The Sand Dragons Football Club has a tradition of participation in tournaments around the state, around the country and even in Europe. And with a holiday / Thanksgiving weekend tournament being held locally, the lads had to put together a team. The tournament was a well run invitational put on by Jon Ruzan of the Arizona American-Romanian Festival and hosted by the Banat Soccer Club. They've hosted this tournament for about five years now. There are two open age divisions: the Professional Division (A & B), made up mostly of top premier teams from around the state and the Competitive Division (C & D) that contains everyone else. Our team played in the Competitive Division. To fill our team we played with another club from the East Valley Soccer League, Encompass FC, run by Mark Guzman. His players were thoroughbreds and kept us in it all weekend. Also, Barry and Christopher Brannon from other SUASL teams played with us.

On Saturday, we had our first game at 11am against a team from the host club, Banat. Their Banat United team looked strong and won their first game 2 - 0 against Almost Pros. We tied them 2 - 2 in Payson in our toughest match but this was another day. The game was physical and fast. But our Captain on the Field, Sergio took charge and gave us the possession and offense to win the game 3 - 1. Many players on the team had great games. James Cagle played in goal and made several key saves. Vince Nagy gave us the go ahead goal to put us up 2 - 1. Playing outside midfield, Howard and Adrian really controlled the tempo and got the ball into position several times each half. Barry Brannon had a great tournament all around and sealed the deal in midfield. And most importantly, the whole back line played stellar defense. From Encompass Jason Todd really shut them down. Juan, Joe and our own Jason Kaiser also had great games. Final result: we win game one, 3 - 1.

Game two we played Almost Pros on the South Field. It was a U-8 field and very tight for 22 players. The keepers kicked the ball back and forth. But the ball handling and cannon legs of our squad gave the other team no opportunity to win. Sergio again had a great game as did Patricio, Adrian and Walter Houtz. Other notables were Howard with a great game at right half and Jason Todd, solid as ever in defense. Final result: we win game two, 5 - 2.

With the wins on Saturday, Sand Dragons FC lead the C Division with 18 points. Our first Sunday game would be against the D division second place team, Banat Scorpions. The Incinerators beat them 2 - 0 on Saturday and actually won the D Division's top spot. We actually thought we would play the Incinerators in the final. The Scorpion Squad was no match for our team. Everyone had a good game... especially Mike Jones played in goal all day and did a fantastic job, his aggressive style making up for loosing Jason Todd to injury. Christopher Brannon also had a great game, running his ass off and creating great scoring opportunities. One left footed cross found the head of Adrian for our second goal, by far our most beautiful effort of the day. Final result: we win the Competitive Division Semi-Final, 5 - 1.

The Banat United team rallied and beat the Incinerators in their semi match, 2 - 0. So we'd have to face them again only this time in much warmer weather. United seemed to have more players on Sunday and they came out really aggressive. The official was letting them play that way because our guys were jumping out of the way to prevent injury... but not getting a foul. At the half we were down for the first time in the tournament, 2 - 0. Our player were frustrated and much smaller than the United Squad. The continued to take full advantage in the second half, marking Sergio to the point of frustration. On one free kick, Howard protected the post and swatted at a ball that was sure to go in. The official had no choice but to red card him, and we were down to 10 players. Loosing a player of that caliber didn't help us and we gave up two more goals. We had our best players on the field and we tried several things but we couldn't find the formula to get back into the match. Final result: we loose in the Final, 5 - 0.

All said and done, it was a good experience and a good showing for the club. I'm certain we'll be back in that tournament again next year. We really enjoyed getting to know and playing with Mark and his boys, Sergio, Adrian, Howard, Juan, Joe and Jason. All the Sand Dragons signed a ball and we presented it to Mark at the end of the day to thank them for playing with us. I'm certain we'll see them again. We also have to thank the Brannon's, Barry and Christopher. It was good to see father and son playing together and as well as they played. WELL DONE ALL!