Niagara United shows its strength
The Niagara United Juventus under-13 Girls I-Model soccer team made a huge statement to the rest of the province at a recent tournament.
Competing in the Top Rated Series tournament in Toronto, one of the top tournaments offered in the province, the girls made it all the way to the final in the top division before falling 2-0 to London Alliance.
“All the top teams play in it and we were basically playing up and we got placed in the top division,” head coach Paolo Sirianni said. “We entered the tournament with the idea of ‘Let’s play a lot of top teams across the province and just see where we are.’ We wanted to see how we held up against them.”
The answer was very well indeed as the team went 3-0 in the round-robin to qualify for the final.
Along the way to the championship game, the squad defeated: the North Toronto Nitros OPDL 2-1 on goals by Daytona Wiens and Chloe Carter; the Unionville Millikens OPDL 3-1 thanks to goals by Wiens, Riley Woehl and Mia Clark; and, the Woodbridge Strikers OPDL 3-2 on a pair of goals by Wiens and a single tally by Mia Clark.
“It was a great experience playing against all the top teams and we were really happy with how the girls played against some of the top teams in the province,” he said. “It is as tough a tournament as you are going to find in the province because OPDL takes a week off so their teams can go to these games.”
Ironically, the two teams that made the final were the only non-OPDL teams.
Sirianni was not surprised with the result.
“A lot of our players have had success in the past and know how to handle situations. They have learned that not everything is going to go their way. You have to learn from a loss and figure out how to move forward and I think that showed in the tournament.”
What also showed at the tournament is how important the structure is at Niagara United.
“We have a unified group whether we are working with our technical director and coaches on other teams who have been very supportive of our team,” he said. “It is very nice to have the support of the whole club and it is also great now that we are part of Juventus family.”
Niagara entered into an affiliation agreement with Juventus Academy, Niagara and Juventus Academy, Toronto in an effort to give players in Niagara a new pathway to success. The program started at Niagara United this year with the under-13 boys and under-13 girls teams. They both benefit from the expertise of Juventus Niagara technical directors Ernie Scervino, Michael Folino, Brian Panunto and Tony Carbonara.
“There is a methodology and advice on how to approach your coaching style and they share information and concepts with us that they get from the Juventus Academy Toronto, which in turn came from Juventus Italy. The four technical directors here have been great for support whether it is designing a practice or helping us out with training.”
The team finished first in qualifying for Tier 1 of the I-Model (integrated model) regional league that has replaced the previous regional model and will begin league play in June. Games will be played against teams in the Niagara and the Peel-Halton regions.
“Even though we did great in the qualifying, those games get wiped out and it’s starting all fresh and we start all over again,” Sirianni said. “We are expecting great competition from all the teams in our league and are looking forward to a great season.”
He is far from overconfident despite the impressive showing at the Top Rated Series tournament.
“There is still a lot of work to be done. We know there is lots of tough competition in the league.”
Members of the team, coached by Sirianni, Alysha Woehl, Courtney Foster and Cristina Matesa, are Ashley Stret, Ava Covelli, Bianca Walker, Chloe Carter, Colbie Sutherland, Daytona Wiens, Dhillin Ruggi, Ella Yetman, Emma Konderka, Evie Haine, Grace Zwiep, Lucia Sirianni, Madeline Wood, Mia Clark, Michela Lombardi, Mya Stienstra, Payton Foster, Riley Woehl and Sydney Vanklinken.
