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][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We did a trip to Amsterdam a few years ago that was pretty incredible from both a soccer and fun perspective.  It was organized by a guy from NY who scouted kids all around the country and basically brought an "all-star" type team of 11 and 12 year olds.  They trained each day at Ajax, and competed in several friendlies against local Dutch teams, then went to the Marc Overmars tournament in Epe and played against teams from Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands.  The boys got to play against the youth teams from Ajax and PSV Eindhoven (both outstanding, as you'd expect).  It was good for them to see how far behind the top teams they were as well as how well they compared to some of the others in terms of both skills and athletic ability.

I think the trip was really inspiring for the kids.  It was definitely a blast for the parents to hang out in soccer clubhouses throughout the country.  We passed on all the international trips that were offered by our club though.  Most seemed like more soccer tourism than real training, which is fun, but expensive for what you get.[/quote]

What were the most noticeable gaps between the US kids and the top European kids? e.g. were they able hang athletically but not as advanced in terms of skills and know how?[/quote]

In general, I'd say the decision-making/speed of play and organization were the main things that stood out.  Plus the fact that both PSV and Ajax were stacked.  All the kids on their teams were good to great athletes, with great skills, and were very fit and super-intense.  The guy who organized our trip had selected the US kids for their skills, and overall our group had better touch than the majority of the kids on the other Dutch and N. European teams we played.

This was not just my impression.  The Ajax staff who accompanied our group noted that, like other American teams they'd seen in recent years, our boys had excellent skills and athleticism, but were pretty clueless on positioning  They talked about how high-level US youth teams (including our youth national teams) increasingly will often not only win games against their international counterparts, but play very skillful soccer while doing so.  But we fall off starting at U16 or so due to a lack of game awareness, which they attributed to a lack of tactical sophistication from the coaches in our system.[/quote]

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