Category — youth soccer

The North Atlanta Soccer Association ‘08 Elite Under 19 boys team has scored only one goal, but two draws helped it reach the title game of the U.S. Youth Soccer national championships Sunday in Lancaster, Mass.

In the McGuire Cup finals on Sunday at 10:15 a.m., NASA will meet Baltimore Casa Mia Bays 1990. The two teams, which come in with five points apiece, played to a scoreless draw in their opening match. On Friday, NASA also produced a 0-0 result with the Pike Indy Burn Eagles.

Here’s more information from the USYSANC Web site.

In the boys Under 16 tournament, the Gwinnett Soccer Association’s Phoenix Red 93 team was ousted after finishing in last place in the six-team group. The GSA 92 Phoenix Red Under 17 girls also were eliminated after three draws in group play.

It’s raining today in New England, where the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships are being played, and there are three metro Atlanta youth contingents in action.

On Thursday the North Atlanta Soccer Association Elite Under 19 boys downed the Colorado Rush Nike 1-0 on a goal in the third minute by Christopher Klute. The Gwinnett Soccer Association Phoenix Red Under 16 boys played to a 2-2 draw with Campton United Navy of Illinois as Walker Zimmerman and Ado Junuzovic scored. (Here are all of Thursday’s boys scores.)

On the girls side Thursday, the GSA Phoenix Red Under 17 also played to a 2-2 draw with Eclipse Select of Illinois as Kimberly Spence and Alexa Newfield notched goals.

GSA is “Tweeting” updates from its team’s games here during the tournament.

Here’s the official tournament Web site, with scores, schedules, standings and other information.

Real-time developments from all games also are on the USYSNC’s Twitter feed, which also has updates on the weather.

The Georgia State Soccer Association’s semi-annual general meeting on Saturday will include updates on the Atlanta Beat, among other items, but the organization saw the need to include details of one agenda item in particular.

Those would be proposed changes to youth rules and regulations. They address the usual hot-button topics: Player transfers, recruiting and tryouts and disciplinary matters involving players, coaches and parents.

Here are more details on those propsals and the rest of the meeting, which takes place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Atlanta Northwest.

Alex Newfield of the Gwinnett Soccer Association’s Phoenix Red girls program has been working out with the U.S. Under-20 women’s national team, which is playing its Canadian counterpart in a three-match friendly series this week in Boulder, Colo.

Two local regulars on the U.S. men’s Under-17 national team have been included on the roster for the Copa Macae, a major international youth tournament that begins today in Brazil.

Jack McInerney of Cobb Soccer Club and defender Jordan McCrary of Concorde Fire this spring were in the Under-17 residency program in Bradenton, Fla.

There’s more information here from the U.S. Soccer Federation.

Summer soccer camps are in full swing around the metro Atlanta area, and two youth instructors offer two very distinct approaches to teaching, playing and approaching the game.

The first is Filiberto Tavani, a native of Italy who has run his own Gwinnett-based camps for the last seven years. Another camp session gets underway next week. In this Q and A with the Gwinnett Daily Post conducted before the Confederations Cup, Tavani talked lovingly of his home country, his adopted land and how he’s torn between them when they play each other:

“I’m an Italian fan. That’s an easy one. I root for the U.S., but I’m an Italian fan. It hurts watching Italy play because every second of the way I’m watching. I know all the players. I watch all the games all year long.”

So Tavani won one, and lost one in South Africa according to that logic.

His camps are segmented for easy absorption by youngsters:

“We do a different topic every day. It’s passing one day, dribbling another. We have a tournament and work on shooting. It’s all organized and safe for the kids.”

Another youth coach with a deep background in the sport is Anton Sieber, president of the Dawson County United Club, who was a fan of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League as a youngster.

He believes kids do best when they’re taught to play with “joy and creativity:”

Get out there and experiment, create, flow, breathe in the game. Express yourself and live in the moment. Out on the pitch are the memories you will hold on to forever. Do what you can to make them magical.

Sieber believes that’s becoming more difficult for so many more children to do because of the soaring costs of joining a club:

“Some of the fees at these monster clubs are through the roof. It really does harm to the sport as a whole and only further feeds the image that elite soccer in this country is a sport for the upper middle class only.”

Which only ratchets up the pressure to play soccer to win and succeed, rather than enjoy the game:

“I think we should strongly encourage the young players to be creative and express themselves out on the field. Challenge players to find new ways to solve problems out on the field. They have their whole life to play cynical soccer where winning is everything. While they are young they need to learn to love the game.”

It’s been a busy weekend in one of the most prestigious national youth tournaments in the country as the U.S. Youth Soccer Association’s regional events are reaching the latter stages.

A total of seven boys and seven girls teams from the metro Atlanta area were still alive as quarterfinal play was slated to get underway Monday at the Region III tournament at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas.

In the older age groups, the semifinals are set to begin on Tuesday, and in the Under-19 men’s division, an all-Atlanta championship match is a possibility. Both AFC Lightning Premier and North Atlanta SA Elite teams have reached the semifinals, but are facing local Texas clubs in the Dallas Texans Houston Red 90 and Solar 91, respectively.

In the women’s Under-19 class, Tophat Gold has reached the final four, while Under-17 teams Gwinnett Soccer Association (GSA) Phoenix Red 92 and AFC Lightning 92 White have advanced to the quarterfinals. Two Atlanta Under-16 clubs also have made the quarterfinals, with GSA Phoenix Red 93 pitted against Concorde Fire Elite on Monday. The Concorde Fire South’s Under-14 team also has made it to the knockout rounds.

Two Atlanta teams also will square off against one another in the Under-14 boys quarterfinals Monday when Concorde Fire South meets the Silverbacks Elites. Concorde Fire Elite is in the Under-15 quarterfinals, while the Alpharetta Ambush Red (Under-16) and 91 Norcross Fury Gold (Under-18) also have advanced.

Here’s a full schedule and list of results from the Region III tournament.