Placer United Soccer Club sponsor, Mikuni Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar, will host a World Cup party at their Roseville location on Eureka Road this Sunday at 11:30am for the final soccer matchup between the USA and Japan for members of Placer United. Placer coach, Danny Cruz, has had the privilege of coaching two of the USA World Team players, Megan Rapinoe and Stephanie Cox, both of Northern California

“It is such a rush to watch these young women play, and to see them represent the United States with such passion and heart. The fact that these women are from Northern California and were trained early on in their soccer careers by a local coach makes it even more exciting for young girls looking at a future playing soccer,” said Jeanne Mabry, V.P. of Marketing for Mikuni. “We are thrilled to open our large banquet room in Roseville so Placer United soccer families can watch the final game together.”

The United States competes in the 2011 World Cup Finals against Japan this Sunday, July 17th at 11:45a.m. PST.

“Regardless of the outcome, it’s going to be a great game for everyone.” Mabry said.

Placer United ’03 players lead the Stanford Stadium Youth Parade on the field before the San Jose Earthquakes versus New York Red Bulls MLS Soccer Game recently.

120 youth players and parents attended the game and watched the action on the field and afterwards in a Fireworks 4th of July celebration.

It was the 3rd highest Earthquakes game in MLS history with over 41,000 people in attendance.

Erika Garcia and Leonardo Cuellar, Mexico Federation National Team Head Coach

Erika Garcia of the ’93 Girls Gold team was invited by the U20 Mexican National Team coach to travel down to Mexico City where she participated in the Mexican National Olympics. This event serves as a scouting network for the Mexican Federation to identify potential players for their National teams.

Said Erika…

“Every state from Mexico had a team entered in the women’s soccer event. My team was entered as another state under the name of IME, Institución de los Mexicanos en el Exterior. This organization handles the Mexicans who live outside of Mexico and participate in this Mexican competition. 

All of the athletes arrived on Monday May 30th. Everyone flew into Mexico City where members of the organization, IME, picked us up. From there we were taken as a team to Toluca on a bus, it was about an hour drive. We stayed at a very nice hotel and the bus transported us everywhere. Meals were provided by the event, but we were also able to go out to the town and eat authentic Mexican food. 

On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we played one game a day. Tuesday, we played Jalisco and lost although we dominated, score 3-2. 

Wednesday, we played Quintana Roo and we won, score 7-1. I scored one goal this game and assisted one goal with a cross. The best part about this game was that Leonardo Cuellar, the women’s national team head coach, was in attendance. After the game he said that there will be a national camp in July when they come back from the World Cup so to be ready for an invitation to camp. 

Thursday, we played Nuevo Leon and won in PKs. When IME went last year they made it to the final and played against Nuevo Leon so this game was kind of a rematch with lots of hunger on both ends. We tied but our forwards had numerous failed prime shots on goal. We ended up winning in PKs but it wasn’t enough to move on. The coach for this Nuevo Leon team was Roberto Medina, the women’s national U20 head coach. He’s the one I’ve been in most contact with because he was also in LA when I went back in April and that is when we first began contact. After the game, I had a chance to talk with Roberto. He said he would be going to Germany with the the team for the World Cup. He said I am on the Mexican Soccer Federation’s list, and that they’re interested! 

These three games were our bracket games and only one team advanced from each bracket. We had to win our last game during regular playing time to get max points and move on. Had we won during the game instead of during PKs then we would have automatically been in the semi final on Friday. The final was played in the Toluca Stadium where the Mexican men’s pro teams play, but unfortunately we didn’t make it that far. 

Since we were eliminated on Thursday and I was scheduled to fly back on Sunday. My dad checked me out and I was able to go to Michoacan and Ixtapa to visit my family who lives in Mexico. 

The whole experience was unforgettable.”

Placer United hosted several college coaches for a field session Sunday at Sierra College in Rocklin. Mark Carr, University of San Francisco; Kirk Nelson, University of Nevada and Cody Worden, Dominican University, took the Placer U15-U18 girls and players from other clubs through a series of skills and gave tips to players. Randy Dedini from California State University, Sacramento and host Jason Gantt from Sierra College were also on hand during the field session. “The players have a good work ethic and remained very engaged throughout the training,” said Mark Carr.

Following the field session, the coaches, players and parents met for an informative two hour question and answer meeting at the Placer United office in Loomis. The interaction was lively and informative. The players left with a better understanding of how important it is to indicate interest in schools where they would like to play soccer during their collegiate experience. The coaches said they receive so many emails and they want to look first at players interested in their schools when scouting. “It’s also important to work hard during your high school years and get the best grades and SAT scores you can.” stressed Kirk Nelson, a former teacher. “What you do in the classroom is just as important as what you can do on the field,” he added.

Another College Day is planned for the boys teams and will be announced soon.

From Coach Todd DeCarlo…

The Placer United U16 Girls Elite team recently returned from their first event of the new season. The girls traveled to Park City, Utah to play in the inaugural Utah Avalanche Invitational Tournament/College Showcase Event. It was truly a great and very new experience for the players as 67 College Coaches had preregistered to attend this event. The players and families worked very hard pre-tournament on the development and expansion of college lists as well as putting together invitation letters to coaches. At U16, the girls have new audiences and need to be prepared for additional company on the sideline over and above family members.

Park City, Utah is located in a beautiful setting as the city hosted many of the 2002 Winter Olympic events. The Placer United U16 team settled in nicely winning their first game 4-3, coming on furiously after being down 2-0 at the half. Game two again saw Placer rise to the altitude heights and drop a 2-0 defeat on the Montana ODP (all-star) team. Game three unfortunately saw Placer come up short, losing 2-0 in a very grinding battle for the bracket top spot.

After some tie-breaking deliberation, Placer was awarded the wild-card nod and stepped into the semi-final game versus the host, Utah Avalanche Premier ’96 team. The game offered a big-time “punch and counter-punch” battle! Placer twice came back from being down on the scoreboard, by scoring on two separate set-pieces. As well, not to be overlooked, Placer played the greater portion of the 2nd half down a player and just battering the Avalanche team and their goal area. The equalizing free-kick was scored with less than a minute on the clock and the two teams were headed into OT.

Utah was able to capitalize in the first OT half, following up and putting in a rebound of a shot and initial save. The game ended with a 3-2 Placer defeat, however it also saw the players really step-up.

Overall the weekend results saw Placer scoring 8 goals in 4 games, with 4 of those goals coming on either a corner-kick or set-piece. They also posted one shutout. I am very proud of the girls, not only for coming back in game one but for really rising and meeting the match challenge in the semi’s. At an altitude of approximately 6500’ and working a player down, many of the girls were “just gassed physically” and they just kept “getting after it” all the way to the end. In the 2nd half, they 100% outplayed Utah in their own elements!

I’m very proud of my players. They represented themselves, their families and Placer United very well. At the end of the day, if the players take the time to invite college coaches to attend, then showing off yourself and team with positive representation of your Club are huge….Great job! I also want to get out a huge thanks to Jill Kitchen, Mike Dewyea, Toby Faingold, Mark and Jeannie Mabry for all of your help. This was a nice event with excellent facilities. It could be great for additional Placer teams in the future, especially if the college coaches catch-on and attend.

Go Placer!

The Placer United U11-13 teams travelled down the I-5 last weekend to compete at the Tracy Orange Bowl.

All of the girls teams played very well against solid competition in their first event of the year.

U12 Elite Girls – Champions – 4 wins and 1 draw

U11 Elite Girls – Finalist – 4 wins and 1 loss

U11 Premier – 1 draw and 2 (1) goal losses

U12 Premier – 1 win and 2 losses

U13 Elite – 1 draw (versus eventual champions) and 2 narrow defeats

U13 Premier – 3 narrow defeats and played very well all weekend

Congrats to all teams on their developmental successes on the weekend!