If you have:

• a patch of grass
• some markers
• a soccer ball

then you can practice this drill to improve your ball handling and dribbling skills at home

Brampton, ONT - The Brams Bullets travelled to Greensboro NC to compete in the prestigeous Score Showase Tournament on July 19 - 22. As the only Canadian team in the Girls U-14 division, the Bullets competed against top clubs and state champions from NJ, NY, VA, RI, NC, SC, CT, and FL. Despite the long bus ride and sweltering heat which climbed to over 35 celcius (without the humidex) - the girls battled strong and hard to place 5th in the championship round.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Sacrifices pay off with gold medals

It takes dedication for a 14-year-old to give up her friends and the creature comforts of home for seven months, but four local soccer players made the sacrifice and have just returned from the west wearing gold medals.

Minh-Tam Thompson, Nicole Lyon and Alison Gondosch, all of Kitchener, and Madelaine Horn of Waterloo helped the Ontario under-14 girls soccer team win the Canadian Soccer Association's national all-star tournament in Sherwood Park, Alta., July 22-27.

Horn, who has played in Waterloo and Kitchener, balances the positive of playing provincial soccer with the anxiety involved in keeping things in proportion.

"I got better as a player, but it was very challenging with a lot of pressure to perform. There were 60 girls, and the first session (coach Ruben Flores) said, 'You have 15 minutes. Impress me.' It was tough," says Horn, who plays right back for North London in the Ontario Youth Soccer League (the OYSL is the province's highest youth league).

The stressful training regimen ran from October to April with Ontario's best young female soccer players competing for one of 18 spots on the game roster. However, their selection to the provincial squad was a relatively recent step.

They started the process at 11 or 12 years old attempting to make the district team before getting to the regional level. Then, at a regional identification tournament, provincial coaches selected players for the Ontario team.

Part of the commitment was getting out of bed at painful hours to make 7:30 a.m. practice in Vaughan, headquarters of the Ontario Soccer Association. "Getting up at 4 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday was brutal," says Gondosch, a goalkeeper with the Brams United club.

In the tournament, the Ontario team took first place with a 3-1 record in the medal round against some of Canada's best provincial players. Ontario scored 12 goals and allowed four. That record perhaps reveals that the million or so youth players in Ontario have given the province a strong talent pool, but the girls still learned about themselves and the game.

A central defender, Thompson, who plays for an Oakville OYSL team, discovered areas for improvement during the fast-paced, physical matches: "there were some really tall players which caused me some trouble, and I know now I've got be more aggressive."

For Lyon, who plays her OYSL club-soccer in Burlington, coaching made the sacrifice worthwhile: "Our coach has been a professional player and knows a lot about the game. What he's learned he taught me" (Flores once played with Cruz Azul in Mexico and Brescia in Italy).

While under-14 is essentially a "first-look" at the youngest players in the system, if they continue to be selected they could eventually earn a spot on Canada's national squads -- like the team headed to New Zealand for the inaugural women's FIFA Under-17 World Cup in October.

For now, however, the four have turned their thoughts to completing their club-soccer seasons and taking stock of the recent journey.

A few are thinking about U.S. soccer scholarships and dream of earning a cap playing for Canada, but all are reflecting on the whirlwind they've just come through.

"There were times it was difficult to keep going because of everything you had to give up. But after nationals, there was a huge sense of accomplishment. I'm glad I stuck it out," Gondosch sums up.

For another view of the highest levels of women's competitive soccer, the Girls of Summer television documentary chronicles teenaged players as they vie for a spot on the under-17 World Cup team (I can tell you from experience that Bryan Rosenfeld, the under-17 coach who was once nicknamed "Death," is one tough nut). The documentary airs tonight at 5 p.m. on CBC Newsworld.