Team Chicago Academy-Internacional got off to a great start on the Fall season with an impressive 4-2 win against Lake Country United (WI) in today’s scrimmage at PlayUSA.

Lauren Penkala bagged a brace in the opening 20 minutes to put Internacional up 2-0. LCU pulled one back before the half, but Kiley Czerwinski got the eventual game-winner, and Sam O’Brien got the insurance goal in the final minute of the game.

Up next for Internacional is the NSR Gold Cup in Naperville over Labor Day weekend.

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional beat cross-town rivals Galaxy 2-1 behind a brace by Megan Buchanan. Twice within 2 minutes in the 1st half she stole the ball and drilled a perfect shot past the Galaxy keeper to secure the win.

The win was the 2nd in a row for Internacional in IWSL Champions Division play.

Team Chicago Academy-International found its winning ways in the home game versus the Rockford Dactyls on Sunday 9/27. Without playing particularly well, Internacional picked up the 4-2 win off some great forward play by Miranda Lambert and Kiley Czerwinski in the 2nd half.

After a lackluster 1st half that saw Dactyls take the lead with 6 minutes left, Abby Flynn leveled for Internacional at the stroke of halftime on yet another direct free-kick.

The 2nd half was considerably better and it only took 5 minutes for Miranda Lambert and Kiley Czerwinski to get the two goals which proved enough to secure the win.

First Alena Sidwell drove to the endline and served in a cross which ended up at Kiley’s feet for an easy goal. And then Kiley turned provider with a perfectly weighted through-ball which Miranda toe-poked past the on-rushing keeper.

Unfortunately, a little lax defending allowed the Dactyls back into the game midway through the half, but Miranda Lambert put the game out of reach with 10 minutes to go after some persistent work in the box.

Next up for Internacional is a game next Saturday at 5pm at cross-town rivals Galaxy.

Team Chicago Academy-Internacional finished off the 2009 Spring season with a 5-0 win at Rios Park over River Forest. Kiley Czerwinski got what proved to be the game-winner with 8 minutes left in the first half off a Maya Neal and Megan Buchanan assist.

In the 2nd half goals by Megan Tagler, Abby Flynn, Maya Neal, and Alena Sidwell assured the rout. Hannah Parrish recorded the shutout in goal.

With the impressive performance, Internacional finished off the season in the best possible way. The players are now off on summer vacation until the pre-season stats August 10th.

After a sub-par performance at Downers-Grove on Sunday, it was a much improved Team Chicago Academy-Internacional team that took the turf field at Oak Park-River Forest last night.

While it took a bit to get used to the super-fast turf surface, there was much more composure and focus, and eventually the passing movement improved. Playing against a good & physical team, Internacional played some great passing soccer – especially in the 2nd half.

4 separate beautiful passing sequences and runs led to 100% chances, but unfortunately we lacked the necessary luck an/or quality on the day to take advantage of those chances. Instead, we ended up 1-0 losers off a corner-kick.

The soccer gods were hardly with us on the night, but it was a strong performance, and a good lesson in combination with Sunday’s loss – losing with a strong performance is OK, but losing with a poor performance and effort is not OK.

Internacional finishes off the Spring season with a 5pm home game this Sunday at Rios Park.