MIC Cup Semi-final vs Ajax L’estartit – Another prime time showdown against one of the top youth academies in world football. The Netherlands have produced countless world class players with Ajax being the conveyer belt. Johan Cruyff, Edwin van der Sar, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Marco Van Basten, Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder, and […]
Barcelona-USA U11s Fall to Weston FC in Danone Nations Cup Final
Orlando, FL – Following the overtime, pk’s, post game celebrations, and the long journey out of the complex we reached our hotel at 10:30 am. The boys had one hour to rest. Instructions were crystal clear. Rest your bodies with legs elevated, hydrate with plenty of gatorade, and eat fruit and power bars to refuel […]
Danone Nations Cup Semifinal Match. [Coach Notes]
Orlando, FL – The final day of competition has arrived and no alarm clock was needed to wake up at 6am. 16 teams arrived at ESPN Wide World of Sports with the intent to win their pool play to advance to the semifinals. Only 4 remain in contention for the Danone Cup. Barcelona USA, Coral […]
Danone Nations Cup: Second Day of Competition. [Coach Notes]
Orlando, FL – Today’s objective. Get back to our team identity of possession and pressure. During yesterday’s victories the standard of play left a lot to be desired. I don’t do excuses so the message is clear, refocus and get back to our bread and butter. We will be playing El Temporal Azul. A team from […]
U11s in Danone Nations Cup Group Phase
Orlando, FL – My day began early. Scouting the entire field was my number one objective so I was at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at 7:45 am to see group A matches. Barcelona-USA was scheduled to play at 9:30 am and 3:30 pm. There were games at every hour and a half […]
We’re in Florida! Danone Nations Cup here we come.
Orlando, FL – The Barcelona USA under 11 boys continue to rack up the frequent flyer miles and are currently in Florida to participate in the Danone Nations Cup. We arrived Thursday afternoon with our sights set on the prize. Winner gets an all expense trip to Poland in a few months to compete in […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 13 Notes
Woke up nice and early to eat some breakfast and prepare the boys with a tactical walk through. We centered on how we wanted to attack in possession and defend against Soccer Stars USA’s 3-4-3 formation. Boys looked ready and anxious. Got them prepped in our locker room and around 10:15 we took to the […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 12 Notes [Video]
After a good nights sleep it was breakfast with the team at 9am to kickstart an important day. Two more group-play matches awaited us at 1pm and 5pm. Danny and I had individual meetings with several players to show them some of the good and bad things we did in our first game. Matches are […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 11 Notes [Video]
By mandate the day began waaaaaay too early for us. We had arrived back in L’estartit at 2 am after our Champions League adventure and had to get up at 8 am, eat breakfast on the fly to depart to Palamos for the MIC Cup 2012 opening ceremony. Every team is present and it was […]
FC Barcelona Trip: Day 10 Notes
Barca Day 10 Let the boys sleep in so they could acclimate as much as possible. Team breakfast was at 10am at at the Panorama Hotel (2 blocks from our apartment-like hotel). We then had a light recovery session at a dirt-like field a few blocks away. Light jogging and stretching to relax the muscles […]