The Birmingham United ’01 boy’s team competed in several 3V3 local, sectional and regional soccer tournaments this past summer and earned a World Championship title at the Kick-IT 3V3 World Championships held at the Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World, Orlando Florida.

Approximately 750 teams competed in this event which required a top 5 finish at a regional competition earlier in the year. For the Male ’01 competitive bracket there were 40 teams that would begin the tournament with hopes of being crowned Kick-IT World Champions. Fifteen states and 23 cities were represented in the 8 pools of teams and the BUSA ’01 boys from Alabama won it all.

Based on their performance at several local, sectional and regional tournaments this past summer, Birmingham United received the overall #5 seed nationally in this age group entering into the competition. Working its way through the pools and into the elimination rounds, the ’01 BUSA boys were matched up against the overall number 1 seed in the national semifinals. The hometown cheers were not enough for the local team from Florida as the BUSA boys handed the 3 time defending national champions their only loss in approximately three years by a score of 4-2.

The play of the tournament occurred in the semi-final game where a loose ball that was bounding toward the United net seemed like it would be easily netted by the former champs for a goal. The defending champs got there first, but the shot was blocked simultaneously by all 3 United players - outstanding effort!! The stingy United defense allowed only two goals against the 3-time defending national champs which had won their previous matches by a margin of 10-1.

A year ago, United saw a 4-1 halftime lead slip away against the Azurri team from New Jersey which knocked the good guys from BUSA out of the quarter finals in 2008. The relentless defense from the semi-final game continued and BUSA scored just enough to win it all by beating the overall 3 seed 4-3 for the championship. The United 01’ boys won all 8 games, outscoring their opponents 56-28 and are now crowned 2009 Kick-It 3V3 World champions.