Champions In Defeat

The final tournament of the year for Guildford A.C. turned out to be a fantastic end to the season for the most unexpected of reasons. A.C. was facing top notch opposition and having gone undefeated in since September 20th of last year, an astonishing six month streak, the team wanted to close the season with one more gold medal, they got much more.

Guildford opened the tournament against an unknown team called Vancouver Soccer Movement. Upon arriving at the park A.C. saw that the team was comprised of players from Kerrisdale and Dunbar, both strong teams A.C. had faced earlier in the season. Suddenly Guildford realized they were in for much more of a battle than they had expected. In the early going, A.C. forced their opposition to play quickly and VSM threw the same back at A.C.. Midway through the first half Vancoucer capitalized on a error and converted a scoring chance despite the valiant effort of the Guildford keeper. Through the remainder of the half, both teams slogged out a defensive affair that saw neither team build anything offensively. In the second half, A.C. knew they had to stretch out the Vancouver squad in order to build any kind of scoring chances. For once however, Guildford couldn't find an answer; they were at a complete loss. The team looked disjointed, frustrated, slow and most of all, tired. Their effort suddenly became hopeless as the final whistle blew and A.C. watched an elated Vancouver Soccer Movement team celbrate a 1-0 victory.

A.C. played their second game on Sunday morning against a familiar opponent in the SFC Scorpions. The Scorpions had lost their first game in the final few minutes against South Burnaby and really wanted to avenge a loss to A.C. in the Conference Cup final. The game started slow with lots of energy but little action, the teams traded the odd scoring chance but mostly battled in the midfield. At half time, neither team had put anything on the board. In the second half, A.C. was again looking disjointed and uncomfortable, like they were trying to find a familiar lightswitch in the dark. The game pressed on with more and more tension rising and Guildford faltered first hauling an SFC player down in the box. The penalty was hit perfectly and the Scorpions took a 1-0 lead. For the second time in as many days A.C. found themselves down by a goal late the game, but Guildford's offense that had been potent all season long, had completely dried up. At the whistle, A.C. was distraut to find themselves out of contention for gold and having sustained a second consecutive loss.

Going into the final game Guildford could finish, at best, in third place and they were facing a newly formed rival, SBMC Albion. Guildford and South Burnaby played a rather physical and nasty game the week previous and neither team was fond of the other. Albion needed just a pair of goals to wrap up the Gold medal whether they won or lost, should they fail to get the points, the door was open for A.C.'s friendly rivals the SFC Scopions to steal the Gold if they could max out thier points with a 3-0 win over VSM. The two games were played side-by-side.

In their last game of a nearly flawless season, Guildford found themselves playing for pride and in the position of trying to win so friends could win gold instead of themselves. Guildford felt miscast in the role and had every reason to mail in the performance and move on to next season; but, in the words of Billie Jean King, "Champions keep playing until they get it right", and despite being tired, deafeated and out-of-contention, A.C. proved their mettle. Early on Guildford had to fight hard and were eventually rewarded off a corner that was finished in a scramble for a 1-0 lead, their first lead of the tournament. Very shortly after Guildford's fortitude was tested as South Burnaby was awarded a PK and converted to dash A.C.'s lead and bring themselves within a goal of the tournament Championship. Nothing seemed destined to go right or come easy for Guildford on this weekend but their effort was constant and they were able to pull ahead again on a shot from distance that was mishandled by the keeper and ended up in the net. It was an inspiring performance as the boys seemed to get better and better from that point on, adding another goal before half for a 3-1 lead. In the second half, Guildford dominated and played with confidence stetching their lead to 4-1 and were rock solid defensively not allowing SBMC a sniff at thier much needed second goal.

In the other game, the SFC Scorpions had managed a 1-0 lead late in the second half but would need two more goals to claim gold. With the final in their game 4-1, A.C. had done everything they could to help the Scorpions. Even later in the SFC-VSM contest, the Scorpions added a second goal and with Guildford cheering them on, SFC found the third goal. At the final whistle, A.C. celebrated the result on the field with the Scorpions.

On a weekend that saw A.C. double the number of losses they'd had all season, lose two of three despite only allowing 3 goals in the tournament and lose a tournament for the first time since the pre-season Guildford unknowingly won something they'd been chasing all season. The team talked often about being champions, about being the best on, and off, the field. Their record could testify to being the best on the field but only in celebrating the Scorpions success did they prove the class and dignity of champions. Who'd have thought champions were found in defeat?