Bellingham United faces first-season rival in weekend Challenge Cup

The Okanagan Challenge won the 2011 Challenge Cup. (PCSL.org)

Bellingham United has a chance to win the Pacific Coast Soccer League title on the weekend of July 28 and 29 as they battle with the other top teams in the Challenge Cup playoffs.

Every year the Pacific Coast Soccer League (PCSL) has a tournament known as the Challenge Cup to determine the league champion in a knockout playoff system among the top 4 teams in the standing from the regular season.

Based on their third place finish in the standings, Bellingham United will face off in what has quickly become a fierce rivalry with Poco City FC.

In the first match between these two teams in Coquitlam, Poco City FC beat the Hammers 4:0 in a hailstorm of red cards when the match got carried away. The rematch played in Bellingham in June saw a different result as BUFC scored a last minute goal to send Poco City off 2:1 losers.

goalWA.net asked Hammers head coach Lance Calloway to preview the Hammers’ weekend “Challenge.” See our Q & A below.

GW: Describe the club’s play last weekend in the Kennedy Cup and what you can use / build on going forward. Are the losses a momentum killer, or new motivation?

Lance Calloway: Last week’s Kennedy Cup was great to get in a couple added matches for our guys. Prior to the Cup we had decided that we would put forth our regular squad against IPS/Marathon Taverna from Portland and to then play reserves regardless of the outcome in order to give our regulars a bit of rest before heading into the Challenge Cup. The match against IPS was great as they are a great side with a couple of very crafty and fast strikers up top which caused us some problems. Bottom line this was a match where a good team capitalized on mistakes made by the opponent and that is what IPS did. We came out flat in the first half as we were too casual with the ball and made a mistake in the back with our communication and IPS took advantage and scored from it. The second half was a completely different matter as we really came out and pressed them and we had several great chances but were either hitting the post or their keeper made a couple excellent saves. We were pressing late in the match and looking to push another player forward when we made another mistake and paid for it. Again we made a mistake in the back with a very poor clearance from our keeper that put us at a disadvantage and IPS scored from it. Credit to them, it was a great match and they were a fun squad for the guys to play.

Our match on Sunday was with our reserve players to get some of them match time and chance to play against San Carlos All Stars. The San Carlos squad came out to play and it was a very even match with a 3-2 result for San Carlos.

The Hammers and PoCo City will knock keads one more time this season. The clubs split wild regular season matches. (David Willoughby)

Will you have a full, healthy roster for the Challenge Cup? Any plans to split the starters up between the matches to keep everyone fresh?

We do have a relativley healthy roster heading up to the Challenge Cup on Saturday as we will face PoCo City FC. We did lose an outside back with Justin Diener pulling tendons in the arch of his foot. We will be missing Brendan Quilici, one of the core midfielders for our side as he is in a wedding on Saturday but when we play Sunday he will be there and we are missing Joel Grossman who had plans made several months back to be out of town. Other than that we should have a very solid squad going up. In regards to splitting the squad up between matchs, we have been playing so many double headers all season we are accustomed to managing this. We will be going with our strongest side we have available on Saturday and then we have some great players who are not necesarily starting but are quite able to do so.

What are your thoughts in preparing to face PoCo city once again?

PoCo City I feel is the most talented and dangerous of the four squads that will be in the Challenge Cup IF they have their full slate of players. They are a very talented side that play an extremely solid tactical match and move the ball extremely well to exploit one v. one situations. We have focused this week on overall team defending ensuring we have numbers behind the ball to defend as a group and then moving the numbers forward into attack. We need to remain compact as they have the ability, if we lose our discipline, of spreading opponents out and then using their talent on the ball to take advantage and create dangerous chances.

Describe the club’s travel plans. When will you arrive, and will it be as a team, or are players going up separately, etc.?

With a 2pm match time we are going to be driving up together as a squad as we typically do for our away matches as it is only a little over 1hr and 15 minutes away so we will drive up and back for each match.

Handicap the Cup: Who would you say is the favorite, and why?

I think, as well as several of our players, I stated above the most dangerous squad up there is PoCo City if they have their full compliment of players. They have some past pro players on their side so they have a lot of players with solid experience along with enough youth to really pressure the opponents. I do feel if we are disciplined and work for one another we can match up quite well and come out with a win and then play for the Championship. I like the fact that in order to win the Cup we have to play the best right off the bat.

The 2012 Challenge Cup tournament for all divisions will be hosted by Chilliwack FC the weekend of July 28 – 29 at Townsend Park and Exhibition Field in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

Admission is free. Awards will be presented at the end of each final.

Saturday July 28th
GAME #	TOWNSEND A
1	12:00PM	Men’s Reserve/U-21 Division	Kamloops Heat	vs	Chilliwack FC
2	2:00PM	Men’s Premier Division	Vancouver Thunderbirds	vs	Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC
3	4:00PM	Women’s Premier Division	Fraser Valley Action	vs	Kamloops Heat *
GAME #	TOWNSEND B
4	12:00PM	Men’s Reserve/U-21 Division	Victoria United	vs	3West Vancouver FC
5	2:00PM	Men’s Premier Division	PoCo City FC	vs	Bellingham United
6	4:00PM	Women’s Premier Division	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	vs	Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC
GAME #	TOWNSEND C
7	12:00PM	Women’s Reserve/U-21 Division	West Vancouver FC	vs	Kelowna United
8	2:00PM	Women’s Reserve/U-21 Division	Mid Isle Highlanders FC	vs	Penticton Pinnacles
Sunday July 29th
GAME # EXHIBITION FIELD
9	10:00AM	Men’s U21 Final	Game 1 Winner	vs	Game 4 Winner
10	12:00PM	Women’s U21 Final	Game 7 Winner	vs	Game 8 Winner
11	2:00PM	Men’s Premier Final	Game 2 Winner	vs	Game 5 Winner
12	4:00PM	Women’s Premier Final	Game 3 Winner	vs	Game 6 Winner

* Vancouver Thunderbirds women finished third in the Women’s Premier Division standings but are unable to field a competitive squad due to multiple injuries. Third and fourth place spots in the Challenge Cup will be filled by Coquitlam Metro-Ford SC and Kamloops Heat respectively.

Previous Winners:

2012 –  ???  2011 – Okanagan Challenge   2010 – Vancouver Thunderbirds   2009 – Okanagan Challenge 2008 – Victoria United 2007 – Victoria United               2006 – Victoria United               2005 – New Westminster Khlasa Sporting               2004 – Victoria United               2003 – New Westminster Sporting Khalsa               2002 – New Westminster Sporting Khalsa               2001 – Surrey United               2000 – New Westminster Sporting Khalsa 1999 – Seattle Hibernian and Caledonian               1998 – Victoria United               1997 – Okanagan Challenge               1996 – Victoria United               1995 – Victoria United

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