Playing in a chilly downpour, Richmond United U13 boys soccer team became the Metro Select League champions with a 4-3 extra time win over the Burnaby Selects.
It's another small piece of history for the Richmond Youth Soccer Association’s decorated Selects Program, as it's the first-ever league championship title for the U13 age group.
Burnaby had finished the season with the highest point total among the 14 teams comprising both the U13 A and B pools, yet United displayed their tenacity and deft touch on the ball, controlling the play for the majority of the game.
Thrilling finishes are nothing new to the local lads they braved the snow last month to down CCB Elite from Surrey in the semi-finals – a match decided only after both extra time and a penalty shootout. The league championship earns Richmond United a berth in the Provincial “A” Cup Championships to be held at the Burnaby Lakes Sports Complex July 3-6.
The boys are now turning their immediate focus to B.C. Soccer’s Coastal Cup play downs in early April. Richmond gets an opening round bye, and proceeds directly to the quarter-finals where it intend to continue its winning ways.
Under the overall guidance of Richmond Youth Soccer’s technical director Roberto Sciascia and led by head coach Greg Dunham, the players include: Delgado Carvalheiro-Nunes, Reid Dawson, Rafael De La Cruz, Raphael Eustaquio, Hayden Gaunder, Alexander Hodgkinson, Jake Hothi, Colin Johnson, Elijah Kim, Cole Langer, Meidy Liu, Josh Moscovitz, Henrik Nyberg, Ashton Pawlik, Evan Sandhu, Corey Scott, Danesh Thananathan, and Marcelo Torres.
The team's success this season is all the sweeter for Dunham who, after more than 20 years' involvement in the RYSA, will be leaving Richmond this summer to pursue a professional coaching opportunity elsewhere.
"The way that these boys have developed as a team has been amazing. Winning the league is just a direct result of all the hard work they have put in over the course of the season, and they definitely deserve it. But our job isn't done yet – we're in the Provincial Championships, we've got something in the bank for ourselves, now we'll go and try to win this Coastal Cup," he said.
