Wisconsin Soccer Central

It was a weekend of mixed results against Minnesota clubs for the FC Wisconsin Nationals.

The three Nationals teams swept a trio of U.S. Soccer Development Academy matches against the Minnesota Thunder Academy on their home turf Saturday in Germantown, then lost a pair of games against Shattuck-St. Mary's on Sunday.

FC Wisconsin sides scored early and often against the Thunder.

Reid Stevenson (Sturgeon Bay) – a UW-Milwaukee recruit – scored in the opening 10 seconds, then closed out a 5-1 rout for the Under-17/18 team with his team-best ninth goal in the 86th minute. Braden Andryk (Milwaukee Marquette), University of Wisconsin recruit Nikola Atlija (Franklin) and UWM recruit Jaime Colin (Kenosha Tremper) also scored in the Nationals' highest-scoring game of the season.

Todor Atlija (Franklin) had a brace, scoring his fourth and fifth goals in the 31st and 45th, and Armend Kamberi (South Milwaukee) finished off a cross from Bobby Cisneroz for his first of the season as the Under-15/16 side posted a 3-1 victory.

The Under-13/14 team (5-10-4) also started fast, getting goals from Lucas DeMartino (Mequon) in the 1st minute, Kamrin Pegues (Milwaukee) in the 27th and Trey Goodnetter (Elm Grove) in the 33rd and holding on for a 3-2 win over the Thunder.

Shattuck-St. Mary's, a high school program that doesn't have an Under-13/14 team, beat the Nationals' Under-17/18 team 3-0 on a hat trick by Rodrigo Lopez-Espin. FC Wisconsin fell to 6-12-3 and remains 11th in the Central Conference's 13-team Mid-America Division.

In the Under-15/16 match, Blake Carr (Hartland Arrowhead) scored his sixth goal of the season in the 46th to pull the home team level, but Shattuck got the game-winner in stoppage time and added another in the final seconds for a 3-1 win. FC Wisconsin (9-9-3) is in seventh place in the division with an average of 1.43 points per game, just behind Shattuck's 1.45.

The Nationals are back on the road this weekend, with all three teams playing Chicago's Sockers FC on Saturday in Naperville, Ill.

• U.S. Club Soccer's National Premier Leagues Midwest Developmental League will alter its setup starting in the 2014-15, with a new division created for clubs that also are members of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. FC Wisconsin Nationals will play in the new Academy Division along with the Chicago Magic, Crew Soccer Academy, Ohio's Internationals, Minnesota Thunder, Sockers FC Chicago, St. Louis Scott Gallagher (Illinois and Missouri) and Michigan's Vardar. The Under-13 and Under-14 boys teams from those clubs will play in the MDL in both the fall and spring, while the Under-15 to Under-18 groups will play only in the spring. The schedules will match those of the Development Academy. The other two state clubs in the MDL, the Madison 56ers and Milwaukee Bavarians, will play in the Independent Division.
• A combined FC Wisconsin Eclipse girls team, with players from the club's Under-15, Under-16 and Under-17 teams, topped NCAA Division III side UW-Whitewater 1-0 in an exhibition match Saturday at Fiskum Field in Whitewater. It was the final competition of the season for the FC Wisconsin Eclipse spring teams.
• Group pairings have been announced for the Wisconsin State Championships, with 132 teams set for the Wisconsin Youth Soccer Association event that's better known as the State Cup. Six boys divisions (Under-13 to Under-18) and two girls divisions (Under-13 and Under-14) will feature 16 teams split into four four-team groups, while the Under-19 boys division has four teams. Group play is May 24 to 26, with the semifinals May 31 and the finals June 1, with all matches at Scheels USA Youth Complex in Appleton. State champions earn berths in the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Championships, which are June 21 to 25 in Beavercreek, Ohio. The Under-15 to Under-18 girls state tournaments were played last fall to avoid conflicts with the WIAA prep season. Spring Wisconsin State Championships group pairings (pdf)