Achievement+ Perspective+ Perseverance

WEST SIDE ALLIANCE

SOCCER CLUB

CLASSIC MATCHES

The All Time Great Matches in WSA Club History

 This page is under construction.  If you have a WSA Classic Match that meets the criteria below please submit the details of the match to Roger Bush and the game will be reviewed for placement in the All-Time Greats Hall.

CRITERIA FOR INCLUSION (must meet some, not all, criteria below)

Significance of match (league title, state cup, tournament final, first win, final game)

Match played by a WSA team

Match’s place in context of history of club is important

Participants in match bring relevant importance 

Huge upset victory or defeat

Excellent football on display

NOMINATED MATCHES THUS FAR:

WSA 80 Boys vs WSA 79 Boys League Championship Match: Both teams enter unbeaten, last game of the season, WSA 79 edges 80’s 2-1 on a controversial penalty kick that led to a red card ejection for coach Roger Bush. Game was played  off site at McLure School because Rivercity was flooded and underwater. Spring 1993.

WSA 81 Girls vs Ponca City 81 League Championship Match: WSA 81 needed a win in to secure the league title. In the first season to consider wins as 3 points, the team had drawn Everton 81 the week before.  After several near misses at Rivercity’s Field 6, the 81 girls could not find a finishing punch and settled for a 0-0 draw giving Ponca City the A Division Championship). Fall 1993. 

WSA 80 Boys vs Tulsa Pride 80 Boys League Championship Match: Marc Brown drew a penalty 20 minutes into the 2nd half and Ryan Bush buried it to draw the game level on Rivercity’s Field #1.  Pride had not been beaten by an Oklahoma team.  Kevin King mustered chances, but Pride got a late goal off a deflection to squeak the win and the championship in the "A" League.  Pride was State Champion that year.  Fall 1995.  The game was watched by one of the largest home crowds to view a WSA League Game in history.  

WSA 85 Boys vs Tulsa Nationals 85 Boys State Final Match: May have been the most widely watched WSA match in history.  The 2003 State Final many believed was an insurmountable task for the 85 boys. But the team who had compiled 56 wins and only 4 losses, on a 64 game season, only losing twice to teams in their age division, once to Nationals 85 and once to Texas Longhorns would make it a classic.  The half ended at 0-0.  In the 2nd half, despite several regular backline players injured WSA kept the Nationals attack at bay.  It was a slip along the end line at Indian Springs Field #2 by defender Brian Stewart that gave Nationals their only chance w/ about 10 minutes to play.  WSA would earn a corner 3 minutes later and Jeremy would head toward goal for an apparent equalizer, before the goal line defender from Nationals reached out an arm to turn away the chance.  Nationals went to win the Southern Regional Championship two weeks later and represented Oklahoma in the National Final Four.

WSA 88 Boys vs Celtic 88 Boys State Final Match State Final Match: June 2, 2007.  WSA history was made when a penalty kick was awarded for a ball that took an inadvertent bounce.  WSA free kick specialist Alex McLaurin delivered WSA their first ever State Championship prize with his 2nd half winner in a match that was otherwise contested through the midfield.   

WSA 81 Girls vs Blackwatch 81 State Semifinal Match: June 1999, the WSA 81 girls, at the newly opened Valley Park Sports Complex in Catoosa, had finally advanced to their deserved spot in the 2nd weekend of the State Tournament.  WSA 81 went in as a heavy underdog, but had they managed to reach halftime tied against a stiff wind the match may have had an interesting outcome.  The final was 3-0, and the most celebrated girls team in WSA history played their final game as teammates.  

WSA 85 Boys vs Nationals 85 In the summer of 1999 the WSA 85 boys would meet the Tulsa Nationals 85 boys in a match that most would have predicted to be an easy 10-goal run-away.  None of the WSA 85 teammates had ever played a match closer than 5 goals with Nationals. The game, played at Indian Springs Field #1, went to half at 0-0 and with WSA striker Joey Kennington pressing on the backline, while WSA brothers Michael Cromwell in goal, and Bret Cromwell at sweeper appeared to have stifled the state’s best attacking group.  In the first minute of injury time, score till level, and shortly after Kennington had just broken free w/ the Nationals keeper, a foul at the midfield was called against WSA. A quick restart, with the ball still moving, beat the WSA backline first time on the afternoon, fed to a Nationals striker arguably offside, led to a huge collision w/ goalkeeper Cromwell and a ball that trickled it’s way past the line to give Nationals a 1-0 narrow in. But possibly never before had a team in Oklahoma club history made such an unexpected splash. 

WSA 80 Boys vs ASE Spirit 80 In the Spring of 1994 the WSA 80 boys would earn a goal, one of the ugliest on record, but befitting of blue collar soccer against a highly touted ASE Spirit 80 team.  WSA 80 had scrapped its way into the match against the highly favored ASE Spirit 80 team and at a point in the 1st half seemed to overtake the momentum. Ben Hale was flagged for offside on a diving header goal, and Marc Brown was also denied by the linesman’s flag.  But the third time would be the charm as a scrum in the area led to a win by Brown and the ball in the net for the "coming out party" for WSA 80.  The win propelled the team to belief and marked them as a contender among the "elite" in Tulsa. 

WSA 80 Boys vs ASE Spirit 80 in Summer 1994 State Cup: WSA had not recorded a meaningful result in a State Cup.  In a rain filled tournament with mud sloppy pitches forward Barry Roberts and Marc Brown found chances but no glory.  Then a ball broke for a Spirit player against the tide of the game and it appeared to seal the fate of the WSA group, already a man down due to a red card.  However, late in the game Barry Roberts combined with a teammate, and buried the equalizer to keep WSA 80 in the hunt to advance. The celebration led to an on field knee slide from coach Roger Bush, the first of several he’d pull off in his early coaching years. 

WSA 90 Boys vs TSC 90 Boys in 2009 State Championship: WSA 90 was not only underdogs, their head coach, Josh McElroy’s message before the game to his team, "Their big.  Their fast.  Their gonna be real "stinkin" good."  Only 60 seconds after kick-off TSC 90 led 1-0.  It may have been the needed recipe for success.  A calm went over TSC and the WSA 90 team continued the battle.  An equalizer 20 minutes in shocked the crowd, but TSC took over again for a 2-1 halftime lead.  Then in the 2nd half the Colina name would make another mark in WSA history as Orlando Colina (Pedro Colina’s cousin) would strike a beaut of a free-kick to level things at 2-2.  Moments later Danny Peralta would pull a ball back across the face of the goal WSA would smash home the go ahead.  A WSA backline hero and now WSA coach, Adam Gardner, helped the squad fend off the loaded TSC attacking side (marked by a starting 11 of NCAA DI players from multiple states).  The final whistle gave WSA 90 the state championship! 

WSA 89 Girls JB Marine 88 Girls: In their u16 year in the Labor Day Tourney Championship, Fall 2005, the WSA 89 girls would dismantle a fairly loaded tourney field including JB Marine 89, JB Marine 88, and Conway United 88.  The WSA 89 girls tournament final was a display of pure attacking football.  The win and championship was not as extraordinary as the team football that was orchestrated by the girls en route to a decided tournament championship over a regionally and nationally ranked team one year older.  

WSA 85 Boys vs La Ranch New Mexico: WSA 85 boys had not yet earned their way to stardom in the first annual WSA Cup of Spring 2000. But the New Mexico State Champions had come to town, and WSA 85 would meet the team in the tournament final, where the standard "West Side D" was applied to shutout the state champs, and a late goal by Carmen Bernal would lend WSA 85 its most significant victory to date.  Coach Roger Bush called the victory premature for the level of the team, but it was still one of the hallmarks of great ride for the 85 boys and possibly laid the foundation for so much more further success in the boys program at WSA.  In addition the victory came on home grounds, Rivercity Field #8, at the Inaugural First Annual WSA Cup Tournament. 

WSA 85 Boys vs England: The WSA 85 boys played and lost one of the most exciting and exhilarating matches in club history in the 2003 USA Cup. In the first round the squad needed a win to stay alive after a severe loss to the Minnesota State Champs in the opening match.  Facing a tough England squad, the team came out with their oft heard battle cry of "balls to the wall".  WSA 85 fell behind 1-0, then drew level at 1-1, then fell behind at 2-1, before drawing level at 2-2.  Then in dramatic fashion led 3-2 with only moments to play, before being leveled to 3-3, falling behind to 4-3, before leveling again at 4-4.  THe games were shortened to 25-minute halves, and and 6 of the games goals came in the 2nd half for a heart racing, heart pounding, thriller!  

WSA 85 Boys vs El Paso Patriots of USL Professional League: In one of the 4 games WSA lost in 2002-2003 season, one was to the El Paso Patriots.  After driving nearly 15 hours overnight the squad played a televised game in the USL’s A League Exhibition circuit at the Sun Bowl in El Paso.  Going down 4 goals in the first half, the team battled back in the 2nd half to make a respectable game of it, having several near misses and coming out on the wrong side, but respectable side of a 4-0 loss.  The stories of "the trip" are legendary, possibly moreso than the game itself.