On the week of May 20 to May 24, four teams competed in Copa MVHS to crown the ultimate team. These teams, according to Varsity Girls Soccer Coach and Copa Head of Officials Jeff Panos, consisted of diverse groups. While athletes could pick small groups who they wanted to be with, they could not pick their entire team, and this led to a mix of boys and girls on the teams.
Panos said that the MVP of the tournament was junior Gerson Angel for his goal in the semifinals, when he broke a tie by scoring from half field. Panos noted that after the goal, the atmosphere around the game changed, as well as the way that people played.
Panos said his favorite moment from the tournament was on the first day when Argentina faced Mexico. Mexico started out strong at the beginning of the game with a two point lead, but Argentina was then able to reverse the score and win with a score of 5-4.
“The vocal support for the España team [Friday] was really really good to see,” Panos said. There were posters, and everything was fantastic, a lot of yelling for goals, a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs” for everything. I thought it was such a great way to have the community come together, especially this late in May when everyone’s ready to be done with classes.”
After the five days of competition, it was Spain that took the victory.
Junior Santiago Rey, an athlete on team Spain, said that his favorite moment was when he scored a goal in the first game, and they then ended the game six points ahead. He said that he was confident going into the final match, but that ultimately, his goal was to have fun.
“It was a fun tournament,” Rey said. “I like playing with my friends and having fun.”
Though Rey didn’t know all of the people on his team, he said he still felt chemistry with them. .
“It went incredible,” junior “Junior” Robles said. “We play super well as a team, that’s how we got here. I couldn’t do it without our fans, I appreciate everyone.”
Robles was also on team Spain.
Senior Saliou Cisse, a spectator, complimented Junior on his excellent performance.
“The game was really good, I had my friends playing the other team, and they won,” Cisse said. “I really loved it, I loved seeing them winning.”
Cisse said that his favorite moment was when Columbia, the other finalist, scored an own goal.
Team Colombia player junior Grinell Longstreet said that his favorite moment of the game was when he was yelling at the other team while they were taking penalties, to try and pressure them into making a mistake.
“It was so fun watching our team play,” Longstreet said.
One of the highlights for Longstreet was the redemption bracket, since they were able to play the champions in the finals even after losing in their first match.
“I [refereed] all five days, and I saw decent skill level every single match,” Panos said.
