All it took was one shot to shatter the golden dreams of the Fraser Valley Premier U14 soccer team.
Playing in the gold medal game at the Soccer Canada U14 boys national championships, the Fraser Valley squad fell 1-0 to Ontario’s Brampton East Blades.
“They got one shot and they scored with it,” lamented Fraser Valley head coach Steve Millar.
“It was a bitter pill.”
The championships were held Oct. 5 to 10 in Moncton, N.B.
And Fraser Valley conceded just the single goal over the five games of the championships.
In winning their pool, the team went a perfect 4-0 with a pair of tight victories — 1-0 over St. Albert Impact (Alberta) and 2-0 over Dartmouth FC (Nova Scotia) — and two lopsided wins, 7-0 over St. John’s SC (Newfoundland) and 10-0 against Hillsborough United (PEI).
But after perfect weather for the first five days of the championships, the gold-medal match was something else with high winds resulting from a hurricane on the east coast.
“It was so bad my goalkeeper punted the ball and it went back for a corner kick,” Millar said.
Fraser Valley was battling the wind in the first half and they nearly escaped to the locker room scoreless but the Blades were able to capitalize on a late free kick in injury time to lead 1-0 at the half.
“We usually maintain a lot of possession, but in those conditions, we weren’t really able to do that with the weather conditions,” Millar said.
“And when you are not able to do that, the physicality comes in and the big boys of Ontario, and they physically out-muscled us in the second half.”
They did have a few chances in the latter stages, but could not net the equalizer.
At the start of the year, just getting to nationals would have been a sufficient accomplishment.
“Just to get out of BC with the quality of the BCSPL teams that we have, that is a major credit in themselves. But once you get there and get to the finals, (to lose) is heartbreaking,” Millar said.
“(But) to only give up one goal at the national championships in five games was an impressive feat. The quality of soccer was extremely high.”
Fraser Valley’s Jehmrode Kahlon won the tournament’s Golden Boot award after netting nine goals.
Millar has coached the team for two and a half years and has had four or five of the players for five or six years.
“I am proud of the boys; they fought and they battled hard. They already have their minds made up that they want to go back (to nationals) this year,” he said.
“Getting out of the province is the toughest part.”