2008 (16U) State Premiership

State Premiership’s 2023 Champions, FSC, play host to West Lawn SC to debut the 2024 season. FSC enters the competition after an undefeated 2023 campaign with eight wins and two draws – one of those draws coming against Sunday’s opponent. After 10 games played, FCS scored 35 times and only allowed six goals! A formidable goalkeeper and defensive unit that had five clean sheets and only one game with more than one goal scored on. On the attacking end, the side found the back of the net at least three times in 8 out of the 10 games! A year later, FSC will not be looking at the impressive statistics as their target but instead the three points after the end of the weekend. A very competitive and hungry West Lawn, however, stands in their way.

West Lawn SC will find second place good but not good enough for them. After a tough start to their 2023 State Premiership season where two points came out of their first four games, West Lawn finished the season winning their last six! A commanding goal margin of 19 goals to 5 against and 12 points to go with it, secured their second place. The Chicago side will look at the end of the season as the momentum needed to come into the campaign like they finished the previous. A number one in their win column will be their only objective, an adversary however, in the shape of Champions will be the task in hand.

West Lawn SC’s Coach, Martin Mora, emphasized the preparedness of his team, “We have prepared our players physically and mentally to be able to get the best result…although we aspire for a different result from last year, we still see this as any other game,” he said. The thought of last year remains in Mora’s head but it will not dictate how he treats this specific game. The West Lawn Coach stated, “Our players are focused from the moment they arrive to the pitch, we highlight why we are there to play the game which gets our players motivated and ready for the start of the match.” Focus and preparation are what is expected from Mora’s side, the goal now is to execute.

“We have our standards that we have set as a team, and the players know the importance of each game”

Coach Adam Hewitt of FSC, understands what they have in front of them in West Lawn SC and are not looking at the past as an indication of what to expect. “A lot can change in the time between the last time we played each other and next weekend’s game. So, we just prepare like we would for any game, and expect to have to deliver a strong performance to get a positive result,” said Hewitt regarding the upcoming confrontation. When asked if he has to say anything special to motivate the players for a game of such magnitude, Hewitt stated “we have our standards that we have set as a team and the players know the importance of each game.”

Both coaches were asked how important a positive result is, regardless of it being early on in the season and while they had similar sentiments, they both will approach things slightly different.

For West Lawn, the emphasis is on preparedness and consistency, “we are tactically prepared for our season, with the development of our own system of football. We hope that we can get off on the right foot in our early season matches so that we can relieve the pressure of the results of our late season matches. As a team we thrive to achieve positive results for the duration of our entire season,” said Coach Mora. For FSC, the emphasis is of the knowledge that there is a lot to play for and the focus will be on a good start to then build on. Coach Hewitt stated “I think if we can focus on getting a positive performance first, and if we do this the result will hopefully be the reward. It’s early in the season where we still are still definitely not the finished article. The guys, of course always want to win, but winning in the right way is important as it’s a season with lots of games and we want to be stronger and more complete when coming out of this one.”

The teams have great mindsets coming into this game and both will know the importance of it while approaching it in their own way. West Lawn SC will be visiting FSC come Sunday April 7th, 3:30pm at Glenbard East High School!