Barça End Pre-season on the Right Track

With a busy off season for most of the boys after losing in the Coastal Cup to the eventual champions, the Coquitlam Metro-Ford Barça '96 team got back to work with a pair of pre-season tournaments in Washington State and Coquitlam. Both tournaments are seen as the two best tournaments in their respective state/province and two of the most competitive in the entire Pacific Northwest.

The Pacific Coast Challenge in Bellingham was to be a real huge test for the Barça boys as the teams from the states are usually a 1/2 year older (August '95 cutoff date) and with Barça '96 carrying 5 late born players who could play a year down (U12 division), the contests were always going to be tough. With the addition of new striker Rashaun Rivers to the team, Barça was missing Marchello Polis who was busy in Europe with his Vancouver Whitecaps Prospects team on tour. Barça called up Niko Sulentic from Burnaby to help out the boys in this tough task.

And tough it was as Barça '96, playing in their first competitive game since being knocked out of the U13 Coastal Cup in April, came up against the #2 team in Washington State in Eastside FC '95. although the scoreline completely flatters Eastside and does not do justice to the flow and play of the game, Barça played quite well and totally pushed Eastside to the end. Eastside scored late in the first half to go up 1-0 totally against the run of play. After a few squandered Barça chances Eastside made it 2-0 and forced a tired Barça team to go forward even more in the hunt for points and left Barça vulnerable at the back. More chances went a begging and Eastside score 3 more late in the game to make the scoreline 5-0. Barça went on to tie Washington Crossfire '95 1-1 and tie their last game 0-0 with WFC Rangers '95 to finish 3rd in the group and unable to advance to the semifinals.

Barça then hosted the Coquitlam Metro-Ford Annual Labour Day Tournament and invited the top teams from the lower mainland to participate. Barça were seeded in the toughest group with a tough Richmond Caledonia (3-0 win), Peace Arch United (2-0 win) and Point Grey United (2-0). Barça cruised through the group with 3 straight wins to advance to the semifinals while not allowing a goal the entire tournament in open play. Barça then moved on to play Whalley PSV in the semi's and lost their scoring boots. Without giving up a shot on goal, Barça had to head to the dreaded shootout and lost 4-3 in spot shots disappointingly settling for 3rd in the tournament. PSV went on to beat Lynn Valley in the finals to win the tournament.

All in all, it was a good way to head into the tough season ahead.