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 the World Finals against other champions from participating countries.
Friday, May 25
Woke up early to go tour a few potential practice locations in the Orlando area. After a 2 hour excursion and seeing 5 different facilities I selected a field adjacent to Orlando Int Airport. Nice full size grass field all to ourselves to prepare for battle.
Training began at 9:30 am (same time as tomorrow’s first game) so the boys could begin to acclimate to the difficult conditions we will face throughout the tournament with the high temperatures and humidity. A good warm up/stretching (recovery) session was followed by attacking patterns. We then went over in detail all of our set piece defense/offense assignments. Finished it off with a 1-touch small sided scrimmage to get the team to start thinking faster to adjust to the 8 v 8 tournament format.
After a clocked 90 minute session it was a 15 minute drive back to the hotel to clean up and meet downstairs for lunch. Boys have been hydrating constantly to prevent the effects of humidity.
A 2 hour nap was in order before going to watch the Copa Del Rey final between two of the better teams in world football this season. FC BARCELONA VS ATLETIC BILBAO. Barca put on a clinic in the first 30 minutes to secure a 3-0 victory.
Now it’s off to bed for the boys to rest up for tomorrow’s double header.
Best of Luck to the Boys, Hey Brian, Why me. hahahah
Go get ’em Brian. Do us proud.
Good luck! Interesting USA has a diff’t approach than Canada. Canada has regional trials (ie, 150km radius of major population centre). Followed by larger regional trial (multiple provinces come together), followed by an East v. West game from which the team is picked. All expenses paid for players travel for East v. West game as well as trip to Danone Cup itself. (parents pay own way).
USA has a team-based competition. Intriguing. How has USA done in this tournament traditionally? Canada finished 6th last year.
Canada is also the only team that includes one-two girls every year.
Are there schedules for this tournament? I could not find a brackets page. If anyone knows, can you please post?
Here you go Adrian:
http://events.gotsport.com/events/results.aspx?EventID=18928&Sex=Boys&Age=0
Gary, what do you think of SAN JUAN SC LIGHTNING 01 BLUE (CAN)? You played them at Surf Cup 2011.
Thoughts on WESTON FC 00 PRE-ACADEMY (FL)?
Brian would have to speak of that San Juan Lightning team as I did not attend Surf Cup.
I will say this however, the few teams I’ve seen out of that club seem above average (that’s a compliment coming from me). Specifically, we’ve had clashes with their 90/91s years ago (the team where US International Amobi Okugo played his youth ball).
Brian’s going to write a post with his thoughts of Weston.
Thank you!!