Chicagoland Soccer

Sockers FC Chicago’s U13 boys’ team did something that would put any team in contention for a State Cup title.

“We went the whole tournament without giving up any goals, and we play with three defenders,” Sockers coach Ahmed Gad said. “And we have a very good goalkeeper who did an outstanding job.”

In this year’s U13 title game against the Chicago Fire Jrs. Pre-Academy team, Sockers’ goalkeeper Lionel Perez-Lopez tipped a shot over the crossbar in the second half to preserve a scoreless tie, and then stopped a shot in a shootout to help get his squad a State Cup crown.

Afterwards, Perez-Lopez quickly acknowledged the contributions throughout the tournament from a Sockers back line featuring Kou Glaser, Kiel Pederson, and Mike Kaczor.

“They’re the best defenders I’ve ever had, since I was little,” Perez-Lopez said.

In the Fire Jrs., Sockers FC shutout a team that had scored 15 goals in four wins leading up to the title game.

“Kou did an outstanding job in the back,” Gad said. “He was winning every ball in the air and on the ground. And I thought Giovanni (Ciaccio) and (Jonny) McArtor did a very good job in the middle, and Frankie (Bak) did a very good job on the left side,” Gad said.

Two years ago, the Sockers and Fire Jrs. U14 teams met in a far different game, with the Sockers winning 4-0 over the Fire.

“The Fire did a very good job of organizing their play against us today,” Gad said. “They adjusted very well from the last time we played them. You saw two very competitive teams today.”

Fire Jrs. coach Matt Kirkpatrick walked away proud of his boys after the title-game loss.

“Nobody here except for me and the parents know where we’ve come from in the past couple years, and to be able to improve that much makes it hard to be very disappointed,” Kirkpatrick said.

“When we lost to these guys (two years ago) it was because we couldn’t defend them, and today we did a good job of defending from the forward line all the way back, and that was really the difference.”

A stiff wind gave advantage both ways, with the Sockers enjoying that advantage in the first half and the Fire Jrs. utilizing it in the second.

“They controlled part of the game and we controlled part of the game. It’s always good to play against a Fire team because you know they’ll always be good,” Gad said.

“I think we deserve to be in the regional because we played the top five teams in our bracket.”

Sockers FC opened State Cup play with a 2-0 win over St. Louis Scott Gallagher IL Blue, and followed with a 4-0 shutout of the Chicago Wind/Chicago Fire Jrs. North team. Sockers next won 3-0 over Chicago Fire Pre Academy before beating FC Barrington Black 2-0 in a State Cup semifinal match.

The leaping save Perez-Lopez made in the title game preserved his squad’s shutout streak in State Cup play. “I saw him swinging his leg back and when he kicked it, I just jumped,” Perez-Lopez said.

The Fire Jrs. posted a trio of shutouts to reach this year’s semifinal round in Rockford. They opened with a 4-0 win over Palatine Celtic Select, and followed with a 2-0 win over the Orland Park Eagles Blue team.

Next came a 4-0 win over FC United Select, before the Fire Jrs. won 5-1 over GLSA Libertyville Orange in a semifinal contest. For the tournament, Kirkpatrick’s squad outscored opponents by a 15-1 margin through 5 State Cup games.

Defenders Tommy Brannigan, Zach Barangan, Eduardo Saucedo, and Michael Carver played shutout soccer against a Sockers team that uses three forwards to great effect, and had outscored its opponents 11-0 in four State Cup games.

“Our striker, Chris Mueller, is a very good player but they did a very good job on him today,” Gad said of the Fire’s defensive effort. “They marked him very well.”

After regulation and a pair of overtime periods, the title game saw its conclusion when the Sockers’ Matt Swift, Augustino Lappo, and Frankie Bak buried their shootout attempts.

In addition to the shootout save by Perez-Lopez, the Fire Jrs. sent a shot wide of net during the penalty kick round.

“We spent so much time teaching them how to play, and how to defend, that we probably haven’t had as much time in training around the goal that we need to,” Kirkpatrick said. “At the end of the day the point of the game is to score, and they scored three (shootout goals) and we scored zero.

If anything, it’s on me. I didn’t train them enough around the goal, but we’ll go from there. That’s the first thing we’ll do next week, is train around the goal and try to get more comfortable around that part of the game.”

Kirkpatrick got an exceptional title-game effort from central midfielder Shannon Seymour, Colin Fernandez was dangerous throughout the contest, and Eric Diaz moved from forward to the central midfield, where he filled in nicely for injured starter Mauricio Pineda.

“(Sockers FC) is a good team and they’ve been a good team since they were ten years old,” Kirkpatrick said. “We certainly weren’t on their level two years ago, so we’re very proud of the kids.”

Sockers FC followed its State Cup title by winning a Region II title in Dayton, Ohio, and will play at the National Championships, July 20-25 in Overland Park, Kansas.