Welcome to the website for the U-19 Athena GSA Phoenix Red.
Entering our last season together as a team, we return eleven players from last year's squad and have added five new impact players. We're looking forward to another great season, and hope you will visit our website on a regular basis to keep up with the team.
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GSA Closes Out Season
GSA finished out its season and ended its great run as a club team by participating in the Orange Classic Invitational, held December 27-29 in Fort Lauderdale.
The week started with exceptionally bad news in that the team's two strikers, Elizabeth Franklin and Jamie Batey, were last minute cancellations. Given that Liz and Jamie had accounted for 36 of the team's goals this season, there was much concern among the team prior to the start of play. However, with all our our midfielders and defenders in tow, and with both our keepers finally at full strength, GSA altered its gameplan to ensure maximum defensive effort and then finding ways to capitalize on a few good scoring opportunities.
This proved to be the right recipe for success as the team began play with a 2-0 victory over the '86 Tejanos from Dallas/Fort Worth. Julia Newman got the team off to a great start with a well-placed PK early on, and GSA's defense took over from there. The Tejanos only threatened once, on a breakaway that Katie Bucherati barely deflected. The shot hit the goal post and was deftly swept away by sweeper Jessica Harrison before Tejanos could put in the rebound. Moments later, Lauren Burns made a spectacular dash into the far right corner to chase down a ball, put two good moves on a defender, broke in on goal and then slid a pass to Chelsea Kimble, who one-touched it in for the back-breaker goal. Extra credit in the game goes to Sellers Cook, who did an outstanding job at striker late in the game, creating chaos for the Tejanos backfield with great hustle and a number of hard slide tackles.
Game two saw GSA taking on the Florida Sunblazers, a local Miami-based team. Under very strong pressure from the Sunblazers, the GSA defense, led by Jessica Harrison, Katie Fusco, Katy Hayden, Katie Carlson, and Leah Campbell, thwarted repeated attacks, and when the Sunblazers did break through, Katie Bucherati or Lauren Burns were there in goal to make the save. The Sunblazer's keeper made an outstanding save late in the game off a blast by Nikki Greene, and the game ended in a 0-0 tie.
The third game saw GSA taking on a team from Tallahassee, who took an early 1-0 lead off a wildly bouncing ball in the box. From there, the defense bent, but never broke, against an incredibly strong attack by Tallahassee. Time after time they were turned away by outstanding defensive plays, and GSA came close to scoring on two occasions late in the game. Unfortunately, the valiant effort came up just short by the final 1-0 score.
Representing GSA in outstanding play throughout the week, and for the last time as a team, were: Lauren Burns, Jessica Harrison, Nikki Greene, Katy Hayden, Lindsey Bruce, Katie Bucherati, Katy Carlson, Julai Newman, Chelsea Kimble, Jenna Kimble, Katy Fusco, Leah Campbell, Cristina Elstad, and Sellers Cook.
Coach Steve could not have been more proud of the team!
GSA Triumphs at Nike Norcross Cup
GSA defeated the Spartenburg, SC 5-0 in the championship game to win the Nike Norcross Cup. See the My News site for more details.
GSA Wins Atlanta Cup!
Please see the My News section for details.
Check Out The Photos - Atlanta Cup
New photos from the Atlanta Cup, as well as the GFC Invitational, have been posted to the Albums section of our website.
GSA Wins GFC Invitational
Please see the My News section for details.
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