U-15 Botafogo's weekend wins earns a State Cup semifinal match

CLICK HERE FOR GAME PHOTOS

By Gary Larsen

Team Chicago’s Botafogo U-15 girls’ team put four goals on the board in its State Cup win over Windy City Pride on Saturday.

The team repeated that feat in Sunday’s quarterfinal win against FC United Select, “but more importantly, we didn’t give any up today,” Team Chicago coach Phil Nielsen said.

Nielsen’s squad won 4-0 on Sunday after posting a 4-2 win on Saturday. He knows what will have to occur for his squad to get past Eclipse Select in this Saturday’s semifinal game in Rockford.

“Typically when we play Eclipse it’s going to be a tight game, and we’re not a team that scores enough goals against good teams on a regular basis. We have to play good defense and take our chances on the counter,” Nielsen said.

In Sunday’s 4-0 win over FC United, Team Chicago got first-half goals from Dana Miller and Hope D’Addario, followed by second-half goals from McKenna Kiple and Zoey Goralski. Kiple chipped in an assist, as did Molly Piech, while outside back Kaitlin Johnson added a pair of assists in the second half.

All four goals on Sunday came off the feet of midfielders.

Kiley Dunning posted the shutout in net on Sunday, aided by a back line that limited FC United throughout. Defenders Jorie Clawson, Kaitlin Johnson, Jenna Romano, Kelly Langlas, and Julianna DePoister all contributed in keeping danger to a minimum.

Johnson’s ability to get forward from her outside back spot helped key an attack that features no shortage of midfield speed.

“(Johnson) set up two goals and had a great game today,” Nielsen said. “We have so much pace n the midfield. When our midfielders are running at people and our outside backs are running forward – we’re a Brazilian club and that’s a big part of the Brazilian game, to get the outside backs forward.”

Nielsen applauded the two days’ effort put forth on the outside by midfielder Goralski, and appreciated the work that Brooke Ksiazek provided in the middle.

“(Ksiazek) is our holding mid,” Nielsen said. “She broke up a lot of play and she allowed the other four in front of her to focus primarily on going forward. And in modern soccer the holding midfielder is a very key player. You need to have that player that can break up play and connect the defense and the midfield. (Ksiazek) did that very well today.”

"I was really fairly happy with everyone's play today."

Miller and Goralski netted a pair of goals each in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Windy City Pride. D’Addario assisted on three of those goals, with Goralski also chipping in an assist on the day.

Nielsen was happy to see his girls get the win on Saturday against Windy City, but he wanted to see a better defensive effort on Sunday.

“They know they’re better than they played on Saturday,” Nielsen said. “We’re not typically a high-scoring team. When you know you’re going to score four goals every game and you make a (defensive) mistake, it’s no big deal. But when you know that if you allow two goals you’re typically not going to win the game, then there’s added pressure on the defenders not to make a mistake.”

“So when you’re the superior team in a given game, you want the scoreboard to reflect that. I just want them to stay focused, and we did a much better job of that (Sunday).”