On February 20th, Brandon Saldana of Garden City, traveled to Lanco Field House in Lancaster, PA to compete for the title of "2004 National Goalie War Champion". This Tournament would include previous 2004 Regional Champions and Finalists from all over the United States, as far west as New Mexico and California, as far north as Rochester, NY and as far south as Florida.

Saldana, the winner of both the 2004 Local Pennsylvania and 2004 Northeast Regional Tournaments knew that the competition would be fierce, but he was ready. The 13 year old Division was divided into A and B based on previous rankings. Saldana easily took the first three round-robin matches by 25-2, 19-6 and 27-0, solidifying first place in

Division A.

In the Semi-Finals match, Saldana would face an old rival, Ian Huxel. Huxel, from Upstate NY was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Finalist and a Finalist in the Northeast Regionals, in which Saldana had beaten him twice. Today, Huxel was seeded in second place in Division B after round-robin play. This time, Huxel would not go down without a fight. The scoring was slow at the start, but by the second half, it was 9-8 with Huxel in the lead and feeling confident of a win. This only fueled Saldana to Punt, Throw and Kick in a few 2-pointers and suddenly, with less than 30 seconds to go, the score was tied at 13-13. The crowd was cheering, but not for Saldana, as no one wanted to face him in the finals. Then, as the referee's whistle blew, Saldana dashed Huxel's hopes of winning by scoring a 2-pointer, making the final score 15-13.

Talk about a nail biter!!

Saldana would have to wait around for just over an hour while other matches were played, including the match to determine who he would face in the Finals. It would be Matthew Esparza, the Southwest Regional Champion from New Mexico that Saldana had faced earlier in round-robin play and defeated by 19-6. Saldana would not let that previous win let his guard down. The next five minutes were for all the marbles! As soon as the referee's whistle blew, Saldana was scoring, as well as making amazing saves. By the end of the first half, he was ahead by 12-0. Saldana would fight hard to maintain his shut-out, and he would succeed. The final score was 21-0. Saldana was the undisputed 2004 National Goalie War Champion, with a total of 107 goals scored and only 21 goals against. Full scores and stats can be found on www.goaliewar.com/national.htm

Saldana is a goalie for the Massapequa Terminators Region 1 Premier, as well as the Long Island Select ODP soccer teams. He is an eighth grader at Garden City Middle School and will be attending Chaminade High School in September where he hopes to make the freshman soccer team. In the meantime, he's looking forward to the start of the outdoor season and a European Soccer Tour in July.