Reply to If you have taken your son to an overseas soccer tournament, etc, did you find it to be worth it?

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Reply to "If you have taken your son to an overseas soccer tournament, etc, did you find it to be worth it?"

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[quote=Anonymous]Hi

Our former team traveled overseas regularly, sometimes up to three tournaments a year. It’s a mixed experience, but it depends exactly what it is you are looking for out of the trip.

On the positives, you build some real team bonding with the kids (and frequently the parents) based in a single hotel or a college dorm together. Plenty of off-field interaction, dinners, sightseeing together. Can be a fun trip on sort of a vacation level.

You will also expose the kids to different styles of football. Some teams are rough, some are skilled, some moan, some are stoic. They’ll see many different varieties of play and parenting on display. The quality of football can vary as it difficult for organizers to see a multi-national tournament and it can easily lead to mismatched matchups. You may likely have a walk over and may just as likely get walked over.

It can also be a bit of a sternum punch to some of the kids and parents, especially if they have visions of fame and glory. There are so many kids around the world playing the game better than anyone on your club and so many teams playing better than yours, it can be quite an eye-opening revelation that there is more than just your league title or beating the same old rival you play every year. It may be discouraging or inspiring. For one family who was really chasing the dream, an overseas tournament in Germany was enough to convince them they had to move to Europe to get to the level they wanted their kids to be at and they relocated a year later (to the Netherlands actually).

Finally there is a significant financial cost involved, often more than a year’s worth of club fees. Flights, hotels, food, coaches (and their expenses) and all that can easily be $2,000+ per kid and per parent.

What are you hoping to get out of the tournament?[/quote]

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