Santa Rosa coach leads NorCal Premier girls team to Gothia Cup title in Sweden
The NorCal Premier club soccer team for teenage girls, led by a Santa Rosa coach and set to compete in the world-famous Gothia Cup this month, almost never made it to Sweden for the tournament.
Yet they came back as champions.
It was a bomb threat at San Francisco International Airport on July 15 that delayed the girls’ flight and nearly forced them to stay in hotels. They ended up taking the flight to Europe and staying overnight in Paris; however, the team — which draws players from all over Northern California — was already a full day behind schedule.
They finally arrived in Sweden on July 17. With their first match the next day, the girls were tired, and the nerves were starting to kick in.
“It was a long experience,” said Jayden Holdenried, a rising senior at Windsor High School and one of the NorCal players. “I think the first game was a lot of nerves, and to be honest I was tired.”
Whatever nerves there were, the NorCal Premier quickly shed them as they kicked off the first of what would be six games in six days. Goals from Lauren Kenny and Lauren Hunter were enough to win against Swedish club Piteå at the SKF Arena in Gothenburg.
BK Häcken, another team from the host nation, was the next opponent for the NorCal Premier. The girls from Northern California left no doubt in that match, winning 3-0 in Heden.
In the third round, the team played against Djurgårdens, also from Sweden, and gave up an early goal in the third minute. A goal from Stella Etcheverry tied the game in the 30th minute, and after that it was all NorCal. Second half goals from Paloma Daubert and Kennedy Schoennauer saw NorCal win.
It wasn’t until the fourth game, though, when NorCal started playing its best football, Holdenried said.
“I don’t think we had the ball as much in the first three games,” Holdenried said. “But in the fourth game we were able to connect and play well with each other and score the goals we wanted to score. One of our biggest goals was to play a type of football that everyone wants to see, and I really started to see that in the fourth, fifth and the sixth match.”
And show that they did. NorCal went on to score four goals in back-to-back games. Against Lyn Fotball, a Norwegian club, Holdenried, Schoennauer and Erica Grilione all found the back of the net to lead NorCal to the semifinal round.
In that semi-final last Friday, it was the Elle Quinn show. Playing against Danish Team Odense Q, Quinn scored three goals.
Holdenried, a University of Washington player who moved up to center forward from central midfield for the match, added the icing on the cake with a goal in the 53rd minute. NorCal Premier advanced to the finals.
“After (Quinn) scored the hat trick, we had at least 10 people come up and ask her for photographs,” Holdenried said. “I’ve never experienced that before, so it made us feel like we were professional footballers.”
The Gothia Cup is the world’s largest international youth football tournament. More than 1,600 teams from 80 countries compete in more than 4,500 matches.
The NorCal squad was playing for the Puma trophy, the tournament’s award for the best U17 team.
To lift the Pumas, NorCal had one more task ahead of them – defeat the German club Bayer Leverkusen.
“The game plan was to dominate possession and try to put them under a lot of pressure defensively,” said head coach Justin Selander, who also coaches local club Santa Rosa United. “I think the girls responded very well to the tactics.”
With thousands of fans in attendance at Gothenburg’s Gamla Ullevi Stadium, the Northern California squad took an early 1-0 lead behind Sophia Kurisu in the 24th minute. After Estrella Merino Gonzales of Bayer picked up a yellow card in the 29th minute, NorCal’s second goal came in the 36th.
After a corner kick, the ball bounced out and Mia McSweeney of Roseville, who came on as a halftime substitute, took a touch around a defender and placed it into the top left corner for the second goal.
“It felt great,” McSweeney said. “It’s the biggest goal I’ve scored so far, so to score in the final was a great experience.”
Delice Boboy would pull one back for Bayer, scoring in the 56th minute. NorCal Premier held on for the rest of the game, however, for the title.
“It was just crazy, and I couldn’t believe it,” Holdenried said. “It honestly feels like a fever dream. Just standing in front of the crowd cheering for us, and being able to feel the trophy, it was the best experience ever.”
It was the second time NorCal Premier PDP won the Gothia Cup, with the second coming in 2017. The squad has reached the Cup final in all four times it has participated, and Selander has been the coach in three of those four appearances.
“The atmosphere and the fans there are world class,” Selander said. “That’s really one of the reasons we go … it’s a great chance for the kids to test themselves against great teams from around the world.”
The NorCal Premier 17 and under boys team also made the trip to Sweden, where they tied twice, won once and lost once.