The Animo cup was hosted on Saturday May 10 at Sofive Soccer Centers South Gate.
The Animo Cup is a futsal tournament of Green Dot high schools and middle schools. The games are 5-on-5 match-ups instead of the normal 11-on-11 on a small field, with a small soccer goal and with both teams having to have one girl on the field. If they don’t, they have to play a 5-on-4 game. Games are played with a total time of 20 minutes with no halftimes or timeouts.
Here’s how the games went.
Game 1:
The first game was against Ánimo James B. Taylor Charter Middle School. The match ended with the score being 4 – 2. Ánimo James B. Taylor Charter Middle School won.
After the game both teams had a 30 minute break until their next match.
Game 2:
The next game was against Animo Compton Charter Middle School with the score being 7 – 2. This was AJMS’ first win of the tournament.
Game 3:
The third game was against Animo Florence Firestone Charter Middle School. The game ended in a 1-1 draw.
The opening round ended. At this point, the teams had to wait to see if they advanced into the semi-finals. AJMS advanced to the semi-finals going against Animo Legacy Charter Middle School.
Semi Finals: (Game 4)
In the semi-finals with Animo Legacy Charter Middle School the game was 2-2 at the end of regular time and had to go to penalties, with AJMS advancing 3-2 after the penalty shots. AJMS advanced to the finals and Animo Legacy Charter Middle School had to compete for third place.
Finals: (Game 5)
The final was against Ánimo James B. Taylor Charter Middle School. After the first 12 minutes AJMS was down two goals, but AJMS scored the next three goals. The game ended with the score still being 3-2, making AJMS the winners of the Animo Cup.
When naming the awards Animo Legacy Charter Middle School got third place, Ánimo James B. Taylor Charter Middle School got second place, and Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School won first place.
AJMS and Animo Legacy Charter Middle School got their awards but Ánimo James B. Taylor Charter Middle School refused to get their award because they believed that they had won their game against AJMS.
JBT believed they had scored a third goal and waited for officials to review footage of the game for one hour. Afterwards, officials confirmed that the disputed goal did not count because the striker was inside a circle that you couldn’t be in while shooting the ball.
Post-game interviews:
Coach Miguel Diaz felt confident of his team being able to win the tournament after having a bad regular season. He felt happy when they won the Animo Cup because he saw how bad his team wanted it and how excited they were.
Omar Sanchez was one of the players who played in the Animo Cup and thought the game was hard and simple. Omar felt good and happy when he scored the winning goal in the finals against JBT.
Alejandro Camarillo was the goalkeeper for AJMS in all games of the tournament. He felt a lot of pressure during the finals because of how much people were watching and how much there was too lose.
