Going to Europe with your soccer team
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Anonymous
| My child has been asked to go to Europe with his travel team over spring break to train with teams there. It sounds fun and I'm sure he would have a good time and get something out of it, but is it truly worthwhile? My son goes to a private school and would have to miss a week of school for it, plus its expensive. I also worry about him being considered less committed to the team by not going. I'm not sure one of us parents would be able to go along, maybe one of us but we could not go as a family as we have other kids at home in school that week plus again the expense would be a lot for us. What are others' experience with this? |
Anonymous
| My DD went to London with her ODP team and it was okay. But last summer she went to Italy with her club team and totally loved it. One of the club teams they played hosted them for dinner and they had a great bonding experience and the parents got wine from one of the players family winery. They had some sessions with the national team coaches and played some older teams, which was a good test for them. The food, touring and cultural experience was well worth it. |
Anonymous
| We go to Europe every Summer with our team. Sometimes it has been great football (like at Barcelona's camp) and sometimes it has been great touristy times (like the South of France). Sometimes it has sucked. My advice would be learn as much as you can about who you will be playing and where you will be touristing. I wouldn't necessarily take everyone as the others will be bored while the sibling is at games / practice. |
Anonymous
|
If you can swing it financially, it is worth doing at least once.
It will change your perspective about how things are done here in the U.S., and your son's as well. |
Anonymous
I'm not a big fan of "trips to Europe" which essentially end up being 3 or 4 games and a few training sessions. In contrast, though, my (12 year old) daughter recently went to Iceland with her club and it was an *incredible* experience because : 1) Upon arrival, the host club evaluated my daughter and her teammates and rather than keep them all together, they parsed them out in accordance with their abilities, so that they would train, and later play in a tournament, with one of the many teams/tiers within the host club. So, one player might end up on the host's tier 1 team, another might end up on the tier 2 team. I think there were 7 or 8 tiers within a 2 year birth span. My daughter had no English speaking teammates, which was a tad stressful for her, 2) Host family, host home, host food, host warmth, host everything. So much more culturally enriching than staying in a hotel or hostel. The host family created Facebook page for the the stay and every few hours, we'd see photos and videos of my daughter, her teammate, and the kids in the host family being kids, eating, swimming...and most gratifyingly, they even did FB Live videos of my daughter in her games, so I was able to watch her games as they were happening, in real time. She was treated remarkably well and the family was in touch with us on a constant basis thru Messenger . I'm still in awe. Whether your child's team wins 5-0, loses 5-0, or anything in between, that can be done locally. There's always teams within 30 miles that can beat your team and whom your team can beat. One doesn't have to go to Europe to do that. But if more assimilation can happen, ideally being gently out of one's comfort zone, every so slightly, to play and live with the host culture, I think the value of the experience goes up a great deal. |
Anonymous
| I seriously would not do it. Way too risky. |
Anonymous
| Comes down to finance, if you can swing it then it's worth the experience of seeing a new part of the world. I'd asked for a itinerary before committing, just because the teams you play are from Europe does not mean they are better than what you get here in the states. The kid me in would have loved to go overseas to play for a week, but that's me reliving my youth. |
Anonymous
| My DS's club is doing this too and we're skipping it. I guess it could be a great experience, but he's not really interested and I'm not interested in the expense and hassle. I'm going to use that money to instead pay for DS's driver's ed and SAT/ACT prep next summer. |
Anonymous
| It should be a lot of fun. How old is your kid? A fair warning though, from a European, have your kid be aware that they will be below par to most junior teams in Europe, no matter the country. Club football/soccer in Europe is vastly different to club soccer here. And in general much, much better. If kids are a bit older, they would not be there if they were not pretty good. |
Anonymous
It depends, we did a tournament in Italy and the team from this area held it's own. Don't assume that because they are from Europe that they all better than you, why would you ever tell a player that he/she will be below par? Is that tough love crap? You tell them to do their best, that's it. |
Anonymous
Sorry, but the trip to Europe would be more beneficial, especially if he hasn’t been before. |
Anonymous
Like you know what is best for someone else's kid. Let me guess, you are in the overseas soccer travel biz. |
Anonymous
| My DD has played 8 games in Europe and they had to play much older teams to get decent competition. At U13 they had to play U15 teams and at U16 her club team beat a U20 team 5-1. The US club girls side is much stronger than the same age Euro clubs from what I saw. I'm thinking the boys side is a different story. |
Anonymous
| What a generalization. There are quality youth teams and lower level youth teams in Europe and everywhere else. |
Anonymous
| They are generally for fun and exposure - but many people now get excited about saying their kid went to Europe to play soccer, even tho it is really just that they could pay for it. |