A championship season continues for the St. Albert Impact in U15 soccer.
The Alberta gold medallists are kicking it up a notch at the Impact Fall Cup this weekend in preparation for the National Cup next month in Edmonton.
“It’s another three games to get better, to work harder and become a better team together for nationals,” said captain Ahmad Sleiman at Wednesday’s training session at M.E. Lazerte High School.
At the Impact Fall Cup, hosted by the St. Albert Soccer Association at Riel Park, the Impact are competing in the six-team U17 division that is split into two pools to determine Sunday’s crossover playoff matches.
“We’re going to use it as a way to prep, game-wise, for every single player. We’re going to use it more for developmental with the things we’re working on at practice and how we can implement them with every single player,” said head coach Kondeh Mansaray. “We want to see how they fit in with what we want to do at nationals and understand which players fit in the different systems and how we want to play.”
Friday’s score against Juventus Y (Kaluzniak) was unavailable at press time.
Today’s start time against SW Sting FC is 4:30 p.m.
Sunday’s playoffs start at 11:15 a.m.
Go to impactfallcup.com for the schedules and results in the U17 male and female and U15 and U13 male divisions.
Nine of the 23 teams in the tournament are representing the Impact regional club program.
The U15 Impact’s 18-man roster consists of 14 Edmonton players as well representation from Ardrossan, Fort McMurray, Lethbridge and Sherwood Park. There are no St. Albert players, but a couple have ties with the Impact program through previous teams.
As for the makeup of the Impact, “They used to be at Strikers and I got a job in St. Albert so the majority of the players came with me,” said Mansaray, a former coach with the Strikers who is the SASA club program head coach. “They’re like a family, they’re like a pack. Where one person goes they all go.”
The only loss for the 16-1-2 Impact – 13-1-1 (61 GF/7 GA) in the Greater Edmonton Soccer League and 3-0-1 (11 GF/4 GA) at provincials in Calgary – was the 1-0 league opener to Inter (9-1-5) May 8.
“The team’s strength is always coming together no matter what happens. Whenever something goes bad we all come together and figure it out, and we work through it,” said captain Malik Sylvester. “All around we’re pretty good.”
Sylvester, Ali Yildiz, Ali Blaybel, Armaan Natt, Dieu-Merci Michel, Emmanuel Kanu and Felix Mutuyemungu were listed on Alberta's gold-medal winning team at the Western Canada Summer Games in August at Swift Current.
Eight players are also associated with academies run by Edmonton FC, Vancouver Whitecaps and Pacific Football Club of Victoria.
Mansaray noted this year’s provincial championship was the fifth in a row for the majority of the players.
“They’re very fast, strong and very technical players so when you have all of that mixture together it’s a recipe for success in any sports,” Mansaray said. “A lot of the boys have also been together for a while and they love soccer. Their whole life is just about soccer. They want to train every day. They do extra stuff. They’re probably doing soccer five, six days a week. When you train all the time it’s natural for you to improve. They listen and they want to learn. They’re very competitive players. It’s a great environment.”
Provincials brought out the very best in the Impact.
“That was the last time at a high competition in Alberta that they were going to play together representing St. Albert so it meant a lot for the boys to win something as a team for their last time with their teammates,” Mansaray said. “We used that motivation every single game – 'this might be our last game so let's give 100 per cent' – and the boys played well together. They wanted to extend their playing together and now we’re in nationals.”
In pool play, the Impact settled for the 1-1 draw with the Chinooks (Borussia) and defeated Juventus (Whittle/Mosele) 6-1 – Braxton Kennedy, a centre back, filled in for the injured starting goalkeeper – and Blizzard SC 4 3-2.
The Aug. 25 final between the Impact and Foothills FC 15 – both teams had automatically qualified for nationals after placing first in their respective pools at the eight-team tournament – was decided on Michel’s team-leading fifth goal with a leaping header off a free kick by Natt in the second half. Matteo Pagliuso posted the shutout.
“It was really exciting. It could’ve gone either way,” Sylvester said. “We’ve been working really hard all season. We’ve had our downfalls and it’s really great to see it all turn out in the end.”
The Impact joins the 2016 U14 Impact and 1989 U18 Cougars as the only male SASA teams to win provincials for a national berth. The Cougars captured the Canadian championship and the U14 Impact placed fourth.
To be able to compete on the national stage is the opportunity of the lifetime for the Impact.
“It’s really exciting. It’s the first time we can do this together and we want to go out there and win,” said Sylvester, 14, a centre back and Grade 10 Salisbury Composite High School student.
“It’s the best thing ever,” added Sleiman, who is confident the Impact will rise to the challenge. “We can do it. We’re going to win nationals.”
To pull it off, “We’re doing lots of training sessions and getting in the fitness sessions as well. The boys have that competitive mindset,” said Sleiman, 15, a centre back and Grade 10 Queen Elizabeth High School student.
The 12-team nationals at Ivor Dent Sports Park starts off with four pools in the qualification phase and in group B the Impact’s matches are Oct. 9 against Halifax County United at 1:30 p.m. and Oct 12 against PEI FC at 12:30 p.m.
“We’re going to prepare for them to be professional teams,” Sleiman said. “They’re going to play how we play. They’re going to play at a high intensity level. They’re going to play against us how we played against Foothills. It's going to be intense, it's going to be close so we’ve got to fight through it and work hard.”
The Impact are approaching nationals the same way as provincials.
“It’s one game at a time and make sure we know the teams that we are playing. You can't underestimate any team so every team we go up against we prep for them,” Mansaray said. “Hopefully we can do something nice at nationals.”
