Metrik

The United States Women National Soccer Team dropped a tough 2-1 decision in the championship game of the SheBelieves Cup in San Diego, Calif.

The USA women were attempting to capture their sixth consecutive title at the tourney. Japan’s Yuka Momiki and Toko Koga scored for Japan, which won its first Cup in its fifth appearance at the invitational.

The loss for USA was the first defeat under coach Emma Hayes, who has had won 18 matches since taking charge of the team in June 2024.

Hayes did admit, after the match, that she did not put the most experienced USWNT on the field.

“We put out a team we are hoping to develop, our goals go beyond the SheBelieves Cup. They (Japan) were a higher level to us throughout the whole evening,” she said.

The USA had not lost in 23 games going back to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in a loss to Mexico in February 2024. This was only the second time in 42 matches that Japan has beaten the USA.

The absence of starters who are a powerful scoring trio — Mallory Swanson, Trinity Rodman and Sophia Smith Wilson — who were vital in winning the gold medal at Paris was obvious.

The USA had defeated Columbia and Australia earlier in the tournament. America ended the cup play with six points, going 2-1.

The Japanese were effective at scoring early and often in the Cup play and scored on the U.S. within the opening two minutes.

The American women found the equalizer on a shot in the upper right corner by Ally Sentor in the 14th minute. Japan regained the lead and scored the winning goal in the 50th minute when defender Koga hit the bottom right corner of the net.

Hayes will continue to use new players and experiment with the lineup to find her 11 strongest starters. Hayes is a competitor, however, and will be looking to win every game and keep USA on top of the world standings.

Top volunteer

There are numerous clubs in the PA West Soccer organization and thousands of volunteers, but the Blair County Soccer Club FC814’s Mike Metrik was chosen as the PA West Volunteer of the Year award winner at its annual awards banquet.

Metrik was basically responsible for brokering the merger between the Altoona Soccer Club and the Hollidaysburg Soccer Association, which was a task that had not been able to come about for decades prior to his efforts. He wrote the club’s constitution and by-laws, and in 2022 compiled the data and documentation for the club’s acceptance as a classic club.

He helps run field set-up and tear-down days in the fall and spring and is the coach of his daughter’s U17 classic team (FC814 Shockwave), and referees with his daughters Emily and Lauren. He is also an assistant coach with the Altoona Area High School girls team.

Metrik also handles normal secretarial duties for the club, schedules all home games, creates a practice schedule for all FC814 teams, handles Facebook page duties for the club and maintains the club’s electronic archive.

“Volunteers are the backbone of the whole organization,” Metrik said. “It takes a village to do what we do, and there is no village I’d rather be part of than FC 814.”

Energy update

FC814 U17 Team Energy suffered bitter disappointment when it fell short of qualifying for the United States Youth Soccer National League national championships when it travelled to the national semifinals in Round Rock, Texas.

The team lost to Team Chicago and the representative squad from Michigan by penalty kicks, which came down to the seventh shooter. In its final game, the team beat JB Marine Gold from Missouri, 6-0.

The Energy scored seven total goals, and gave up only one goal in three games. The team didn’t lose a game in regulation play, but was edged out in penalty kicks.

“We had an excellent showing but just had some bad luck,” coach Marc Frye said.

Tom Schmitt writes a monthly soccer column for the Mirror.