City Finals Birmingham-Bound

The City Section boys’ and girls’ championship soccer games on Saturday have been moved from East Los Angeles College to Birmingham High, Barbara Fiege, director of athletics for the section, announced Monday.

Fiege said East Los Angeles double-booked its stadium, forcing the section to locate an alternate site on short notice. After consultation with coaches and administrators from the remaining playoff teams, Birmingham was chosen.

The girls’ Division Championship begins at 2 p.m., the girls’ City Championship at 4 p.m. and the boys’ title game is at 6 p.m.

The switch could pose problems for local ball-control teams like the Reseda boys and Chatsworth girls should they reach the championship game.

Birmingham’s stadium field is shorter, narrower and has rougher terrain than the spacious, grassy surface at East Los Angeles, which has hosted City title games the last four seasons.

However, Reseda co-Coach Julio Castillo said the Valley location for the title games would be a positive if any region teams advance.

“Any field is better than what we play on at Reseda,” Castillo said. “We’ll get a lot more fans here because the players from other teams around here will come to the game.”

The boys’ and girls’ City Championship finals will be televised live by KLCS-TV, Channel 58.

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Jerry Seliga, coach of the Birmingham High girls’ soccer team, was left scratching his head Friday after watching his team’s next opponent, Chatsworth, rout Grant, 7-0, in a City Section quarterfinal.

Birmingham plays at Chatsworth today in Birmingham’s first semifinal appearance.

Seliga, who has a bushy beard and his hair pulled back into a ponytail, hopes that this time next week he doesn’t have any hair to scratch. He promised his players at the start of the season they could shave his beard and head if they won a City title.

“Now that we’re only two wins away I’m not so worried about it, but my wife is,” Seliga said with a laugh.

Seliga will probably get off the hook. Chatsworth (22-2-1) is three-time defending section champion and during the last five years has outscored its playoff opponents, 70-6.

Birmingham (13-3-4), three-time defending West Valley League champion, is an intriguing opponent.

The Patriots have posted 13 shutouts and outscored their opponents 100-17 with a central core of forward Krissy Oakes, midfielders Nuria Vanegas and Errin Smith, stopper Abby Herrera and sweeper Jill Oakes.

Oakes, a senior, leads the team with 34 goals and her sister, Jill, a freshman, has 25 goals and 12 assists.

Birmingham has won seven consecutive games and has eight consecutive shutouts, but Seliga knows it means little against Chatsworth.

“[Chatsworth is] a team of highly motivated girls who have fun together,” Seliga said of the Chancellors. “We’ve scored a lot of goals, but the competition hasn’t been what Chatsworth has faced.”

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Some of the biggest contributions recently made to the El Camino Real boys team have come from its smallest player, forward Yan Falkinstein.

The sophomore scored his 10th goal last Thursday in the Conquistadores’ 1-0 overtime defeat of Chatsworth in a City Section second-round game. Falkinstein, 5-3 1/2, has improved his play and demeanor since being ejected from a holiday tournament game for verbally abusing an official.

“That was an embarrassment for us and a turning point for Yan,” said David Hussey, El Camino Real’s coach. “He’s probably one of the most skilled players we have at controlling the ball.”

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For the first time in six seasons, no boys’ team from the region has advanced to a Southern Section division semifinal. At least one girls’ team from the region has played in a division semifinal the last six seasons--four times advancing to a division title game.