Youth Soccer Tournament Recap With A Look at How Teams Prepared To Compete as one of the Best of the Best
Article Contribution from Chris Rael
To play in a Surf tournament is an exciting experience for players, coaches and their supportive families. The 2015 soccerloco Surf Thanksgiving Challenge just concluded and here is a recap of the action and effort behind the scenes to prepare to be one of the Best of the Best.
The soccerloco Surf Thanksgiving Challenge held November 27-29, is a tradition for many soccer loving families. The profound success of this youth soccer tournament has teams preparing long before the players hit the beautiful 50 acres of fields at the San Diego Polo Club in San Diego.
Youth soccer teams from the ages of U7 to U14 competed in 3 games and those triumphant advanced to the elimination rounds, culminating in the final in which the victor was crowned champion. Check out how the “Best of the Best” prepared for this year’s tournament and who came out victorious. Produced by Surf Cup Sports, the Surf Thanksgiving Challenge is an exceptionally professional run youth soccer tournament.
With the competition remaining true to the slogan of Best of the Best, youth soccer teams arrived in full preparation for the Thanksgiving weekend in San Diego to compete in the prestigious soccerloco Surf Thanksgiving Challenge.
Southern California is known for providing high-level competition that goes unmatched, and the teams competing in the Surf Thanksgiving Challenges prepared in anticipation.
“Like it says on the sign, Surf Cup is the Best of the Best,” said Natalie Eckerlin, assistant coach of the U12 Girls Carlsbad United team. Although Eckerlin’s team lost to Sal Diaz’s LAGSB Elite team in the Quarterfinals, they tied Heat FC and Bryan Kuderman‘s Legends FC from Riverside and defeated Arizona’s top ranked team, Andrew Chapman‘s Scottsdale Soccer Blackhawks in bracket.
Not all of America get to enjoy the beautiful weather of Southern California. Pancho Ovalle, head coach of the U13 Girls La Roca team, who traveled to San Diego from Utah, explained that due to the snowy winter during the previous months, preparation for this soccer competition was very difficult.
Ovalle stated, “It’s hard being from Utah because it is snows nearly all the time. Our last team practice sessions had to be held in the gym and at indoor facilities.”
Ovalle noted that this tends to be a difficult transition due to the spacing difference, which saw his team strive to finish the first ten minutes scoreless in order for the game to open up. La Roca was shutout by Abdelghani Toumi‘s DMCV Sharks and Scott Murray‘s Eagles SC but defeated by shutout Paul Lester‘s SC Del Sol.
Martin Villegas, head coach of the U14 Boys Blue Knights team out of Utah, added that the team’s preparation consisted of striving to play outdoors as much as possible. Villegas’s boys lost to Pete Leebrook‘s SC Del Sol, Luis Loera‘s Anaheim FC PDA and finally to Hernan Garcia‘s Nomads SC.
Due to the level of play at Surf Cup being unmatched in comparison to teams they play from their region, clubs also prepared by scrimmaging against higher-level opponents in order to train at a similar level.
“Coming from Nevada the competition is so much greater here that we tried to scrimmage against older teams,” claimed Jeff Canarelli.
Canarelli is the head coach of the U12 and U14 Girls Las Vegas Premier teams that competed in Surf Thanksgiving Cup for the first time. He explained that the speed of play of Southern California teams is much faster than those from Nevada, which he claimed is a result of the quality of coaching that is available in the region.
Coaches also noted that the timing in regard to the tournament being played over Thanksgiving weekend was an aspect that was troubling. Although this tends to be a difficult task in regard to preparation, this did not limit the persistence by dedicated clubs who strive to have a good showing at the tournament.
“It’s hard because of Thanksgiving week, but we trained twice and had a video and blackboard session,” noted Bryan Wallace, head coach of the U14 Boys West Coast team.
Although the tournament provided less than accommodating time, Wallace and his players aimed to end the year on a high note as they head into a break before the beginning of the year.
“It was great weekend for the team and I couldn’t be happier,” said Mark Spooner, Surf SC Girls EGSL Academy head coach. “More important than the win to me was the manner in which they won. We stuck to what we do, played some great soccer and the performances were rewarded. To concede zero goals in any tournament is fantastic but to do it against the teams that a tournament of this caliber attracts is truly impressive. We prepare every time we step foot on the field whether the girls realize it or not. Every drill we do will take elements of how we wish to play and puts it into a small session where they will learn different tactics and techniques in different areas of the field.”
2015 Surf Thanksgiving Challenge Champions:
BOYS U7
SD SURF ACADEMY SELECT
BOYS U8
LEGENDS FC B07FC
BOYS U9
SD SURF ACADEMY SELECT
BOYS U10
WEST COAST FC WEST COAST
BOYS U11
SD SURF ACADEMY SELECT
BOYS U12
ALBION SC WHITE
BOYS U13
ALBION SC WHITE- GINS
BOYS U14
FLIGHT 1: NOMADS SC SLA NOMADS 01
FLIGHT 2: SAN DIEGO FA SDFA BU2001-2002A
GIRLS U8
STRIKERS FC – OC WHITE U8
GIRLS U9
SURF SAN DIEGO SURF EGSL
GIRLS U10
FLIGHT 1: SD SURF ACADEMY EGSL
FLIGHT 2: NVSC GU10 BREAKAWAY PREMIER
GIRLS U11
FLIGHT 1: STRIKERS OC STRIKERS FC – OC EGSL U11
FLIGHT 2: CROWN CITY UNITED SC CCU
GIRLS U12
FLIGHT 1: SD SURF ACADEMY EGSL
FLIGHT 2: ARSENALFC-SANDIEGO GU12 ELITE
GIRLS U13
FLIGHT 1: EAGLES SC
FLIGHT 2: LIVERPOOL GU13 RED
GIRLS U14
FLIGHT 1: FC ELK GROVE 01G PLATINUM
FLIGHT 2: SF ELITE ACADEMY SF ELITE
Besides bragging rights, the winning teams of the U9 thru U14 flight 1 age groups will have the very special privilege of guaranteed acceptance into the prestigious 2016 San Diego Surf Cup.
Related Article: San Diego Surf 2015 Thanksgiving Tournament
