A Ƶappsoccer player has added Mt. Pearl, Newfoundland to her long list of soccer cities.
Brooke Molby was in Newfoundland’s second largest city earlier this month for the Canadian Soccer Association Sport Chek National Club Championships with her team, Mountain United FC. She is one of the goaltenders on the U16 squad.
The team opened the tournament in the city of 25,000 people against the provincial champions from Prince Edward Island. Molby saved every shot that came her way and the support crew in front of her worked together to put one past the other team’s goalie.
Molby watched the second game of the tournament against Nova Scotia, then she was back in the net for the third B.C. game of the tournament.
“The second game that I played was Ontario and we tied them 0-0 and went to a shoot-out,” said Molby.
The match was to be decided by penalty kicks.
“As a goalie, you’re taught to either react or guess,” said Molby.
The goaltender from Ƶappwatched from the goal line as her first opponent prepared for the first game-deciding penalty kick.
“When she stepped up, I decided I was going to guess,” Molby recalled. “You’re supposed to look at their body language. When she was setting up to shoot she was kind of opening up her body too much one way.”
Molby decided to dive the other way.
“I was right – she shot that way,” she said.
The ball hit the cross bar, it dropped down and Molby said she caught it.
“I was really proud of myself,” she said. “I was so happy. I was really impressed with myself. I couldn’t believe I saved one.
Her teammates were also happy.
“They were all cheering and they were really happy,” said Molby. “It was a big moment. They were ecstatic.”
The shootout didn’t finish as well as it started for Mountain United FC. Two of Molby’s teammates missed the net and Ontario went on to victory. The loss pushed Ontario into the top four and the team went on to win the tournament.
The B.C. team took on Quebec in the fourth game of the tournament with Molby in goal. That game ended 2-0 for the Quebec team and the other B.C. team goaltender played the final game of the tournament against Saskatchewan. The prairie team suffered a 9-nil pounding in the final game to secure a seventh place finish for Mountain United.
With the exception of the final game, all the Mountain United matches were close.
“It was very competitive,” said Molby. “It was probably the best soccer I’ve ever been involve in.”
For Molby, the game against Ontario was the game of her life.
“I’ve never had to make so many saves before,” she said.
Molby noted the level of skill at the tournament was a step up from the very competitive league in which she plays here. She said the players she faced from across the country were fantastic.
This national soccer tournament puts Newfoundland on a list of soccer destinations for Molby that also includes Seattle, Portland and San Diego.