O'Fallon Flames Archives

7.22.07 : O'Fallon Struggles at National Championship

After 14 months of planning and preparation, the 2007 ASA National Championship had finally arrived in St. Louis. And almost as an afterthought the O'Fallon Flames had to play in it!

The first opponent for the Flames was fellow SLSL league mate Jim Monken. With goals in the first and second half, O'Fallon had secured a 2-0 victory in their first ever match in a National Championship tournament. But it was all downhill from there.

After a disappointing 1-1 draw with Californian George Vassilliades and a hard fought 2-0 loss to Maryland youngster Stuart Russell, the Flames somehow found themselves in the Mary Jane bracket due to a controversial tie-break system. Tied head-to-head with Vassilliades and with a better goal differential, somehow goals scored was the more important tie-breaker and Vassilliades advanced to the championship bracket instead.

Still shaking off the disappointment of not advancing to the top bracket, the Flames bad luck continued as they were taken to a penaly shootout in their first knockout-round match against Calum Keenan. The Flames have never won a shootout in their history and that trend continued as they were unceremoniously dumped out by a 4-2 shootout score.

The second day of the Championship brought about the bizarre 'team tournament'. O'Fallon along with Florissant, Central West End, and Fenton represented the SLSL as "Team Walker'. Screaming, yelling, and overhyped celebrations were the norm for the day as the Flames played extremely well but took losses to three of the top-ranked Subbuteo players in the ASA. A 1-0 loss to nemisis Keith Constable, a 2-1 loss to National runner-up Daniel Cranston, and a 3-0 loss to two-time National Champion Rick Wilcox in the semi-final.

"We had a poor day Saturday, but a better day on Sunday." a suprisingly upbeat Flames manager Jeff Drake said. "Even though we lost all three matches on Sunday I thought we did some good things out there. Scoring a goal and playing a very competitive match against Daniel was a huge confidence builder for our club. Daniel was coming off losing the National Championship match by a goal the day before. He was playing well and we hung in there the full 30. Then holding Rick to a scoreless first half in the semi-final was equally encouraging."

After the tournament was over, Drake told the media that even though the results weren't what he'd expected, Wilcox and 7-time ASA National Champion Gregg Deinhart had great words of compliment for Drake and his O'Fallon Flames. "Rick and Gregg were very impressed with our side's play today. They had nothing but positive words of encouragement at the end of the day and that means a lot to our club."