After another impressive 7-1 win to finish out the round-robin portion of the USYS Regionals in Des Moines, Iowa against Appleton Goal Getters from Wisconsin, Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo faced Michigan Football Club in this morning’s semi-final in a rematch of last year’s semi-final. A year later, and in a different location, but the outcome was an identical 2-0 win for Botafogo.

However, where last year’s semi-final was a hard-fought battle today’s game was total Botafogo dominance from the first whistle. Putting together their best performance of the Spring/Summer, Botafogo had great ball-circulation and peppered the Michigan Football Club goal throughout the game. With a little bit better finishing the game could easily have been a 5-6 goal win.

Kaitlin Johnson got the eventual game-winner in the 6th minute with a far-post shot after a great passing sequence by Bryce Banuelos and Meegan Johnston. With 10 minutes to go Katie Ciesiulka (one of 3 Santos players called up for the event) went on a decisive run down the right flank and served a great ball to Ashley Handwork who calmly tucked the ball away to put the game out of reach. Megan Geldernick earned the shutout in goal.

With the win Botafogo set up a rematch of the IYSA State Cup Final against FC United tomorrow morning at 10am. Both teams have already qualified for the USYS Nationals in Overland Park, KS July 23rd-28th as Botafogo were National League Champions so FC United will claim the Regional spot at Nationals regardless of the outcome tomorrow.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo clinched a spot in the semi-final of the USYS Regionals in Des Moines, Iowa with a game to spare.

Botafogo got off to a good start with a 1-0 win over Cincinnati Cup Crew yesterday on a goal by Bryce Banuelos in the 19th minute from Kaitlin Johnson and Hope D’Addario. Megan Geldernick earned the shutout in goal.

In tonight’s match-up against Ft. Wayne Fever Botafogo dominated play and possession from the first whistle. However, the Fever defense proved stubborn to break down, so it wasn’t until the 43rd minute that Botafogo finally found a break-through. AJ Jakuszewski found Heather Handwork on the left flank and Heather served in a great cross for Kendall Wilde to head home with some authority.

Two minutes into the 2nd half Hope D’Addario on a free kick bent the ball over the Fever wall and into the bottom corner of the goal for what proved to be the game-winner. And the flood gates opened after that goal.

Meegan Johnston got the 3rd on a PK that she had drawn with a strong dribble in the box. Ashley Handwork got the 4th from Hope D’Addario’s perfect free kick and then the 5th shortly after from Bryce Banuelos and Heather Handwork. Those two players combined again a few minutes later to assist Meegan Johnston on her 2nd goal of the game, and Meegan finished off a great hat-trick performance with a last-second picture-perfect free kick bent over the Fever wall.

Three goals were scored off the exact free kicks that Hope and Meegan worked on in practice last Thursday. It’s nice to see the work on the practice field pay off in the big games.

Tomorrow Botafogo will face Appleton Goal Getters from Wisconsin in the 3rd and final round-robin game, but the game is meaningless as Botafogo already clinched the semi-final spot. The semi-final will be Tuesday at 8am against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

With last night’s 1-1 tie between Kansas Rush Wolves & St. Croix Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia are the MRL First Division Champions and have earned promotion to the top-tier U-15 MRL Premier Division I for the 2013 Fall Season. This is the highest level of USYS competition in the Midwest.

A big congrats to the girls and Head Coach John Rizzo who were undefeated in MRL play with a 5-0-3 record and 25 goals for and 5 goals against.

Team Chicago Academy-Palmeiras center back Juan Garcia has accepted a roster spot to continue his soccer career at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois. Juan, who played his prep soccer at East Aurora High School, will be part of Eagles Head Coach Rich Nassif’s 2013 recruiting class.

Staying close to home at Benedictine, Juan will be playing with the Eagles in the Northern Athletics Conference under second year coach Nassif as the program at Benedictine grows.

Team Chicago Academy-Palmeiras midfielder Jack Staton has accepted a roster spot to continue his soccer career at D-III Final Four participant Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Jack, who played his prep soccer at Metea Valley High School, will be part of Duhawks Head Coach Dan Rothert’s 2013 recruiting class.

Loras College is part of the NCAA Division III Iowa Intercollegiate Athletics Conference. Jack will be a tremendous addition to a Loras team who finished last season in the D-III semifinals with a 23-2-1 record.