Is everyone ready for their morning dose of soccer.................

I will start out by saying it was a rough day for the Blackhawk teams.

The C1 Boys had the first playoff game against Forde from Norway.  Norway went on the attack early and had our team playing more defense than they wanted.  They had a very large forward (bigger than me - not sure what they are feeding these kids over here) - who was able to outrun our defense and put in the first goal.  At half time the score was 2-0 for Norway. 

In the second half the hawks came with a much stronger push on offense.  They had a lot of good runs on Norway but the ball either went high or wide or they were able to get a body in front of the shot.  In the second half Norway had a corner kick that sailed over everyone's head and found the upper back corner of the net (3-0).  In the last few minutes of the game Eric did a great pass to Paul in front of the net.  With the goalie pulled to one side Paul was able to put the ball in the net.  The game ended 3-1.

The C2 Boys were the next team up for a playoff game.  They were playing the home town favorites - F.f.I Fodbold.  The Danes were much larger than our team making it difficult to win the ball.  For the C2 team it was mostly a defensive game.  Although pulling together some offensive runs and shots on the Denmark goal, they were down 6-0 at the half. 

In the second half the boys again were forced to play a mostly defensive game again.  They did manage to hold the Danes to 2 goals in the second half.  They had one really nice push on the Dane goal but it went just wide of the post.  This game ended 8-0 (I am fairly positive that I have this score correct).

After their bye, the girls faced Tvaaker from Sweden.  In the first half the girls were evenly matched with the Sweden team for playing abilities.  The girls were pushing on Sweden's goal and defending their own well.  However, Sweden was able to find the net and finished the first half up 2-0. 

Early in the second half, Sweden kicked at our goal but the ball hit the post and bounced out (from my point of view behind the net).  The line ref saw it different and called it a goal.  This did not help with the Lady Hawks' morale.  Sweden was able to score one more goal ending the game 4-0. 

The Blackhawks participation in the Dana Cup has come to an end.  The teams did well in representing Minnesota and the Hawks organization.  They players have tomorrow to rest and watch some of the other teams play.  Not sure if there will be any excursions at this time as the weather is overcast with scattered showers.  (Tomorrow is supposed to be better though for the weather.)

And with that the players can now take a well deserved rest to get ready for the Gothia Cup.