January 27, 2009-
Six teams from the Premier 3v3 Academy, run by Charlotte United DOCs Sean and Vance Carlisle, made the trip to Disneys Wide World of Sports complex for the Kick-It 3v3 World Championships held January 17-19th. The teams found out that the World Championships are a great test against the best competition in the nation! Manchester (girls U8) 3rd PLACE The Manchester was unfortunate that they did not have any teams to compete against in their age group throughout the summer tournament schedule, but playing up to the next age helped them prepare! The team traveled down as the 14 seed out of 21 teams since they did not play any teams their age. The pool play began on Saturday with a good starter game, a 5-0 shutout against an overmatched team from Texas (Odessa Sirens). The second game on Saturday proved to be the first test for the girls against a team from Ohio (Fakers) that placed 4th at last years Championship. A hard fought game ended with the Manchester on top 2-1 so they headed into Sunday undefeated. The last pool play game had a formidable opponent from Indiana (Indy Sting). Again, the girls came out to play and took an early lead and held on to another impressive 3-2 victory. Next up was the elimination round, now as the top seed from their pool. It proved to be another dominating performance against the All-Stars (Missouri), with a 3-0 outcome. This left 8 teams to battle on Championship Monday! The quarterfinal game was against another Indiana team (Crushers). The girls came out and took the lead early and remained up at the half. The Crushers battled back and took a 5-4 lead late into the 2nd half. The Manchester tied it up late and held on to end regulation with a 5-5 tie. Next up, the teams battled through a scoreless 3 minute overtime. The rules then had them go to penalty kicks. After the first 3 attempts, the score was still tied; the first of alternating penalty kicks proved to be the winner and end a dramatic game and put the Manchester in the semi-finals! The road to the finals pitted the girls against the defending champion Texans (Texas). The 1st half ended with a 1-1 tie, 12 minutes to go to reach the finals. The Texans showed why they were defending champs and took over in 2nd half and handed the girls an 8-3 loss. The girls now had one more game left, to play for 3rd place. They once again met up with the Indy Sting. Their final game at Disney was one of their best, ending with a dominating 4-1 victory and 3rd place! The girls had an outstanding performance by going 6-1 and only losing to the eventual champion Texans. It turned out that the 2nd place team was the Fakers, a team they had beaten on Saturday in pool play. So at the end of the day, the Manchester showed their skills and determination by beating the 2nd place team and the 4th place team twice! It was truly a great experience for the girls. DOC Sean Carlisle stated, “The girl’s defense and ball skills set the stage for their success. Their 3rd place finish is one of the best results ever by a girl’s team at the World Championships from the Charlotte area. Congratulations to the girls. All of the girls also play on Vance Carlisles U9 CUFC Fiorentina team!
