Three Yorkton-based teams have put the world 鈥� or rather 鈥榳orld鈥� 鈥� on notice while competing at the 2016 World Class Players World Cup competition in Regina.
Yorkton United U12 鈥� Germany, Yorkton United U14 鈥� Ireland and Yorkton United Men 鈥� Netherlands have all be dominant so far at the WCP World Cup 鈥� Saskatchewan鈥檚 largest indoor soccer tournament, with all three teams finding themselves in playoff positions so far.
鈥楴etherlands鈥� men鈥檚
The Yorkton United men鈥檚 soccer team 鈥� representing Netherlands due to several of the Yorkton players having Dutch heritage 鈥� opened up their 2016 World Cup hungry after failing to qualify for last year鈥檚 playoffs by just one point.
Their first game saw them take on tournament rookies Team China.
Netherlands wasted no time announcing their presence at the tournament, trouncing China 16-0.
Leon Derks and Steven DeLong tallied four goals each. Dillon Ferridge scored three, Sven Waelchli found the net twice and Robert Okeny, Andy Wyatt and Ben Fetsch all had singles in the statement win. 鈥淭his was the first year for China and we knew they would be a little weaker than most of the other teams,鈥� mentioned Netherlands(Yorkton) head coach Andy Wyatt. 鈥淚t is tough for a first year team to compete at this level, but saying that, our boys played a great game all around (to win).鈥�
The Yorkton squad then took on 1-1 Eritrea in a game that they expected would be close.
That expectation proved to be wrong, however, as the Dutch representatives once again dominated their opponents, dropping Eritrea 8-0 on four goals by DeLong, two from Derks and one each from Okeny and Waelchli to move to 2-0 in the tournament. 鈥淲e were expecting a tougher game against Eritrea because they had done well in their first two games in our pool,鈥� said Wyatt. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e a young and fast team and though not a favourite in the tournament, they had given other teams problems.
鈥淎ll I can say is the guys were ready to play from the opening whistle, and after 10 minutes we were up 3-0 and I don鈥檛 think we even gave up a shot. After that we kept pressuring them and gave Eritrea very little room to do much and were up 5-0 at half and cruised to the 8-0 victory.鈥�
The Yorkton United Men鈥檚 鈥楴etherlands鈥� team will now take on fan-favourite Jamaica and Laos in their final two round-robin games. A win in either game will see them move on to the playoff round.
U14 鈥業reland鈥�
The Yorkton United U14 boys team is also taking part in the WCP World Cup in Regina as Ireland.
Through five round-robin games, the Yorkton fighting Irish have posted a 3-1-1 record, falling 5-1 to Jamaica in their first game, but bouncing back by defeating Scotland 5-2 in their second game and Canada 12-5 in their third game.
They then drew 2-2 with Argentina before handing Romania an 8-0 loss.
Jairus Pellatt led the way with two goals against Scotland, while Nic Nesseth, Chayce Farnham and Robert Woodroffe-Brown added singles.
Nesseth led the scoring in the 12-5 win over Canada with a hat-trick, while Woodroffe-Brown, DJ Coburn and Farnham all had a brace, while Pellatt and Adonay Amanuel-Mosazghi both found the net once in the victory.
The 12-5 win over Canada set up an all-important match against Argentina.
A scoreless first half saw the two teams battle hard, but it wasn鈥檛 until early in the second half when Ireland would take the lead on a Pellatt strike.
Two minutes later and Argentina would tie it up, only to have Pellatt once again give the Yorkton Irish the one goal lead.
Unfortunately that lead would not hold up, as Argentina would once again pull even 鈥� this time late in the second half 鈥� to secure the draw.
The draw meant that Ireland needed to pick up a win over Romania in their next game should they want to find themselves in the playoffs at the end of the round-robin.
Ireland came out strong in the must-win game, as Woodroffe-Brown put the ball in the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
A Nesseth goal not long after made it 2-0, before Pellatt put up Yorkton Ireland鈥檚 third goal to open the floodgates as Farnham, Amanuel-Mosazghi, Coburn and Aleksa Bijelic (two) also scored to round out the 8-0 drubbing,
Yorkton Ireland (3-1-1) will wrap up their round-robin schedule tomorrow night (Thursday) against undefeated India (3-0-0).
U12 Germany
Fresh off of their convincing 14-0 win over Canada, Yorkton United Germany was back at it, looking to improve their record to 2-0.
Sstanding in their way however, was undefeated India (2-0).
Yorkton Germany opened the scoring late in the first half in the top of the table matchup as Aleksa Bijelic put the ball past the India keeper for a 1-0 lead.
Bijelic was back at it just three minutes later to give Yorkton Germany a two goal advantage at half, before rounding out the hat-trick seven minutes into the second half to give Yorkton Germany a 3-0 lead.
India responded with their first goal to make it 3-1, but Justin Adam regained the Yorkton Germany three goal advantage with his first of the game to make it 4-1.
A second India goal made it 4-2, but that was as close as they would get as Yorkton Germany improved to 2-0.
Yorkton Germany (2-0) will now take on Romania (0-1) in their final round-robin game. A win will guarantee them first place, but a loss will bring goal differential into the equation.
