Sunday, August 5
EPPING, NEW HAMPSHIRE - PDA and the Chicago Fire Premier emerged as the top two sides in today’s Super-20 League Men’s Final.
In the first half, PDA’s ability to play in tight spaces has become legendry in the men’s Super-20 League North American Finals. It took them minutes on Sunday to feel out and maneuver around a Chicago Fire Premier defense that managed to put the flames out on D.C. United’s wide open attack and still have enough left to deny any goals to one of the more individually talented teams in the country, Red Bull New York.
Bryan Martinez, a terror in the middle for PDA, summoned the heroics of last season’s Super-20 MVP of the same surname, Kendall SC’s Pablo Martinez, when he collected a wall pass from a teammate and broke in against helpless Fire goalkeeper Joe Zimka. Martinez, as simple as could be, placed the ball in the net, 1-0 PDA in the 8th minute.
The Premier gained some possession through the middle of the half and sniffed around the box of last night’s hero, Bryan Meredith. But Chicago could not muster any solid strike on net.
PDA, for the first time all weekend, seemed ok with looking for a counter-attack goal. They match settled into a midfield battle.
A perfect system, PDA burst out of halftime and grabbed the game by the throat. They utilized the skill of winger, Thomas Campbell, who broke free along the right flank and picked out teammate Mike Konicoff of Boston College. Konicoff put it back from where it came, far post, 2-0 PDA.
“When you face a team you are not familiar with, you take notice things they do during the first half,” said PDA Head Coach Jim Stamatis. “The Fire were playing with three players in the middle and while we wanted to remain playing our creative, attacking style of soccer, we first had to deny them of their three on two advantage in the middle.”
The Fire answered.
They earned a free kick from 30 out. A perfect cross and a perfect header tucked just inside the right post – stolen by the expert positioning of Meredith. It remained 2-0, Meredith reading the play as if he wrote it himself.
The Premier needed PDA to make a mistake. They were due for one but the Academy had not slipped up since Seacoast United netted a late goal in a 4-1 loss on Saturday morning. It simply was not coming.
Another free kick for Chicago, swung in by Geoff Fallon was brushed aside by PDA’s defense. A third free kick from 30 paces – a casual Meredith save. A fourth kick from the right flank – blocked by PDA’s Stackhouse in the wall.
Playing with character of another level, the Fire Premier never gave up. Play on the left flank was back heeled and a one-time cross found Braden Fleak in space. From eight yards out Fleak beat a defender enough to get off a chipped cross whilst falling away. The ball found the forehead of towering defender Schuler, who nodded it past Meredith for a 2-1 
score line. Plenty of time remained.
A dozen minutes of Chicago Fire Premier pressure was again defended by PDA following the goal. Once PDA regained procession, they found Konicoff with a ball out wide. From the left flank he ran with pace across the top of the area when he bent, and broke the Premier’s back with a shot, laser guided to the far upper-90. The ball, lodged in the back post collected every white bar it could find before falling to the turf, 3-1 PDA.
For his two goal performance in the final, Konicoff was named the Super-20 League 2007 MVP.
“I have known Mike since he was about ten years old,” said Stamatis. “He is one of those soccer junkies and I have enjoyed watching him develop as a player over the years. He is a student of the game who just loves to play against the best available competition.”
