Vern Dean and Ryan Lapalm helped Vancouver FC win gold in the championship final of the over 60 division at the recent Harvest Cup tournament in Casa Grande, Arizona.
There were six teams in the division, five of them American. In the preliminaries, Vancouver won three games and tied one, allowing a single goal in four games. The squad then beat the Freddy Fund team from Plano, Texas 1-0 in the final. The lone goal came when Dean beat his man to the ball and calmly took a shot from 25 yards out to beat the keeper top corner.
“I struck the ball with my left foot and it sailed into the top right corner of the net with three minutes left to play,” Dean said.
There were three red cards and three yellows issued during the final.
“Very emotional game with the last minute taking about five minutes to play due to the cards,” said Dean, who credits Lapalm for running miles at the outside left midfield position. “He is such a tenacious tackler and never gave up on any tackle.”
