Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo tied CESA from South Carolina 2-2 on the second day of the USYS National Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. It was a totally dominating performance by Botafogo in the first half as they took a 1-0 lead into the break off tri-captain Hope D’Addario’s beautiful strike from 25 yards out.

In the 2nd half CESA started playing very direct, and was able to knock Botafogo off its game plan. The score was tied after a corner-kick about 20 minutes in, but Meegan Johnston restored the lead for Botafogo with perfectly taken PK with 20 minutes left. Unfortunately, CESA was able to find a late equalizer in the 89th minute, so Botafago now needs a win against the top-ranked team in the country Legends Breakaway tomorrow morning, and some help in one of the other two games, to advance to Sunday’s final.

Team Chicago Academy-Botofogo showed extremely well this past weekend at the Fort Wayne Fever Academy 11v11 Showcase.

Playing up in the top U16 bracket, Botafogo played some very strong teams. Internationals from Cleveland is one of the top MRL Premier Division teams, and both Fort Wayne Fever Academy & Lexington FC are top MRL First Division teams.

The first game against the Internationals was obviously the toughest, and the extra year and the fact that we hadn’t played 11v11 in 3 months showed. However, the girls competed extremely well, and the quality of play improved as the game wore on. The 3-0 loss was a fair indication of the difference between the two teams on the night.

The 2nd game was against Lexington FC and the combination of our play improving from the first game, and the fact that the opposition wasn’t quite as strong made for a much more even match-up. Kaela Leskovar scored twice to give us the lead, but Lexington fought back to the tie it up twice, too, for the 2-2 result.

The final game against Fort Wayne Fever Academy was our best performance of the weekend. Against a very strong opponent we played good soccer, scored a great goal, and held tight at the back to earn the 1-0 win. McKenna Kiple set up the goal with a great left-footed cross which Brittany Brewer direct into the goal at the far post, while Olivia Cozzoni was there to shepherd it over the line for added security.

Erin Wren made some great saves in the dying minutes to preserve the win.

Overall, it was a great weekend, and a perfect tune-up ahead of the Ohio Elite College Showcase next month in Cincinnati.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo had a very strong showing at the Metro Tournament in St. Louis this past weekend. Botafogo won their group with 7 points after wins over GR Crew and FCX, and a tie against the hosts SLSG Elite.

Due to the heavy rains in the days leading up to the tournament the format was changed to a Showcase format with no semi-finals or final. And Saturday’s games were shortened to 2×25 minutes.

Botafogo got off to a great start with a convincing 3-0 win over Grand Rapids Crew from Michigan. Allie Zappia got the game-winner mid-way trough the first half with her first goal of the season. Zoey Goralski beat two defenders to the end-line and whipped in a great cross, which Allie met at the back post, and confidently put into the back of the net.

Only a few minutes later Hope D’Addario picked up the ball about 25 yards out, and hit a bomb that easily beat the GR Crew keeper to make it 2-0.

In the opening minutes of the second half Zoe Ekonomou recorded her first goal of the season with a cheeky little chip from the top of the penalty box. Erin Wren recorded the shut-out in goal.

In the 2nd game of the day, Botafogo played a feisty FCX team from Barrington, but managed to come away with an 1-0 win on Zoey Goralski’s goal off Molly Piech’s assist at the beginning of the second half. Erin Wren and Kiley Dunning shared the shut-out.

On Sunday morning Botafogo took on a very strong SLSG Elite team on a really poor field, but managed to play some quality soccer against a quality opponent. After having some early chances to go up 1-0, Botafogo found itself down 1-0 15 minutes into the game, but it only took 5 minutes for Hope D’Addario to level the score from Molly Piech’s assist.

The game see-sawed back and forth for the rest of the half, but Botafogo was unfortunate not to be up 2-1 at the half after Olivia Cozzoni’s well-taken goal was somewhat dubiously disallowed for off-side.

The second half was also pretty even, but as the half wore on Botafogo got more and more of the play. And in the final minutes Hope D’Addario almost won the game with a strike from the top of the penalty box, and in the last play of the game Jenna Romano almost got the game-winner off Hope’s great free-kick.

With the tie Botafogo won the group with 7 points, and it was a great warm-up ahead of the two pivotal MRL Premier Division games this week. Tuesday Botafogo travels to Tinley Park for an 8:30pm kick-off against Eclipse Select, and Thursday they host NSA in a do-or-die battle at 7:45pm.

For the third consecutive time over the past year, Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo tied FC Milwaukee 0-0. Marking 220 minutes of scoreless play against FC Milwaukee, the game was also the third consecutive shutout in MRL Premier Division play for Botafogo.

Botafogo dominated most of the play, but failed to convert on any of the chances, and had to settled for the lone point. With the tie FC Milwaukee and Botafogo are tied after 7 of the 9 MRL games. Both teams have yet to play Eclipse and NSA next week.

Botafogo is scheduled to play Eclipse at Tinley Park on Wednesday 10/28 at 8:30pm and NSA at PlayUSA on Thursday at 7:45pm.

Team Chicago Academy-Botafogo had a successful weekend with two shut-out victories. The games marked the 3rd shut-out in a row.

Saturday FC United was beaten 2-0 in MRL Premier Division play by two Hope D’Addario strikes. The first goal was a master-piece as left-back Abbey Mazur served in a great cross towards the near post, which Molly Piech got on the end of and then cleverly back-heeled to a wide-open Hope D’Addario who calmly toe-poked the ball into the far-side netting.

The 2nd of the game came directly off a D’Addario corner-kick midway through the 2nd half. Kiley Dunning earned the shut-out in goal

With the win Botafogo now has 7 points in MRL play ahead of the big derby against NSA Tuesday 10/13 at 7:45pm at PlayUSA.

Today Sunday Botafogo beat Chicago Magic in the first IWSL Champions Division contest of the season. It looked like it was going to be a 0-0 stalemate until Olivia Cozzoni came up with the game-winner with less than a minute to go. Olivia picked a perfect time to score her first goal of the season as she hit a perfect strike from 22 yards out.

Erin Wren (60 minutes) and Kiley Dunning (20) shared the shut-out in goal.