Early Exit for Shooting Stars FC, Despite Good Performance

Houston, May 29 (Reuters) - SSFC coach James Oriabure said he was proud of his players after the African debutants scored their first goal at the tournament on Saturday morning.

"We were not fully prepared for the early morning game after a few players had a night out on the town but nonetheless I'm proud of the players," he said after the 2-1 loss to Chivas Inter in Dallas.

"Today's matches were a little bit of bad football but in the end I think we performed to the best of our abilities.  People were saying we wouldn't be able to compete with the lack of training leading up to the tournament but that didn't happen."

"Everyone involved in SSFC football and the people at home can be very proud," he added.

The second game matched up the favorites of the tournament, Rock Bottom, against the Houston based team who were a little out of wits after the first loss.  SSFC took an early lead when Alphonse, 'T', played a beautiful through ball to Micheal 'My real name's not Poborski'.  "It felt good to finally get the monkey off my back and put one away", said SSFC's all-time leading goal scorer.  Unfortunately SSFC couldn't hold on to the lead after the break and lost in the dying minutes of the game 2-1.

In the third game SSFC looked to leave Dallas with at least one win but it just wasn't meant to be on a day were temperatures were in the high 90's.  They went down 3-1 to Africa United.

Shooting Stars finished fifth in the Super Group with three points behind Chivas Inter, Rock Bottom and African United who all advanced to the second round.

The team will now continue its summer training sessions leading up to the start of training camp in August.  "With the veteran core still intact and new recruits I know this will be a great year for the club."