The 14th edition of our annual California Cup concluded this past weekend with three medals for our teams – never seen so far.

In a very interesting women’s division, Alberta conquered the gold by defeating all the other opponents. It’s the second time in our tournament history that the Canadians raffle the prize after their success in 2017. Our first women’s team ended up at the second place and offered some great matchups against Chicago (win 20:17) and Rogue (lost 23:22). These three teams all ended up with a 2-0-2 score and ranking had to be decided on respective goal difference in head to head comparison. San Francisco Calheat ended up to be the best among all these three teams thanks to a thrilling end of the game and a goal from Isa Perez in the last seconds against 2018 US National Champion, Team Rogue. This tournament served as one of the major preparations for the team for the upcoming US Nationals, recently announced to be held in the city of Detroit, MI on May 8-10. Our second women’s team, consisting of a mix of local and SoCal based players, ended up at the last place but battled honorably nonetheless. The tournament most valuable player, and top scorer, was Haven Wong (Alberta) while the most valuable goalkeeper was our own Athena Del Rosario (SF Calheat).

In the men’s division, the level appeared to be quite more heterogeneous with SF Calheat I and Alberta competing at a much higher level than the other teams. Those two teams won their respective pools by large margins, so as their semifinals and met in one of the most epic CalCup finals ever. Despite trailing by a few goals at half time, Alberta came back to equalize ten minutes before the end. However, the locals leveled up through some of its best players, most notably Eloy Rubio, elected most valuable player (and top scorer, together with Kraig Fischer from Alberta), and Lucas Kroeger (most valuable goalkeeper) who saved some crucial shots. This is the second year in a row that our first men’s team gets their hands on the title. Cherry on the cake, our second men’s team got the bronze medal for the first time in the tournament history by beating Los Angeles THC in the 3rd place game (24:16). This is also the first medal for the team at any US tournament. Next stop: Detroit, MI for the US Nationals (in both Elite and Open).

Thanks to all the volunteers, participating teams (players and staff), medical trainers and also sponsors – Rocktape, Triggerpoint, SKLZ, Dish Dash, and very recently Waymo (article to come) – for making this event possible and successful. See you all in 2021 for our 15th edition!