Once a year for my coaching staff and I at the Barcelona-USA Academy, it’s all about “THE TRIP!”
The last four years I have been traveling to Barcelona to further my coaching education – all possible through our network of contacts and through Barcelona-USA.
Full access to Barca’s youth Academy training sessions, Barca B (professional reserve team) trainings, and first team training is priceless. Not only have the doors been open for me to observe the sessions but I’ve had the fortune of having direct interaction with Barcelona staff, most notably Luis Enrique (Barca B head coach last season, now AS Roma head coach).
On top of that we have taken our boys under 10 Barcelona-USA Academy team to receive professional training (Jordi Vinyals, current L’Hospitalet coach) in the mornings and compete in friendly matches with local Academies in the evenings. This will be the third consecutive year we take the current U10 team, all of which have been crowned Cal South State Cup Champions weeks prior to departing for Spain. The highlight match will once again be the deemed “clasico” between the real Barcelona Academy team and our Barcelona USA version. For two years running we have come away undefeated in our matches against them (4-1 win in 2010, 2-2 draw in 2011). The level of respect for our Barca USA version has grown tremendously over that time due to the competitiveness of our teams and how we’ve taken their methodology and applied it. The 2010 version of THE TRIP was where Ben Lederman first wowed Barcelona coaches and scouts with his play. He received the invite for his trial during the 2011 trip and was then offered a spot on the world’s best youth academy.
The second week of this year’s trip will see my boys U11 Barcelona-USA Academy (2000′s/2001′s) travel to the prestigious MIC Cup International tournament. This is a special team who has 3 peated as State Cup champions at u9, u10, and u11. The boys are fresh off the “Quadruple,” having won League, League Cup, Surf Cup and State Cup this season. It will be a great challenge for them to compete against the likes of Ajax, FC Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, and Manchester United to name a few.
I’ll be blogging frequently on 3four3 throughout the trip with the latest updates on the games, trainings, and events.
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That is great Brian. I am new to the site and was amazed with your video of U11s. I love the style of play and all the actual passes were like clock work! Regarding your trip, I was eager to know how you guys do it financially. Is a lot of this sponsored or is this just a lot of good parents that are making the sacrifice to pay for a trip like this. This is something we would like to do for our teams if not Barcelona, some type of international exposure. But obviously funds is a large issue for us. Connections with Barca are awesome! That’s good stuff, keep it up. I thinks that’s what a lot of our clubs these days need, some networking. Unfortunately there is too much “orgullo” especially in our hispanic clubs. No one wants to share anything, “how dare you want to be better than me!” I think what you are doing is great, I love hearing about a lot of success stories, especially when you can present a lot of lessons learned. Been there…. done that… type of stuff! Alright take care!
That is awesome Brian…looking forward to the updates!
With regard to the tournament and competition between your teams and the European sides, what is the format (11v11 or 7v7), and the field size?
i am ankush ……….living in india…21 years old…..want to join football academy barcelona(la masia) next year… can u plz tell me if i be able to join d academy…as der is no scope of football here and i love football and fc barcelona……