2005 Season US Nationals Match Report
Cougars at the 2005 US Nationals
Hello all Vancouver/Burnaby supporters and players.
After an epic weekend of travel and footy I am very pleased to report that the Vancouver Cougar team (players from both the Burnaby Eagles and Vancouver Cougars teams) represented Canada in the 2005 US Nationals Football Tournament in noble style.
Unfortunately we did not make it through to the Division 3 final due to the forfieted game (game #1) against Minnesota, however it is true to say that as the first Canadian team to play in the US Nationals we currently stand with a record of 2 WINS. We have not been defeated on the field - and what great wins they were.
Game 1 -
Vancouver 4.10-34 defeated Atlanta/New York B 2.5-17
Game 2 -
Vancouver 14.6-90 defeated Golden Gate B/Mojave Greens 0.3-3
Tournament Best Non Australian - Matt Neufeld
Tournament Best Australian - Troy Macri
It is important to report that the actual weekend was a difficult organisational process from the outset as we did not get official confirmation of our attendance until 4 weeks prior to the event. Given this we scrambled to get players (due to commitments etc) and indeed tickets that would fit most peoples budgets! Having secured enough tickets we had to make a bus trip south to Seattle/Tacoma airport and during this trip the bus that we travelled down with had a passenger (not affiliated to the club) that caused us to have a 40 minute delay at the border. Add to that a 45 minute road work delay on the I5 and we were pushing it. Our Vancouver to Seattle leg of the journey ended up taking more that 5 1/2 hrs! A tough start to a long trip.
Regardless of all player's pleas to let us on the flight (leaving in 15 minutes) the gate attendant refused us entry and thus we missed out flight! We were, however put on another flight leaving at 6am
Saturday morning - This would mean we could not make our first scheduled game. We could only hope that it would be rescheduled.
All players showed great spirit and made the most of our predicament learning new Karoake songs and card games over our 4 hr lay over.
We eventually arrived at the Milwaukeee airport at 1:30pm Saturday afternoon and quickly got into rental vans to drive the 40 minutes to the field! Our second game had been rescheduled to 5pm so we were pretty pumped to be playing - albeit without any sleep for nearly 24 hrs.
Hello all Vancouver/Burnaby supporters and players.
After an epic weekend of travel and footy I am very pleased to report that the Vancouver Cougar team (players from both the Burnaby Eagles and Vancouver Cougars teams) represented Canada in the 2005 US Nationals Football Tournament in noble style.
Unfortunately we did not make it through to the Division 3 final due to the forfieted game (game #1) against Minnesota, however it is true to say that as the first Canadian team to play in the US Nationals we currently stand with a record of 2 WINS. We have not been defeated on the field - and what great wins they were.
Game 1 -
Vancouver 4.10-34 defeated Atlanta/New York B 2.5-17
Game 2 -
Vancouver 14.6-90 defeated Golden Gate B/Mojave Greens 0.3-3
Tournament Best Non Australian - Matt Neufeld
Tournament Best Australian - Troy Macri
It is important to report that the actual weekend was a difficult organisational process from the outset as we did not get official confirmation of our attendance until 4 weeks prior to the event. Given this we scrambled to get players (due to commitments etc) and indeed tickets that would fit most peoples budgets! Having secured enough tickets we had to make a bus trip south to Seattle/Tacoma airport and during this trip the bus that we travelled down with had a passenger (not affiliated to the club) that caused us to have a 40 minute delay at the border. Add to that a 45 minute road work delay on the I5 and we were pushing it. Our Vancouver to Seattle leg of the journey ended up taking more that 5 1/2 hrs! A tough start to a long trip.
Regardless of all player's pleas to let us on the flight (leaving in 15 minutes) the gate attendant refused us entry and thus we missed out flight! We were, however put on another flight leaving at 6am
Saturday morning - This would mean we could not make our first scheduled game. We could only hope that it would be rescheduled.
All players showed great spirit and made the most of our predicament learning new Karoake songs and card games over our 4 hr lay over.
We eventually arrived at the Milwaukeee airport at 1:30pm Saturday afternoon and quickly got into rental vans to drive the 40 minutes to the field! Our second game had been rescheduled to 5pm so we were pretty pumped to be playing - albeit without any sleep for nearly 24 hrs.
Unfortunately we could not get the first game to be rescheduled and thus - forfeit was confirmed.
It was back to the hotel after our first ever US Nationals win - A very historic day. A quick hearty meal and bed. We had our second game on Sunday at 8am. We awoke very early Sunday and headed out to the fields. Memories of junior footy games came flooding back. The morning dew was rising from the grass fields. The boys were fired up and we came out thumping - a big win resulted. It was now a matter of waiting to see how all the percentage points panned out as there were three teams in the running for the GF position in our pool. Vancouver with 2 wins, 1 forfeit, Atlanta/NYC with 2 wins, 1 loss and Minnesota with 1 win, 1 forfeit, 1 loss.
Minnesota got through by a thin margin.
I am very proud of the effort that everyone made to participate in this great event and I was so proud to hear all the comments from many other sides stating how "fit our team was, and how well we played footy" and "what an effort it was for us to get there....".
I would especially like to thank all the players for there participation - MATT NEUFELD, Myk AUSSIE, TED MURRAY, AARON BROUGHTON, SIMON NOLAN, SHANE GOUGH, STEVE HARPER, EVAN OZIRNY, PETER CAMPION, RANDY DICKIN, JOHN DIXON, TROY MACRI, JON BOWKER, STU GRILLS.
Special thanks to KIT for all the water/trainer assistance. You all were awesome as players and ambassadors for CANADA and Vancouver.
Also special thanks to the Seattle AFC and the San Diego AFC (Ryan, Tareq, Michael and Colin) for all their help and support - you guys are truly great sports.
Peter Campion put a lot of effort into making this experience as successful as possible and without his tireless efforts in organising flights, hotel bookings, rental car bookings, liasing with USfooty etc it would not have been a reality - thanks Campo.
WELL DONE FELLA'S.
Next year will be an even better experience for all participants...........the history pages have already started to be written.
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