Agony of Defeat

It's hard to believe, but the mighty Burbank Fire finally met a team they couldn't beat. At least not THIS time!

Mia's team went to the AYSO Section 10 playoffs in Bakersfield last weekend to compete for a spot at the state championships next month in Irvine. As usual, they quickly dispatched the first two teams with scores of 5-0 in both games. In the third game they struggled to put one in the net, despite about 40 good shots. Maybe there was a force field? At any rate, the game concluded nil-nil, but Burbank had enough points to win their bracket and go on to day two.

Since we were seeded second, we had to play the #3 seeded team, Malibu. We had played them last fall in a friendly and wound up losing in a tie-breaking shoot-out. Not this time! The girls played beautiful soccer and handily beat them 3-1.

Now we're on game five in 36 hours. The girls are exhausted. Mia has a bad cold, our fastest forward has an injured ankle, our mid-fielders are about ready to keel over, and we have only one sub. And now the girls are facing the highly disciplined, cool-as-a-cucumber Santa Ynez, a team that has never given up a goal. Not once. They play the same kind of short-pass game our girls use to beat everyone else. The girls did their best, but Burbank just couldn't pull it off this time. Still, we held them to one goal. Final score: 1-0.

So Burbank put up a respectable second-place showing out of the top 16 teams in one of the most competitive AYSO sections in the country. Most of all, we're proud of Mia for pushing through a bad cold and being part of a fierce, unstoppable defensive wall. She played on sheer will and shut down everyone's best strikers. Mia, you're awesome!