Wisconsin Soccer Central

The FC Wisconsin Nationals Under-14 boys team won two of its three group matches at the U.S. Club Soccer National Premier Leagues Finals over the weekend in Aurora, Colo., but came up just short of advancing to the semifinals.

The Nationals beat Florida's GPS Orlando 4-1 on Thursday and Colorado's FC Boulder 3-2 on Saturday, sandwiched around a 2-0 loss to GPS Massachusetts.

That left them in a four-way tie for first in the six-team Flight C; the top two sides earned berth in Sunday's semifinals. FC Boulder claimed the top spot thanks to a plus-8 goal differential; the other three sides each were plus-2.

The next tiebreaker was goals scored, and California's Anaheim FC PDA got the second semifinal berth because they had nine goals. Oregon's River Plate SC 24K was third with eight goals and FC Wisconsin ended up fourth with seven goals.

Anaheim FC PDA ended up winning the title, beating Real Colorado 3-1 in Monday's final, while FC Boulder fell in the semifinals.

• Vitalis Takawira Jr. (Greendale) and Brayden Callipari and David Portugal, who both have verbally committed to play for the University of Wisconsin starting in fall 2017, all started both matches as the Chicago Fire ended up fourth at the U.S. Soccer Development Academy Under-15/16 nationals over the weekend in Carson, Calif. The Fire (19-9-3) dropped a 1-0 decision to eventual champion FC Dallas in Thursday's semifinals, then lost to Real Colorado 4-1 in Saturday's third-place game. Takawira finished the season with eight goals in 26 appearances, while Callipari had five goals in 27 games and Portugal added one in 25 appearances – all three also spent time with the club's Under-17/18 side. Stan Anderson (UW-Parkside), a former assistant for the UW-Milwaukee, Marquette and University of Wisconsin men's teams, is an assistant to Fire Academy head coach Gonzalo Segares.
• Defender Andre Baires, an incoming UW-Green Bay freshman, and the Vancouver Whitecaps fell to FC Dallas 2-1 in the Development Academy Under-17/18 final Saturday night in Carson. The loss snapped a 34-game unbeaten streak for the Whitecaps (24-2-11), who hadn't lost since a 2-0 setback against California's Nomads in the second game of the season back on Sept. 19. Baires finished with six goals in 33 appearances this season, including the opener in Thursday night's 4-1 semifinal victory over New Jersey's Players Development Academy.