Courage ’96 Red boys hoist host club’s banner at PWSI Icebreaker

By Michael Willis

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Any time a host team wins their own tournament, there is often a sense of relief. With the added pressure of playing in front of home fans, family members and occasional schoolmates, players become much more acutely aware of their play and performance. Putting on a proper show of success for everyone gets brought to the forefront.

At last weekend’s PWSI Icebreaker tournament, the Under-16 Boys’ Prince William Cup championship game was one of the age groups in which a PWSI team grabbed the brass ring. PWSI Courage ’96 Red played more than valiantly throughout the tournament, making it all the way to the top game and eventually winning it all against the Alexandria Titans.

In what ended up being possibly the most exciting match of the tournament, Courage Red and the Titans went all the way down to the wire in the finale. The match required all of regulation and the mandatory two overtime periods to decide an outcome in the game.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Courage Red’s performance was that they played the vast majority of the game down a man. Early in the first half, a red card was doled out because of some mouthiness coming from a few players, which put an exhausted Courage team at a slight disadvantage the entire match.

With both teams playing tired yet stingy defense, neither team had gotten on the board after regulation. Then, just seconds into the first overtime period, PWSI hit paydirt.

A Titans defender stumbled on a back pass, which set up a breakaway between two Courage attackers with just the goalkeeper to beat. Once the Titans goalkeeper committed to one forward, the ball was slid across to the other for an easy chip goal, and the only strike of the match.

Courage 96 Red earned the distinction of not surrendering a single goal the entire tournament, as their stingy brand of defense allowed them to win three games while only tallying four total goals. Conversely, the Alexandria Titans team they beat was the highest-scoring squad in the age group, notching seven goals over four games. Shutting them down in the championship game was a tall order, but one that was achieved.

Soccerwire.com spoke with their head coach after the game, Mayowa Owolabi, about the victory. Owolabi is a former PWSI Courage member himself, attending numerous Icebreaker tournaments as a player, though this one was his first as a head coach.

Soccerwire.com: Your team had some fantastic defensive performances this weekend. How did you feel about their play and where do you go from here after winning a tournament like this?

Mayowa Owolabi: They played well this weekend. This last game, they really dominated possession. We’ve been working on working out of the back and attacking a little bit quicker, and we did that really well today. Each day we progressed. All these kids are playing high school ball so we came in and I told them the first game “It’s only going to get better, it’s only going to get better.” And it happened. And from here on, we’ll just continue to progress.”

SW:Your team played a man down, basically the entire game. Does that ever alter your strategy and what changes needed to be made?

MO: We still didn’t change our strategy. Our objective was to get the ball to the center, then get the ball wide, then move up the field that way. We played with three in the center-mid, and so we really just had to take one out. But that’s really all we had to adjust.

SW: Fatigue is obviously a big issue in a tournament like this, with four games over two days. Was it a big factor for your team?

MO: Oh yeah. I had two kids that had to sit out this entire game because they were tired, sore. [Injuries to the] groin muscles and other things. I had a kid last week who broke his foot in high school ball. So we’re already dealing with stuff like that. That’s what happens at this point.

SW: Finally, being the host team at the Icebreakers tournament, do you feel it’s a good tune-up for the upcoming season?

MO: It’s a perfect preseason tournament. We had Jefferson Cup a few weeks ago, and so that was good. We played a lot of top teams, but it’s good to come back here, play at home, and play good competition. And win.