There are amazing games that we all remember in sports throughout the ages and we all have our own particular favourite teams that we love in sports, but rarely are the two so well intertwined as with the Sunshine Coast Storm U13 boys soccer team right here in our little slice of paradise.
Game after game, week after week, the boys are playing a really wicked style of soccer that is truly leaving any and all seeing the games or just hearing about them in awe. The powerful and precise coaching techniques have hit home in every member of the squad and the beautiful game is being revitalised right under our noses.
One such game happened this past Saturday in North Vancouver against another Storm team – yes, Storm versus Storm! And not just any game but a BC Cup semi-final game, held during the regular season, that would see the boys move on to the finals and a chance at the ultimate prize later in the year.
As most of us can celebrate the ferry making us late for something important over the years, on this day the boys were forced to rush to the game and into play mode with little or no warm up, creating an unwanted sense of anxiety to start the game. This manifested in a 2-2 game within the first 15 minutes. Mistakes and uncertainty about the opponents’ style led to a rather tumultuous and nerve-ridden beginning to a do-or-die game they needed to win.
After the scrambling and juggling of nerves was over, our Storm rhythm was found, and they certainly are finding it this year consistently more than ever before.
Our Storm put North Van to the test with scoring opportunities becoming goals and fantastic defensive teamwork dumb founding anyone lucky enough to make it that far.
Four players ended up putting scores on the board, giving the coaches a great quiver to choose from for points and opponents uncertain as to who they needed to focus on. North Van knew how to move the ball, challenging our Storm time and again to make them dig deeper for the right strategy.
As the entire game pressed on and the urgency became more intense, the score flipped back and forth until it was 4-4 with about 12 minutes left. But if there is anything we have learned this year from this wonderfully spirited group of Coast boys, it’s that they can stay focused on the prize, effortlessly link up passes leading to weakening the opponents defences spelling goals, and most importantly never giving up, ever.
This is the sixth straight game where they have had to come from a goal or more behind or a tie to win the game, which they did on this fine day for a 5-4 victory, earning a well deserved spot in the final of their division for BC Cup race.
As the celebratory cheers from the boys rang out across the Lower Mainland in celebration, the echoes rattled straight into the BC Ferries head office board room and delivered a message; the Storm would appreciate getting to games on time to practise, so please continue dialling in the schedule. But even if you make us late, we will still come out on top, Coast style.
