NFWASA Burn Take 2nd Place at North Texas Tournament of Champions

The NWFASA Boys U10 Champions, the FW Burn, coached by Tito Vasquez, were invited to play in the ‘D1’ bracket, the highest bracket.  There currently are over 4,300 U10 recreational teams competing under the control of North Texas Soccer and less than 200 were invited to this tournament by having won their home association championship regular season league title.

On Saturday, the first round was a bracket play round that saw the FW Burn go against teams from Grand Prairie, Frisco, and Coppell.  Three games, and three clean-sheet victories, and the FW Burn were through into the knockout stages.  It quickly became evident that the FW Burn were a force to be reckoned.

Sunday morning dawned on the Quarter finals round and a date with a team from Irving.  One more clean-sheet and the FW Burn was on their way into the Semi-Finals.  A team from Wichita Falls awaited and became the next team to fall to a clean-sheet.  Through five games the FW Burn had amassed 17 goals and their net had yet to be visited.

The finals saw the Oak Cliff Angels on the opposite end of the pitch.  Oak Cliff teams have won this tournament more than half of the times over the past decade so a battle was certainly on the horizon.  The game was more of a physical rough-housing than any other thus far, however the FW Burn stuck to their proven strategy of pass and move rather than the opponents more direct lean and push.  In the end, the FW Burn came up short to a final score of 6-1.

In Coach Tito’s own words to his team, “Here are a few things to remember in the last 4 outdoor seasons:  Regular season record: 36 Wins, 0 Loses; Tournament record: 28 Wins, 2 Loses; Tournament finishes: 4 First, 2 Second.  Congratulations to the team on a great tournament.  I am very proud of our accomplishment this weekend and we should celebrate that success.  This is the fruit of the work we have been doing for the past couple of years.  Top 2 of over 4,000 teams, is nothing to be ashamed of.  Although we came up short in the finals, we did play a very good team and we should not make any excuses.  Could we have played a little better?  Yes, however the effort was there and we never quit and played to the end.  The lop-sided score does not tell the whole story, because once we were down, we had to push up and try to score.”

Congratulations to the NWFASA U10 Boys FW Burn for this great accomplishment in the Tournament of Champions.