10th Veterans Cup attracts 92 teams, crowns champions in 13 divisions
The 10th annual U.S Adult Soccer Association's Veterans Cup, which was played in Bellingham, Wash., in July, attracted 92 teams playing in age groups beginning with 30-plus. It could be that no player had more fun at the tournament than Ricardo "Flaco" Rodriguez.
Even with the men's 50-plus championship on the line, Flaco was flashing his ear-to-ear grin. As he positioned himself to face a penalty shot from Jeffrey Jarvis, 51, of Ref lections, Flaco, a 50-year-old goalkeeper of the Golden State Oldies, was smiling as if he knew the game was already over.
Regulation and overtime had left the game between the Oldies, a team from San Franciso, and Reflections, a team from Seattle, tied. Now in the shootout, the goals were even at 2-2. But Flaco, who works at a roofing company in San Mateo, Calif., appeared confident even though he wasn't the Oldies' starting goalie. Standing in the drizzle with the Veterans Cup men's over-50 title on the line, he kept on smiling.
Jarvis took two steps and struck the ball cleanly, but Flaco guessed correctly, diving to his left and bringing in the low line drive into his stomach. Two shots later, Flaco was still smiling as wide as he could. This time the Oldies clung to a 4-3 lead in the shootout, and Flaco was kicking the penalty shot. If he scored, he would put the game away for the Oldies.
Flaco lined up his shot against opposing goalkeeper Kevin Regan, 53, who lives in Mercer Island, Wash., and fired a goal into the lower corner. After watching his winning strike, Flaco dropped to his knees and screamed as the rest of the Oldies charged in to celebrate. "I can save things from leaking in your roof and now in the goal!" he bellowed to the delight of his teammates.
The men's over-50 championship game pitted experience against sheer numbers. During the Cup, the Oldies lost five of its players on the sidelines due to injury and had only one sub. Meanwhile, the Ref lections used its bench of eight reserves, constant ly bringing fresh legs into the game.
"We like that because they don't get into a rhythm and just keep chasing, and we'll say, 'Yeah, come on and run us down!'" said Ronnie Morriss, 51, a coach from San Jose, Calif., who filled the role as Oldies manager due to his own rib injuries during the Cup.
The Oldies played a defensive-minded game for the first 65 minutes. Flaco and company patiently played the long ball, not forcing anything that would leave them out of position. The injuries had gotten so bad that Flaco, who typically plays sweeper, had to step into the goal. "We can put him anywhere," Morriss said. "He just loves to play -- you see how he's always smiling out there."
Flaco almost didn't make it to the Veterans Cup. "I had to beg my wife so I could come up here," he said. "There are so many tournaments when you are 50 that I play all the time. But she is starting to say 'no.' "
In the men's 60-plus championship game, the Dallas Legends played almost mistake-free soccer on its way to a 4-0 win over Aloha United. Team captain John Telfer noted that keeping the base of the Legends together for more than three years explains its success.
"We've had about 80 percent of our team come back since the men's 60-plus division was started (three years ago), so we were coming in as the No. 1 seed," he said. "Also we had three ex-professionals. You can just see the difference between those who played professionally and those for recreation. They just have a touch that nobody else does."
In the women's draw, Camp Springs, a team that has been together since 1973, also proved the value of experience playing together by winning the women's 45-plus championship. As soon as the game was over, Laurie Albrecht, a 48-year-old midf ielder from Camp Springs, a team from Maryland, got a call from her coach, Doc Blandford. "Hey Doc, guess what?" Albrecht said with a smile on her face while walking toward the award ceremony. "We're national champions again."
That brief conversation was all she was able to manage with her longtime mentor as her teammates quickly grabbed for the phone. It was plainly obvious that this man, although 2,500 miles away from Bellingham, had touched the lives of his players. Blandford has been leading Albrecht, a homemaker with three children, and her team, Camp Springs Soccer Club, for 33 years. "Things aren't anything like what they were back then," Albrecht said. "When we started, there was no soccer for girls in high school and college. I always tell my kids that it's interesting to see how things have changed."
But some things do not change -- and facing Copa di Vida, a women's over-45 team from Seattle, doesn't seem to be out of style. The two teams have played against each other for nearly 15 years in various tournaments around the country. "I really don't know what to expect today," said Camp Springs interim coach Bryant Tezza, a parks department employee in Charleston, S.C., before the game. "(Copa) is going to come out fast because they are a bit younger. I haven't seen any of their ages, but I know the ages of my girls."
Tezza was right. Copa di Vida came out firing, but ended up with nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, Camp Springs methodically moved the ball down field, taking what was given and hardly forcing a pass -- a strategy that paid off after just 20 minutes. After winning a pair of corner kicks, Denise Carley, 50, found Regina Jenkins, 46, alone in the middle of the six-yard box for a header that put Camp Springs on the board first. Minutes later, Nancy Ketsek's equalizer proved that Copa was not going away.
Instead, the two teams worked hard to create scoring opportunities, but it was Camp Springs which ended up running away with the victory, scoring two more goals to win 3-1. The first came just minutes before halftime when Chris Hazel, 48, tapped in a far-post deflection from a skipping blast by Laura LeMire, 47. And Albrecht put the game out of Copa's reach, converting on a one-on-one opportunity that glided under the keeper's reach.
"There definitely is a rivalry," Albrecht explained about the two team's history. "But there is also a respect for one another. We knew that we were going to see them in the final because they are a good team. Like us, they take this seriously and aren't just out to have fun, but to compete."
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