croatia 2009 Boys 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL

Southend United 2009 Boys's Schedule

Date Home   Away Time/Status Venue Game Type Officials Sun-Jan 17   Southend United 2009 Boys  v  Lambeth FC 2009 Boys 11:15 AM BMO-Wolf Field Regular   Sun-Jan 17   Southend United 2009 Boys  v  Lambeth FC 2009 Boys 12:45 PM BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field Regular   Sun-Jan 17   Southend United 2009 Boys  v  Germans 2009 Boys 3:10 PM BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field Regular   Sun-Feb 21   Byron Yellow 2009 Boys  v  Southend United 2009 Boys 11:15 AM BMO-Wolf Field Regular   Sun-Feb 21   Byron Yellow 2009 Boys  v  Southend United 2009 Boys 12:45 PM BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field Regular   Sun-Feb 21   Southend United 2009 Boys  v  Lambeth FC 2009 Boys 2:00 PM BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field Regular   Sun-Apr 11   Byron Yellow 2009 Boys  v  Southend United 2009 Boys 11:30 AM BMO-Airport Kia Field Regular   Sun-Apr 11   Norwest 2009 Boys  v  Southend United 2009 Boys 12:45 PM BMO-Airport Kia Field Regular

 

IN OTHER NEWS:

Coaches Carl and Duncan are working at uniforms and determining indoor facility options for training. In the interim, we are also exploring CityWide Sports Complex as a potential replacement for Meadowgate as weather continues to cool. Though next Thursday to Sunday is looking pretty sweet in the teens or so. We will keep you informed as we progress. 

Training itself is intended to be fun and focused on keeping within the rules of no-contact that will be inforced this coming indoor season. We look forward to teaching skilled approaches to possessing, shielding and stealing and challenging for balls, while limiting contact. This is an important piece, because referees are to enforce with Blue Card 2-minute penalties. 

We look forward to a great learning experience throughout this winter, so we can apply those learnings game to game, date to date and ultimately into our summer season for 2021 (should there be a normal one). 

Thanks for entrusting your player to our coaching and we will see you all at Meadowgate, possibly CityWide next Thursday to Sunday... we'll let you know by Monday or Tuesday which date is decided for this week's practice. 

We're back! 

Southend United Summerside Community Soccer Club is back and entered in the Elgin-Middlesex District Soccer League's tournament-style season taking place with 2-game dates in November, January, February and March. 

After a long summer of uncertainty, we now have something certain to look forward to. We are Southend United Summerside CSC. We will play games at BMO Centre in our blue and black uniforms. We will have training - tbd if BMO or school gym or otherwise, outdoor for as long as we can into October anyway. And, we will progress from current team state to the best version of our team by April, all in preparation for an EMDSL summer season too. 

Next up: 

1. www.southendunited.ca/reg  registration for each player not yet registered with the club

2. EMSA / Ontario Soccer registration - various documents needing filled out, signed and returned

3. Pictures for those I didn't already collect for the summer season past

4. continued Meadowgate training, until we learn of any other facilities that may be used, in preparation for upcoming competitions

5. Funding collection

Summerside Headlines: 

1. Next Up for Summerside CSC - free Meadowgate kickabout game, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 6:30 p.m. 

2. Possible Summerside CSC kickabout Sunday, Aug. 9, 6 p.m.

Let's try both and see how it goes. We'll have fun opening activities as usual to get warmed up, then right into game play. 

In other World Soccer News:

1. Bundesliga and EPL are all wrapped up with Bayern Munich and Liverpool as champions

2. MLS is BACK tournament continues to semifinals soon, with all Canadian clubs bowing out in the round of 16, plus top clubs from last season, Atlanta United, Seattle Sounders and Los Angeles FC. Could Philadelphia Union or Orlando City pull off an unexpected tournament championship, or will it be San Jose Earthquakes, Portland Timbers, New York City FC or Minnesota United. We'll have to wait, watch TSN and see. 

3. Perfect timing on the recent news of all 3 MLS teams being out of play at least until Aug. 20, when MLS Regular Season returns, the Canadian Premier League announced it's 2020 return to play in a tournament format, where you'll get to see all 8 teams battle for top four positions, then those four play out a round robin, and the top two will play in the CPL Final for the Northern Shield. Super exciting format, and all games on One Soccer site and app. Who's your pick to win? Will it be 2019 CPL Finals winners Forge FC, 2019 #1 in the table Cavalry FC, or will a surprise arise from York 9, with all their off season team management changes and acquisitions. Will FC Edmonton's past USL, NASL, etc... experience dominate. Will Atletico Madrid build Atletico Ottawa into a juggernaut to be contended with have massive overhauls in HFX Wanderers, Valour FC and Pacific FC lead to a complete 180 on who the top teams are in 2020's quick season? Watch all the action on One Soccer - OneSoccer | Watch Live On-Demand Canadian Soccer

Looking forward to seeing as many as possible back this coming Wednesday Aug 5 and Sunday Aug 9.

Three Soccer Updates this Holiday Weekend in Canada: 

1. From Germany - Bundesliga has started up, and I've sprung for the addition of Sportsnet back to my cable boutique of channels - Watching Lewendowski and Davies top Union Berlin, 1-0 so far in the second half. Learning lots of german, as all you can hear are the shouts of coaches and players. Interesting for the atmosphere of the game.

2. From London, ON - Jakheal continues to keep in tip-top mental, physical, emotional and spiritual shape, as his mother Angela is still working hard, Dad is taking him for bike rides. Jakheal says, if any of the teammates wish to add him on Roblox his name is "Cookiesquad433". Jakheal's birthday is the 27th and one thing we may be able to do as a team is make a team or individual cards we can then deliver and place in his mailbox for. Coach Duncan will work with Coach Carl on logistics and what we can do for this. Exciting!!!

3. From Summerside + a US Coach: an email quoting Coach Duncan's feedback on Coach Watson's soccercoachingpro.com and drills being used with Summerside team's more recently: 

"SUBJECT: Youth coach goes on 8-game winning streak

"Smart Soccer Coaching" member, Coach Duncan, shows everyone how we do things around here:

"I love them, and use them regularly with my U10/U11 groups. The only thing I would add/change is maybe have some circuit-type speed, agility, quickness. But I really do enjoy all the various different options in goalkeeping, defending, possession, passing, shooting and agility/conditioning and small sided games.

Thanks so much! My U11 indoor soccer co-ed team started the season 1-4 then 2-5 and we have been practicing since January with these drills/activities, etc... and we are 10-1 since, with 8 wins in a row – WOW, if that doesn’t sell, I don’t know what would.

Thank you!"

Of course... Not every youth soccer coach can go from losing to DOMINATION like that.

But, it does show what's possible when you start using the world-class drills in my flagship program "Smart Soccer Coaching".

My only advice?

It's to do exactly what Coach Duncan did.

And that is: 

Don't despair if your team loses a game or two or three - That's what coaches with a loser's mentality do.

Instead, look to ditch low-priority drills you may be using that aren't bringing results…

And start applying world-class drills, setups, and routines that work.

That, my fellow coach, is the secret to going from frustrating losses to HUGE winning streaks in a jiffy.

If you want to know what that feels like, here's where to get your sweaty palms on "Smart Soccer Coaching" now:

Smart Soccer Coaching

Coach Watson"

Thanks for sharing Coach Watson

A Summerside Story (from Gavin's Family, better late than never, on my part):

Like many, things have been challenging to say the least. With that said, I can't help but feel like we are one of the lucky ones, so complaining would not be fair.  Tara and I are both working outside the home but isolating the best we can.  Our challenge is having 3 children with no daycare or supports around to assist.  We have been doing our best spelling each other off to avoid burning through our sick time and annual leave.

As you know Gavin has a 3 year old brother and 1 year old sister.  So their life has not been interrupted all that much. Starting at 6:30am till 7:30pm our day involves playing, melt downs, walks, tantrums and just plain driving us crazy.  I think that pretty much covers our everyday.

Gavin is doing well.  He is keeping up on his school work, and getting in as much physical activity as he can.  In his down time he has been playing Clash Royale and FIFA mobile.  We have also set up a soccer field in the basement at the request of his coaching staff ;)  To limit damage we use mini nets and a mini soccer ball.  This has limited damage to the walls but increased the damage to our bodies.  Mom and I are beaten, bruised and in need of chiropractic help.  So thank you for the suggestion, it's worked out well lol. Believe it or not the mini ball has improved the footwork. (totally believe and encourage all to work with mini-balls)

Gavin celebrated his birthday (11 years old) on April 26th. We originally surprised him with Toronto FC tickets in May but that didn’t work out so well for us. So we have come up with a plan B.  With that gift we used the CAMEO app and were able to get a nice personalized message from Jozy Altidore (it was awesome to see his reaction!). 

In the meantime, we have been watching Bayern Munich games, kicking the ball around outside and preparing for when we can all get together again.  Until then, it's pool season so that will help us get through this.  Gavin misses his teammates and is excited to get to work when that time comes.

Great update from Coach Ken! In Other News: 

While Major League Soccer, USL Championship and League One and Canadian Premier League professional soccer leagues all plan their returns, albeit without fans in the stands, various other sports continue to lag behind in planning or announcing plans to return. College and Secondary schools are cancelling their fall seasons and championship events.  

There has been so much good and bad going on in the world these days, Southend Summerside hopes to be able to bring some more positivity through continued soccer distractions. Please tell me you have Sportsnet and have been watching Alphonso Davies (Canadian/Ghanaian) tearing it up with Kinsley Coman down the Bayern Munchen left side game in and game out these days. 

In addition, all CPL teams are now back at training, All MLS teams are training, and have announced a summer tournament that will both follow a world cup style approach to crowning a Tournament Champion and have games count toward the MLS 2020 season. 

According to Ontario Soccer it may be our turn to get back at training. EMSA has not announced anything specific. Southend United had a club meeting Wednesday night, where little was solidified, as much will depend both on EMSA and individual Team decisions going forward.

Do we get together for regular training toward a potential short July, August, maybe September season?

Do we call it a summer season and look forward to fall, if so, do we pick up training again and if so, when?

Coach Carl and Duncan will try and come up with a communication this weekend to discuss with players and parents our options and to get a consensus on what everyone wishes to do. In the interim, if you're reading this please feel free to take the informal poll at the right side of the screen or the bottom of your phone's scroll. This will give us an idea where our family's heads are at, not necessarily our final decision though. 

Either way, I have a full 16-week training program planned, that can likely be slightly altered to ensure physical distancing happens - Health and Safety of our players, parents and management staff are paramount at this time. In the short term, I cannot foresee any real scrimmaging until go ahead is given at the governing levels of soccer and Health departments of the government. 

More to come soon... Coach Duncan

Thank you to Charles and Carl for sharing your Max and Riley self-isolation updates, as follows, plus more soccer updates further below: 

Max's family's story: We are both working from home as well. My wife always works from home, so we are all crampin' her style a bit. I chose to work from home to help with the kids home schooling and helping with our younger son Sebastian, who is autistic.

Max is enjoying his home schooling, a bit more freedom, zoom chatting with his friends from school and kids messengering with his cousins and some other friends. Max has also been lost to the Roblox gods and seems to be obsessed with either building boats, acting like a Doge, or creating new games for him and his cousins/friends. Now that the weather is starting to improve, he has started to enjoy his daily bike rides and playing in the backyard with his brother on the trampoline or kicking the soccer ball with Dad. He also has made a cardboard light saber, Ironman mask, top hat and Minecraft pick-axe complete with Steve costume. Max also has started to make an iMovie complete with DVD Case and slipcover for his brothers birthday, as Sebastian is obsessed with Disney and Pixar DVD's.

Sebastian, Max's brother, spends most of his time playing with our cats, when the weather is nice swinging in the swing set or playing on slide and trampoline and Trying to get off his Chromebook to wrestle or swing or play outside or make an outdoor video for their eventual YouTube channel. 

We have discovered the convenience and guilty pleasure of Goodfood online food ordering and are enjoying cooking as a family!

Riley's family's story: I have postponed home chores....but will need to cut the grass soon, I'm sure.

Riley plays Roblox a LOT as well. If Jaxon wanted to find him, his game name is "dragonmanyoyo".  

My wife and I have been working this whole time as well. I think I've visited the office only 2 or 3 times in the past 6 weeks. Surreal. 

We get most groceries online (for curbside pickup), and started getting veggies from FoodFund recently. 

No LCBO for over a month, but I have tried home delivery from three different breweries. Anderson's, London Brewing Co-op and Craft Beer Fridge.  

I'm looking forward to nice weather so that I can go back to the pack to kick a ball with Riley. I've been on the home eliptical daily, but it's not the same (and only JUST makes up for all the craft beer!).

With the social distancing I've been inspired to have video calls with old friends as far as California and Singapore, which was pretty cool.

IN OTHER SOCCER NEWS: 

1. To better understand your concerns, Ontario Soccer has created a survey so you can provide them with your input on what Return to Play In Ontario may look like.

The safety and health of the participants will be first and foremost in the decision making to come.

OS BULLETIN - SURVEY

2. Southend United is excited about the upcoming season, if or when it should return and what that will look like, as are Coaches Carl and Duncan, we've lost a lot of time and perhaps fitness, but we will gain that back quickly. 

3. Coach Duncan misses watching EPL on DAZN, has taken up watching old MLS and 2019 CPL matches, and hopes to be able to use CPL season tickets to Forge FC in Hamilton sooner than later, but safely too, of course. I understand it may be longer before bigger gatherings return to normal. 

Who's been playing FIFA 20 and training in their basements or backyards?  

You Tube is full of great drills - check out Joner 1v1, he's my favourite. Do what you can to stay active in or around the house. I've taken up Monday Mass and Meditations, Tuesday Tai Chi, Wednesday Walks and Workouts, Thursday Yoga (couldn't find a workout literation to match Thursday), Friday Footballer workouts from Darebee.com, Saturday Strength and Power Training and Sunday Stretches and Core Workouts... Nothing super consistent, but it was fun to set up a plan either way. 

Can't wait to get back on the pitch and see everyone's differing levels of fitness and to work at gelling everyone together once again. It will be so much fun!!!

Donald Trump says the United States is re-opening for business, so that must mean we'll be playing soccer soon, right? I kind of doubt his logic and suspect it might be better to pay attention to Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford these days. 

Honestly, my respect for Canadian politicians has grown leaps and bounds over this past month in mostly-isolation, apart from the odd grocery, liquor store, gas station and bank run. Everything I do now is on my laptops (one personal, one for work). Half our staff have been sent to work from home, and I work at a call centre - that's amazing!

In these challenging times, Soccer has become more of a secondary or after-thought, but it's still on my mind. I miss the Saturday morning English Premier League matches, MLS through the day and evening, BMO Centre games, Southend Summerside training days, going to the park to kick a ball around. Did you know there is Caution tape around the goals at Meadowgate. Somehow that seems excessive, but you're not allowed to be out, so don't do it, unless its for essentials. 

We are still in the midst of a potential long haul, so keep as active as you can round the house, get your schoolwork done daily during the work week (players/kids), and focus on enjoying every moment with your family. I know I am, well I'm trying. It is a lot of time with the family - LOL! 

Keep spirits high, we will be back at it, just maybe not as quickly as Donald Trump wants it. 

Kids have been out of school two weeks, and it looks like another four are on the horizon. I think it's safe to say Indoor season is most likely over, although once opportunity knocks, Coaches Carl, Rod, Duncan, Dan, Brooks and Ken are all in favour of a Summerside CSC Challenge Cup final between those Green Meanies and the Blue Devils. Likely won't happen until June or later, but we will make it happen, even if it means sometime in 2021. 

In other news, Southend United Summerside CSC was coming along beautifully until the pandemic hit home. At this point, Ontario Soccer has mandated that there be no soccer activities until after April 30, presuming there are no additional extensions in place by then. 

In the meantime, Summerside outdoor coaches Carl, Duncan and Rod, encourage parents to play soccer with their kids, be it basement, backyard, local park with limited friends or just yourselves. Get out or stay in and keep active.

Next Up: 

We don't know, but we will let you know as we learn more...

And your winner for the Summerside Juvenile A's against Southwest Scorpions is... 

Taylor - with the lone goal, tenacious effort some good pass receptions and runs... well deserved for playing the full game as often as she does. 

Congruatlions Taylor, and back to three winners next week, as Blue faces BMO and Green match up with Red Acorn in Sophomore B Division semi-final action. Then in the evening, Summerside Juvenile division play sees the big Greens challenge Murphy Bus Lines for 5th spot, a real opportunity weekend for all teams involved. 

Best of luck to all! 

Summerside CSC Green and Blue had the week off, while Red Acorn Studios took on Source for Sports and BMO faced KalTire in quarterfinal Sophomore B-division Southwest Indoor Soccer League play Saturday. Red Acorn won 5-2, while BMO topped KalTire 2-1, sending both to face Summerside Green and Blue respectively in semifinal games next Saturday, Mar. 14, 2020 at 10 and 11 a.m. 

In Summerside Juvenile A division action, the older greens took on Southwest Scorpions at BMO Centre's GoodLife Fitness Field, earning a big victory that could pave the way to a favourable playoff match-up. Should winning ways continue against Murphy Bus Lines next Saturday, Mar. 14 at 6:15 p.m., Summerside could reach 5th place in the division and thus play-off against BMO, the next team they've shown most promising results against, with a W-L-D record of 1-1-1 against them.

NEXT UP: 

JUVENILE A's - 

BLUE AND GREEN Practcice - Friday, March 13, 2020, 6 p.m. @ Cleardale P.S. 

SWISL PLAYOFF Games: (below)

SWISL Sophomore B Schedule
Date Home   Away Time/Status Venue Sat-Mar 7   Source For Sports 2 - 5 Red Acorn Studio Complete BMO-Sifton Field Sat-Mar 7   BMO 3 - 2 KalTire Complete BMO-Sifton Field Sat-Mar 14   Summerside Green  v  Red Acorn Studio 10:00 AM BMO-Sifton Field Sat-Mar 14   BMO  v  Summerside Blue 11:00 AM BMO-Sifton Field Sat-Mar 28      v    11:00 AM BMO-Airport Kia Field

JUVENILE A's -  Saturday, March 14, 2020, 6:15 p.m. at BMO Centre's GoodLife Field, final regular season game vs. Murphy Bus Lines for 5th place in the division. Huge playoff implications for gaining the best route to the Final.  

Announcing your Players of the Week for last week's Games. 

For the Blues, against Source for Sports, in a 2-1 loss on the field, that was overturned for a 3-0 win in the boardroom, after forfeit was applied - POTW BLUE = Andrew, with the only Blue goal. 

And, Green's player of the week was a three-way tie between Noah, Madilynn and Jesse

Congratulation to all, and great work last week! Keep it going strong in the playoffs. 

Controversy ends in vindication for Summerside CSC Blue, as three points and a 3-0 victory were rewarded at the 11th hour for their match with Source for Sports, powered by KalTire and RedAcorn team members. 

BMO Centre's South West Indoor Soccer League stepped up this week, after calling the Red Acorn coach who lead Source to victory 2-1 last Saturday, deliberated and delivered the news Friday morning that Summerside CSC can legitimately receive the forfeit victory. 

"Sure, no one wants to win by forfeit, but when rules are circumvented, you gotta at least bring it to the attention of the league and let them do their business of figuring out what's what. Ultimately both teams had fun in the game, came away no worse the wear for the 2-1 or 3-0 result, and life goes on," said Coach Duncan today. Adding, it's just nice to ensure we had that positive result and thus an asterisked win streak maintained in tact as promised to the Blue Devils players before and after that game. 

SWISL Sophomore B 2009 Standings

GP   W   L   T   GF   GA   PTS   GD   WP  Calendar Sync Summerside CSC Green 18 11 3 4 42 25 37 17 0.611 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Summerside CSC Blue 18 12 6 0 37 33 36 4 0.667 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL BMO 18 8 7 3 36 27 27 9 0.444 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Red Acorn Studio 18 6 9 3 32 38 21 -6 0.333 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL Source For Sports 18 5 8 5 34 40 20 -6 0.278 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL KalTire 18 4 13 1 29 47 13 -18 0.222 Get CalendarCopy Sync URL

NEXT UP: 

Friday, Mar. 6, 2020 - Training Session for Blues, Greens, Outdoor team, etc... @ Cleardale P.S. 6 p.m. 

Saturday, Mar. 7, 2020 - both teams earned a bye with 1st and 2nd place finishes - NO GAME

Was it Source for Sports, Red Acorn Studios, KalTire or some mix of all three that Summerside CSC Blue fell 2-1 to on Saturday afternoon at BMO Centre's Sifton Field. 

BMO Centre's South West Indoor Soccer League rules state: 

6. Call Up of Players & Dress Code (a) In the event it is known that your team will have zero (0) substitutions or less players, then you may call up players from the teams in the division directly below. (up to 3 call ups per game) Players may only be called up for 3 games. (b)NO call-ups are allowed during the Playoff (c) Players must wear their issued team uniform as a call up. They must wear shorts & socks (preferable black) provided it is in good condition and not worn below the waist line.

Per bold above, not players from other teams within the same age group/division, is the common interpretation. However, Source used the coach from Red Acorn, his son from Red Acorn and 3 players the kids on Blue Devils identified as players form KalTire at our age group. Coaches Dan and Duncan submitted informal concerns Saturday and formal via email on Sunday. They were to be adjudicated Tuesday, It's now Wednesday and we will likely find out the result today. 

If judged fairly, this will be Blue Devils 8th win in a row, 3-0 over Source. Andrew scored the lone goal on a scramble in front of the Source net, where Jaxon back-passed to Peywand who shifted the ball just outside the box for Andrew to blast home past the vulnerable Source keeper. Noah played goal for the 2-1 result, and with Maly and Hailee offering stellar support, but without additional help, couldn't stop the two big shots for goals. Bboth of which may not count, particularly since the second came from the Red Acorn boy. 

Now, Blues wait to see result of review of the game. 

NEXT UP: 

Who would like to train Friday with us again - we're bringing back Friday night Training for those who participated up until our Boys team assessments, now open to all Blue, Green and Southend United Summerside players. 

Friday, Mar. 6, 2020 - All Summerside teams Training at Cleardale Public School

Saturday, Mar 7, 2020 - is a Bye week, as we finished in the top two for the season (NO GAME for Blue or Green)

Well, after 18 games, our 2019/2020 regular game to a close yesterday and the Green Machine (and their support teams) can look back on a very successful season.

Although it wasn't our "last" game together, it was exactly how we wanted to close out.  A hard working team effort that resulted in a 4-2 win for the Greens, which clinched first place overall - well done team!  We finished with a record of 11 wins, 4 ties and 3 losses, leading the league in goals scored (42).  In this league, many goals come from strong individual play, but the Green's defensive record truly highlights our strong TEAM play this season.  The 25 goals allowed and 5 "clean sheets", were also league BEST - something we are very proud of as coaches.

Highlights of game 18?  One take-away from this game is that the standings may not be a true reflection on the parity in the league. In the first half, The Red Acorns forwards punished the Greens for a brief lapse in concentration, scoring on a long hard shot down the middle.  Keeper Jacob and defender Maddy needed a few moments to get over their surprise and collect themselves.  The Green Meanies settled in and focused on playing "their" game.  Forwards Natalia, Layla and Brewer pushed hard into enemy territory looking for the equalizer.  Natalia had a great opportunity in close, but the Acorn's keeper denied her with a great save.  The Acorns attempted numerous counter attacks, but the strong mid-field play of Ty, Jesse and Logan, supported by Green defenders Riley, Kyle and Maddy, thwarted their attempts.

After plenty of back and forth action, the first half ended with the Acorns up 1-0.  Still with lots of time left on the clock, we knew we just needed to stick to the game plan and the results would come.  Kyle and Jacob switched roles in the second half, and Kyle made sure to lock it down and make sure the Greens had a chance to win the game.

Continuing the collaborative play, using footwork and passing to move the ball, the Greens tied up the game on a shot from Noah curled into the top far corner of the net - unstoppable and beautiful to watch from our spot on the sidelines.  Keeper Kyle claiming (deservedly) an assist on the play, with his deep drop kick into the Acorn zone.  Sensing cracks in the Acron's resolve, the Greens continued to push.  Soon after, Jacob's hard kick in from the sidelines sailed over both teams and was tipped into the net - Jacob's first "official" goal of the season (although WE all know its really number 2), putting us up 2-1.  Strangely, Jacob did NOT stick-around for post-game poutine - I hope he made up for it later (not than I'm superstitious or anything).

Our next goal came off a cross into the penalty area (from Luke?), with Ty connecting at short range with a quick shot.   A highlight of the second half which did not make onto the score sheet was Natalia's very strong play down the sidelines, using her body to protect the ball from the Acorn defender.  A little extra fire in her eyes I think!

Perhaps appropriately, Luke scored the last Green Goal of the regular season.  Luke also scored our first goal back on October 26!

Next up for us are the Semi-Finals at 10:00 am on March 14 (no game for us next week).

As "Team 01", we will be playing the winner of the Red Acorns v. Source for Sports (taking place on March 7).  You can follow the playoff schedule and results here:

Sophmore B Playoff Schedule

Should we win on the 14th, we'll be playing in the final game on March 28 (11 am).

Your Summerside Community Soccer Club players of the week for Saturday Feb. 22 matches are: 

From Blue - Noah W for both scoring and earning the first half shutout in a 2-1 win over KalTire

From Green - Both Jacob and Logan earned Feb 22 honours with the shutout and multiple opportunities and strong hustle

From Juvenile - with the sole vote Matene, who I can only assume scored? 

Great job everyone, looking forward to the final POTW this weekend! Everyone give their best so we can have 13 way ties across all teams. 

In the second last game of the season, the team's hard work finally resulted in a win, a hard fought 1-0 victory over Source for Sports (red) that was somehow even closer than a 1-0 score suggests. Numerous close calls at both ends of the pitch.  The Reds pushed us to the limits, but the Green Machine worked hard and stuck to the game plan.  Before the game, Summerside SCS Blue briefly snagged 1st place with their 9th win in 10 games (wow!).  The pressure was on the Greens to take back 1st, for at least one more week.  That will be decided next Saturday.

Highlights for the Green Machine?  Jacob was stellar in net - we did allow for some excitement, but he made the saves we needed and held down the fort.   The Green defense, led primarily by Riley and Kyle, with strong support from Noah and Ty, helped push the ball up to the forwards and also chase down and Reds that made it past the defensive wall.  Considering Greens' tremendous effort across the board, its surprising we were limited to a single goal from Luke in the first half (number 20 on the season by my count, congratulations!). 

With the defenders driving the play from the back, the Green midfielders and forwards kept the pressure on the Reds.  Missing Addison and Maddylin today, Layla and Natalia did well to represent the Green ladies, carrying a heavier load and showing just a touch more aggression than usual. 

Jesse had another hard working game, but was lost to a foot injury in the second half (we're expecting Jesse back at 101% next week!).  No worries though, as he teammates were ready to pick up the pace in his absence.  Brewer had a tremendously physical game - no one could ask more of the effort, which resulted in several drives into Red territory.  Red defenders took Brewer took the ground again and again, but he kept getting up. 

Last, but not least, Logan finished the game with what was probably his best 5 minutes of the entire season.  By playing near center field, marked by Red's final defender, Logan soon found himself in great position, not too far from the Red penalty area.  After receiving a pass, Logan turned and took a strong shot on goal.  Logan was robbed by the Red keeper, but this great play was not lost on Coach Rod and myself.  Well done!

Next up for us is Red Acorn Studio (White), February 29, 2020, 11:00 am game time, same field (Sifton)

Again we're hoping everyone can arrive a little early again (10:30 am) so that we can make the most of the on-field practice time.  

Link to Game Schedule and Results - Summerside CSC Green

Other Updates? Next Saturday is our LAST regular season game.  Our first playoff game (semi-finals) will be March 14, but we don't yet know whether we'll play at either 10 or 11 am (depending on when we finish).  

Should we win on the 14th, we'll be playing in the final game on March 28 (11 am).

Summerside Community Soccer Club continued it's winning ways from Blue and Green Sophomore B Teams, and suffered an unfortunate, albeit extremely tight loss to Murphy Bus Lines Saturday at BMO Centre. 

From a Blue Perspective: 

Summerside CSC Blue Devils earned first place ranking Saturday afteroon, if only for about an hour or so. Saturday presented a big opportunity, with the Blues facing off with last-place Kal Tire, who beat first place Summerside CSC Green Machines only the week before. 

The first half scoreline saw no one flinch, as Noah maintained a shutout through to the halfway mark, with help from Hailee and Malyah, as the Blues started with  a 3-2-2 formation, coaches noticed some inconsistencies with defenders positioning, adjusted to a 2-3-2 to benefit those players who wanted to play elsewhere. 

Another shift if positioning happened for the second half, as all Addyson, Hailee and Malyah hung back, helping protect Kevin who took over second half duties and faired very well. With help from Noah again, this time up front, scoring the opening goal and putting Summerside Blues in the lead, off a great passing play from Peywand to Andrew with Noah in one on one, and beating the keeper to his left.

Noah had another similar chance soon after Jaxon scored his goal on another effort worked forwarwd from Andrew. Noah's shot went right at the keeper. Jaxon took his shot on a volley, which was saved, then poked home the game winning goal with his left on the rebound. Jaxon equalled Noah's opportunities, having a second extremely similar volley chance that he fired at the keeper without success a little later too. 

It was good to have Kevin and Francesco back after missing last game, they are both always very eager to win the ball and make the most of moving it forward. Gavin worked tirelessly trying to help push for goals, while Lucien got stuck in a few times, making some really solid forward passes to teammates like Emma, Francesco, Kevin and Jaxon. 

Looks like taking rightful ownership of first place overall will need to wait just one more week. And it couldn't be a more exciting opportunity. Summerside CSC Green plays Red Acorn, a team that's made a move up the standings with a 1-0 win over BMO this week. And your Blues take on Source for Sports, who lost 1-0 this week to the Green Meanies. 

NEXT UP: 

Saturday, February 29, 2020 - 

Summerside CSC Green @ Red Acorn Studio - 11:00am - Sifton Field #2 BMO Centre

Summerside CSC Blue @ Source for Sports -  1:00pm  - Sifton Field #2 BMO Centre

First up - Summerside Community Soccer Club players of the week (POTW): 

1. for Green  -  with just one vote each = Jesse and Riley, for strong play despite the 2-1 loss to KalTire

2. for Blue - another tie between Andrew and Max this time, Max for stepping up second half to play goal, Andrew for, well two goals - nice job gents!

3. for SCSC's Juvenile A Team = Marco for keeping balls out of the net strongly at all opportunities

Coming up for Summerside CSC - Assessments continue Friday Feb. 21, and 28 for Southend United Summerside CSC's 2020 outdoor season. 

Registration is open for Southend United's 2020 season at https://www.southendunited.ca/reg

Sign yourself up for registration - everyone makes it if we get 16, if we get more then there could be competition for spots. The expectation is that the 2019 Summerside core team sticks together - Kyle, Riley, Andrew, Peywand, Ty, Nicolas, Jakheal, Jaxon, and possibly Diland and Mohammed, if they show for the assessments. If not, we've got plenty of room for our Green and Blue participants Jacob, Kevin, Francesco, Noah B, etc... Welcoming participants who could make our final 16 in players like Junsei, Luke M, Hayden, Matias and much, much more. 

Lookng forward to a big crowd this Frriday night and next for final assessments to round out the next great Southend United Summerside CSC team. Hoping all our green and blue girls come out to show our boys how to play soccer right. 

Last, but not least - Blue Devils face off with Kal Tire 12 p.m. at Sifton Field, while Green Machine follows against Source for Sports and the Juvenile A's continue their trek toward 5th place aiming to be victors over Murphy Bus Lines. 

In a display of things to come, Summerside CSC's Juvenile A Team toppled Southwest Scorpions 4-1 at BMO Centre's Good Life Fitness Field Saturday evening.

By things to come, the Summerside schedule takes an extremely favourable turn, in an almost perfect scenario way, whereby, they played PEO London, the top team last week, giving them a good taste of how to play close to top-level. Then they play a bottom-three team in the Scorpions and win 4-1.

The goal from here is clear and the aim is for a tight victory or tie with Murphy Bus Lines, followed by another win over Scorpions and one more tight win or draw with Murphy. And, with these results, suddenly your in 5th place, facing the other team you have your best record against in BMO (1-1-1). Things look really good for this Summerside team, if they take the above noted expectations, turn it into belief and then action and results.

Kai, Noah, Matene and Douglas all scored for Summerside Saturday.

NEXT UP:

Feb 22, 2020 -

Summerside CSC Blue continues their winning ways, earning a 6th win in a row and an 8 and 1 W-L record in their last 9 games, topping BMO 3-2 at BMO Centre's Sifton Field. "The team is coming together well at the right time," adds coach Duncan, as they approach season's end, potentially first place, being only 1 point behind, and soon to enter the playoffs. 

It's been an amazing turnaround for this team that wen 1-4, then 2-5, with their last two losses in that group of games being high scoring 5-2 and 6-1 losses to lower competition. Since then Summerside has beaten every team in the league. Some more than once and including two of the top three teams, twice. 

Andrew led the scoring on this day with an inbound kick that deflected off a defender and into the BMO net, behind Seth. Andrew added a second from a Peywand back and forth, also off a kick-in, firing high from far and over the keeper to the back of the net. Jaxon scored the eventual winner, that had made it 3-1 at the time, from a Peywand and Gavin team passing play. 

In goal, it was the Jax-and-Max show, as Jaxon held BMO to one in the first, after a great high save to knock the ball down in front of himself, a BMO Bluieberry was there to pounce on the rebound, and poke it past the recovering keeper. Max had a similar fate on his one goal against, as big #24 pounded a close range shot high and hard, and Max got a piece of it, but it was too hard and was able to find the underside of the cross bar netting. 

Defending mercilessly, Hailee, Addison and Malyah were phenoms clearing balls from the back. When up 3-1, coaches were encouraging stay at home defending, and these young ladies showed that in spades. Andrew, Gavin and Noah were also extremely supportive at the back, though when we were up 3-1, the boys may have been pressing forward a bit too much. 

In the end, it was another exciting Blue Devils finish.

NEXT UP:

Saturday, February 22, 2020 - 

After last week's schooling by Summerside Blue, we were ready to reset and hit the field as a team. Anyone within earshot of me post-game, probably picked up that I wasn't happy with the result (a 2-1 loss), or rather, the tactics employed by the opposition in bringing in extra players and then leaving them on the field for most of the game (at the expense of their own team members, no less). 

Although we suffered our second loss in as many games, Coach Rod and I are VERY proud of the effort on the field.  Solid TEAM play, good pressure by all, which is all we ask of them. Despite the (I say unfair) roster manipulation, we had many opportunities to win this game, and the hard work and "never give up" attitude displayed by the Green Machine will pay dividends as we get into the playoffs.

Highlights for the Green Machine?  Kyle and Jacob were both solid in goal as well as out in-field. Good saves, strong kicks, smart play by both. Frequently driving the play, and hustling back on defense were Riley, Noah and Maddylin. Due to a personal conflict of interest, I can't comment on Riley's play (but an independent source told me he did really well out there, with some strong boots, good passing and ball handling).  Noah?  The kid is unflappable. Defense? Sure. Midfield? Ok. Attach the net? Why not. Great leader on the field.  Maddy?  Pound for pound, how can she not be the toughest kid at BMO?  She's likely our team leader in blocked shots!

Rested from vacation, Ty was a welcome addition. He played across the field today, getting into the action wherever it was and using his strong left foot to his advantage.  I really enjoy coaching this kid (and not just because he's Rod's son!).  Layla and Natalia also had strong games, working the ball into opposition territory.  Fantastic positive energy and attitude (maybe Natalia's cool new hair style?) helping Coach Carl keep his cool on the bench (as best I could).  Logan continued his improved play and energy - looking for opportunities to pursue the ball and make smart passes.  Keep it up Logan!

Luke did his best, as usual, to give us a chance to win. He had numerous opportunities, coming close many times, but was only able to capitalize on one (our only goal of the game). What I really enjoyed today was his renewed spirit of collaboration and team-focused play.

Although there were many highlights for Coach Rod and I, I've been saving the best for last. Mr. Jesse Hillman was on FIRE today, nearly scoring on several occasions and displaying a renewed energy and aggression on the field. Some say he was playing for two (wearing Addison's original No. 15 jersey), and it showed.  It was really really great to see, and although we only have a handful of games left, we are hoping Jesse will build on it in our remaining games.

Next up for us is SourceForSports (Red), February 22, 2020, 1:00 pm game time, same field (Sifton).

Again we're hoping everyone can arrive a little early (12:30 pm) so that we can make the most of the on-field practice time.

Link to Game Schedule and Results - Summerside CSC Green

Other Updates? We have two more regular season games.  Feb. 22 and 29.  Thanks to Summerside Blue's 3-2 win today, Green Machines are are now assured of finishing no lower than 2nd, meaning both Summerside teams will have a first round "bye" in the playoffs.  What does this mean?  Our first playoff game (semi-finals) will be March 14, at either 10 or 11 am (depending on when we finish).  If everything comes together as planned, we'll be playing Summerside Blue in the final game on March 28 (11 am). A date with the Devils.

from Summerside Blue Devils of Sophomore A Division - Malyah, Andrew and Peywand tied in votes - Maly scored and played power soccer all game in various roles; Andrew with stellar defending and the first goal of the game, and Peywand with a goal of his own and an assist on Kevin's first of the season

from Summerside Green Machines - Jacob for strong goalkeeping despite the onslaught of chances the Blues created in this final Challenge Cup match of the regular season

from Summerside CSC, of the Juvenile A Division - Marco, another strong goalkeeping performance against an undefeated top team, who's goals were flukey at best

Southend United Soccer Club and Summerside Community Soccer Club come together to raise our 2009 boys game. But did you know there is a 2009 girls team too. For more information go here:

For Girls' 2009 Southend United Pumas team details: 

https://www.southendunited.ca/page/show/5404150-2009-girls

For Boys' 2009 Southend United Summerside CSC team details: 

https://www.southendunited.ca/page/show/5404214-2009-boys

PEO London, Juvenile A Division's undefeated # 1 team to-date, played Summerside CSC to a 2-0 lead at half and added 3 more in the second to take the game 5-0. 

Marco starred in goal, playing extremely well, despite a number of truly flukey goals from Miles, Erin and their PEO teammates. Adam controlled the midfield as best he could, while Dominic, Devin, Brooks and Victoria rotated duties defending Marco's goal. 

The great thing about playing the top team is that it is excellent training for the games ahead, where three teams will battle to earn top spot of the bottom three. Next few games are Murphy and Scorpions, both just above Summerside and well within reach. 

NEXT UP:

Saturday, Feb 15, 2020 - Summerside CSC @ Southwest Scorpions - 6:15pm - BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field

As expected, the Blue-Green Summerside CSC Challenge Cup final was one for the ages. Leading in, Summerside CSC Green held the advantage of a 2-1 win-loss record, 6-3 goals for-against and continued to top the charts, as they have all season long - phenomenal team!

However, Blue Devils have been the hottest team in the league since going 1-4 through November and 2-5 by mid-December, earning a record of 7-1 since that latter point in the season. Changes in tactics have worked wonders, as the players adapted to playing to their strengths in defence, offense and balanced midfield defending and attacking, where needed. 

The Rise of Blue Devils has played out like a blockbuster movie, with more to come, and on this Challenge Cup day, Andrew lead the way scoring the opening goal, on a pass from Gavin in the first half, while Jaxon back-stopped in goal, earning a solid shutout, The team started with 4 defenders Gavin, Andrew, Max and Malyah, and together with defensive subs Emma, Addyson and Hailee, Blue Devils keepers saw limited chances. Luke and Noah worked tirelessly and of course did generate some strong shots, that Jaxon turned aside too. 

With it only 1-0 at the half, there was a fear-factor that could have crept in, but there was nothing but positives to talk about on the bench. Blue Devils were stimying the Green talent and working tirelessly to earn victory. And, the second half only brought more of the same and finally Green were breaking down some in confidence, as Kevin added his first goal of the season on a ball that was punched into the middle of Jacob's goal area, with Jaxon scrambling to score, the ball popped right to Kevin's left foot, where he guided it into goal. Peywand's goal came from a nice pass out from the middle from Jaxon, then Peywand tried to work it back into the middle and his pass went a little wonky but into the net, so Blue Devils will take it. 

Rounding out the great play, Lucien made a solid give and go for the highlight reel, Noah stood out in goal the second half, retaining the shutout, Addyson was solid in the various positions she was played in, Emma continues to work tirelessly, winning balls you'd think she has no business winning, i.e.1v1 with a boy twice her size, battling hard with her legs to churn the ball out in her direction - amazing work by all team members, all round! This was a Team Player of the Week for me...

NEXT UP: 

Saturday, Feb. 15 - 

Game 1 - 3-2 for Green

Game 2 - 1-0 for Blue

Game 3 - 3-0 for Green

Game 4 - 3-0 for Blue...

So, for the purposes of Challenge Cup winners, what do the above results mean? Well, let's do the math. I see 2 wins each, I count 6 goals each. There were no away goals rules instated, but Green had 3 and Blue had 3 - hmmm... still all tied up... Now what, league record, coin-toss (all rules we never instated). I think the only fair thing to do is rent the BMO Centre for an hour someday in the near future, when we can get most kids out and have a Final game, winner takes all. 

Post game, some information was shared about the Summerside plan moving forward. Jacob, Nicolas, Noah, Gavin, Andrew, Jaxon, Riley, Kyle, Peywand, Jakheal, Kevin and Francesco have all committed to learning more about Summerside's plan to play within Southend United Soccer Club's umbrella. Registration should be coming soon.

If you go to the site, do not register yet, as they are only registering younger house league play presently. Our team will likely play either EMSA Tier III (against teams like St Thomas, Strathroy, St Mary's, etc... https://emsatieriii.e2esoccer.com/About.aspx) or EMDSL Tier 2 (teams like Alliance, Whitecaps, Byron, Lambeth, Norwest, etc... https://emdsl.e2esoccer.com/About.aspx).

Cost will likely be upwards of $350, plus an festival/tournament entries along the way, usually an additional $20 per player once booked (this information was left out, as wasn't fully confirmed, at the time of discussions with parents. Costs cover rental of training fields, payment for coaches education requirements (Learn to Train, Soccer for Life, other courses), rental of fields for game dates, club expenses for equipment and uniforms - track suits, bags would be extra and can be obtained through Source for Sports - https://sourceteamworks.com/southend-soccer/.

More information to come in coming days, but next training session and assessments will be held this coming Friday, Feb. 14, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Cleardale P.S.  Drop your kids off to play soccer, while you and your significant other go out for Valentine's Day dinner. 

A Blue Perspective on the Summerside CSC Challenge Cup will come soon too. Have a Great Sunday!

Many who watched the game, including myself, reported that it was very exciting and that the Green Machine worked hard and did a lot of good things on the field. Unfortunately, that hard work didn't produce the result we were looking for, as we suffered our second loss of the season. It was also only the second time we've been shut out. It was definitely a game for us to learn from and build on.  We will need to work even harder to play as a team, and rely less on individual efforts to get the results we're hoping for.

But give credit where credit is due. Our sister club, the Summerside Blue Devils deserved the win, putting on a clinic in passing and team defense, giving us a taste of the kind of adversity we'll be facing in the playoffs.  They had a tough start to the season, but since the half-way mark they have clearly been the hottest team in our division.  Perhaps they benefited from all the "character building" games earlier on?  For anyone keeping score, our season series with the Blue Devils is tied up at 2 wins and 6 goals each.  Although there is lots of work to do yet, the table is set for a dramatic tie breaker.  For our teams to play each other again, we both need to make it to the Championship game on March 28 (exactly as Coach Duncan and planned it before our very first game...)

The Green Machine really did work hard and never gave up.  Luke and Noah did their best to carry the team on their shoulders, but the Blue Devils (and their coaching staff) had devised a scheme to overload them immediately with 2, 3 and sometimes 4 defenders - making it difficult to get off a shot or make a pass.  Each of our players had their moments.  On defense, the 3 goals allowed did not reflect how hard Riley, Kyle and Maddy worked to chase down Blue attackers, clear the ball and even drive the counter attack.  Brewer, Layla and Natalia all had runs up field, and crashed the net at every opportunity. Logan did his best, as usual, to keep busy in midfield and slow down the Blue attackers and support the Green offensive.   We had a few shots go slightly high and wide, and multiple corner kicks, but when we were able to get the ball through the wall of Blue defenders, their keeper kept making save after save.  In our goal, Jacob did everything he could.  Although he "allowed" 3 goals, tying a season high, somehow it felt like one of his strongest games of the season.  Were it not for Jacob, the score may have been even more lopsided.    It was another element of our game where the "stats" did not reflect the effort and skill shown on the field.

Next up for us is KalTire (Orange), February 15, 2020, 11:00 am game time, same field (Sifton).   Only 3 more games to go (before the playoffs), can you believe it?

POTWs for Jan 25 Summerside Community Soccer Clubs polls were as follows: 

For Blue - Andrew for his game winner in a tightly contested win over Red Acorn Stuidos

For Green - Addison L for her game tying goal against BMO in another hard fought draw

Cast your votes for the Feb. 1 games today and tomorrow for Blue and Green, Juvenile A has already been polled and your winners there were: 

For Juvenile A's game against BMO, it was a 3-way tie with Adam, Luca and Victor earning equal honours. 

Have a Great Week and see you Saturday! 

This last game was an interesting one.  It seemed that for a long while, it might end up as yet another tie.  In the end, the Green Machine got back in gear and pulled out the win thanks to heroics from a "new" hero!

For much of the first half, the Greens attempted to chip / pass / shoot the ball into the penalty area, where a number of green shirts were waiting to pounce. Not by accident, this was a focus of Coach Rod's warm up drill.  It took a while, but we finally broke down the Acorn defense when Ty connected with Luke for the opening goal about half-way through the opening period.  Before the first buzzer, however, the Acorns managed to tie the game after crashing net.  With the shot coming through a crowd at near point-blank range, there was little keeper Jesse could do.

In the second half, the Greens continued to apply the cross / pass / shoot approach, getting closer, but not connecting.  Everyone really got on board, starting to find the "open spots"  to be ready for a potential pass or rebound.  I'm really proud of the team and how they showed individual and team improvement throughout the game. Notably, although they were kept off the score sheet, Logan and Layla each had one of their best games of the season so far - both regularly getting into the action.  Riley and Kyle did their "thing" in the backfield, playing solid defense across the field and working with Jacob (our second half keeper) to keep the score tied.  How were we going to get this done? By sticking to the game plan, with Jesse, Addison, Maddy and the rest of the forwards sent wave after wave into Acorn territory.

In the last few minutes, the Green's collective effort at last paid off.  A long pass from defender Kyle found Ty in the penalty area.  Ty quickly had the ball over to an open teammate, and Natalia broke the tie with he first of the season!  So exciting for everyone - smiles all around!  The final goal of the game came from Ty, following a pass in from Luke.  For anyone counting, that was a goal and two assists for Ty.  Not to take anything away from Ty (who was probably getting it out of his system before vacation next week), but Natalia likely nabbed "player of the game" honors with the winning goal.

Special shout-out and best wishes to Addison, who has a competitive tryout next week - we'll be rooting for her (Green Machine represent!). 

Next up for us is Summerside Blue (Devils), February 8, 2020, 1:00 pm game time, same field (Sifton).   The Blue Devils have been on a bit of tear lately, and I'm sure will be extra motivated to tie up our season series.

Summerside Community Soccer Clubs played three games Saturday at BMO Centre, starting with Green earning a 3-1 victory over Red Acorns in Sophomore B play on Sifton Field, followed by a 5-3 win for the Blue Devils, and lastly with the Juvenile A team stealing a point in a 1-1 draw with BMO in their division. 

We start with the late game, where Brooks played midfield early and defensively in the second, often stopping Euro Star Academy players Caleb E and Duncan C. Adam scored Summerside's tying goal in the final 5 minutes or so off of a Dominic corner kick Adam headed down and into the right corner past Zakk for BMO. Point of interest, I leaned into my wife Shari and told her to watch this corner, this is where we score. Well manifested from the fans and executed by Dominic and Adam, of course - LOL!

In Sophomore B Blue Devils news, Malyah opened up the scoring with a great win of the ball, carried down the wing and creating chances rebounds and then her finish. Andrew scored on a penalty and added some continued first half solid defending. Francesco rounded out the scoring on a chance created from a great pass to Jaxon,, that Francesco followed up the field on, Jaxon tried to beat the keeper and Francesco was there to pot home the rebound. Lucien and Peywand were so close to making it out of reach in the first with close chances of their own. 

Noah, with Hailee, Andrew, Francesco, Addyson, Max and sometimes Kevin, did an amazing job keeping the ball away from the Blues goal. With Hailee in net for the second half, the expectation was set to protect the keeper more. Blue Devils added two more in the second, with Gavin scoring of a perfect pass from Peywand. Francesco with the 5th overall for Summerside Blues, scored on a scramble, finally tucking the ball under the keeper. 

Source for Sports brought their speedy goal scorer out of net for the second half, and it paid off. The Blue Devils got a little cocky, pushing forward with the 5-0 lead, and Source took advantage, counter-attacking to the point where Marty F was winning balls down the wings and leaving only Max to defend two or three additional Reds attacking. Two of the Source goals came from Marty firing low and hard into the corner. Hailee did her best with Max doing his best to help defend the out-numbering attack.  

A well played and well earned victory, that teaches us to not rest on our high scoring laurels, Ensure you defend that clean sheet to the end. 

NEXT UP:

 Saturday, February 8, 2020

Summerside CSC Blue @ Summerside CSC Green - 1:00pm - Sifton Field #2 BMO Centre

Summerside CSC @ PEO London - 6:15pm - BMO-Goodlife Fitness Field

This Groundhog Day, Super Bowl, Coach's Birthday weekend all kicks off with:

1. Summerside Community Soccer Club training and assessments session, 6 p.m. Friday Jan 31 (tonight) at Cleardale Public School - Both Green and Blue teams have been invited with some extra invites going out for past and potentially future 2009 U12 boys outdoor team for EMSA Tier III play through the summer. 

2. Summerside CSC Green takes on Red Acorn at BMO Centre's Sifton Field, Saturday, Feb. 1 @ 11 a.m.

3. Summerside CSC Blue battles Source for Sports at BMO Centre's Sifton Field, same Saturday @ 1 p.m.

4. Summerside CSC Juvenile A's face BMO, a team they've beaten, at BMO Centre's Good Life Field, Saturday again @ 5 p.m.

5. Coach's Birthday celebrations with family at Red Lobster after the game. 

6. Super Bowl Sunday at Tiger Jacks - go 49ers!!!

In other soccer news this week - Ottawa landed a Canadian Premier League team, with help of new owners Atletico Madrid.

Looking forward to a fun-filled footballing weekend for all. See you on the gym floor and BMO pitch everyone! 

Southwest Renegades performed the comeback of the century, having been down 2-0 to Summerside CSC Juvenile A's through much of the first half, and ultimately the Renegades won 3-2, thanks to John, Ella and Charlie. 

Adam and Matene put Summerside ahead in the first with good goals, but the first goal for Renegades was through a crowd and beat Victor just under his dive. The second was a more challenging, but a bit of a defensive breakdown as Brooks' cover passed the ball in tight to Ella, who chipped the keeper right near the goal-line.

John H rounded out the scoring in the second, again beating Brooks, who'd been out for over a month, and still did well to stop both John and Rian with solid blocks earlier in the match. Without pressure on best passer Luke, he was free to pick out Renegade passes that created opportunities. 

Dominic, Devon and Brooks did their best at the back supporting Victor in goal, while Luca, Adam, Marco and Douglas worked hard in the middle, Matene, Taylor and Noah saw time upfront, with Matene scoring. 

In-bound passes and keeper distribution presented some challenges, as the team got more tired through the halves, and Renegades' players were often the beneficiaries, winning ball after ball. Quicker passing, or less heads down, 1v1 overconfidence in beating the player, could lead to some of the great passing that was often spot on for Summerside this game too. 

NEXT UP:

From a BLUE Perspective: 

Summerside Community Soccer Club Blue Devils won their third in a row beating Red Acorn Studios 1-0 Saturday at BMO Centre's Sifton Field. 

Andrew scored the game-winning goal in the 2nd half, off a good connection with Malyah down the left side (again). Andrew got into the goal box area fired hard, about waist-high, and the ball hit off the defender, deflecting just under the bar and in for the goal. 

Emma started in goal, lasting about 8 minutes, and making a couple great stops, including the one where she hurt her ankle in a 1v1 tackle on the Red Acorn player trying to score. Francesco joined the goalkeeping tandem, supporting the shutout through to half-time, and Gavin came in for the second half making a few more great saves, including a jumping save to keep the ball from breaching the top right corner for the shooter. 

Hailee, Addyson, Emma, Kevin, Andrew and Francesco all contributed to the clean sheet clearing just about anything that came their way. Midfielders and forwards made strong defensive and possessive plays with Peywand, Lucien, Noah, Jaxon, Maly, Kevin and Emma again offering amazing support. 

What a great team effort on behalf of all the Blue Devils. 

NEXT UP: