National Soccer Academy

NSA began assembling the teams for EUROTOUR 1996 in November 1995. After a successful clinic in Kauai during Christmas vacation, ten players from the Garden Isle were also invited to participate on the tour. We traveled with 31 players, 3 coaches (Fred Hsu, Jaime Maldonado and Terry Mott), 3 administrators (Nattie Roux, Kevin Devitt & Patrick Hellefors) and a group of thirteen supporters including Monica from Sweden.

Summary of Results:

The objectives of the tour were to provide players opportunities to be exposed to “soccer” from around the world, to experience foreign cultures, to make friends and enjoy “Training and Performing” under the guidance of the National Soccer Academy. The focus was on the process. Good results would gladly be accepted as a bonus.

Most of the players from California participated in weekend training for several months prior to departure. The players from Kauai arrived June 10, lived at the academy for three weeks and participated in intensive training before departure.

Staying with our motto of “be flexible”, we invited Magnus Lindh from FC Inter Orhoy and Christian and Carmen Heredia to join us in the Stockholm Cup. Magnus was our goalie in the final against his club in Stockholm Cup! After Stockholm Cup, we also invited Edgar Agudelo, Patrick Sjostedt from AIK (our semi-final opponent) and Johan Hammar from Grondals (our quarter final opponent) to join us for Dana Cup. Edgar, Patrick and Magnus stayed with us through the Dalecarlia Cup. It was a great experience for our players to be competing with these excellent Swedish players in Stockholm and then become teammates for other tournaments. The Swedish players were integrated with ease into the NSA family. Patrick’s Donald Duck impression was a big hit. Magnus was thirsty during practice (that was his excuse to socialize with his female followers). Johan was very independent for a 12 year old. Edgar was the “cherry picker” goal scorer.

We left San Francisco on June 29 to Stockholm. The weather in Stockholm was cloudy with periodic light rain. Stockholm is a beautiful city. It was very satisfying to observe the improvement in all our teams from the first till the last day of the tournament. The NSA STARS were incredible. They won every game to enter the final. The Final was played in the rain at the Grimsta Stadium against Vasalunds IF. It was a great game where the NSA style appeared in all of its glory. Our team moved the ball beautifully around the opponents resulting in Arlene Devitt scoring 6 goals and receiving the MVP award. Crissy Marti, our “Revelino” scored two from the attacking midfield position. The midfield and defense controlled the game. The score was 8-0. The NSA STARS were crowned the Champions of the Stockholm Cup. In the mean time, the much improved Samba team was doing it’s magic in the quarter and semi-final defeating two of Stockholm’s best youth clubs, Grondals and AIK. The game with AIK went to overtime and penalties. It was impressive to see our players holding up under tremendous pressure. We played a tough game against FC Inter Orhoy in the final. It was a very tactical game. We lost (1-2) but had the satisfaction that the Samba team has improved a great deal to come this far in the tournament. NSA also won the Best Visiting Club award.

Sunday was a long travel day. We arrived at the FirmaKlubber in Frederikshavn, Danmark and were greeted by our friends Aage and “the Big Man”. All games were within walking distance. The NSA Stars continued its winning ways to get to the final. However, the team from Malmo (the youth team from the best professional club in Sweden) was much tougher than they looked in previous games. The game was 0-0 tied and went to overtime. It was a tense, nailbiting game for the spectators. Arlene scored the only goal in overtime and NSA Stars were crowned champions of Dana Cup. The Samba team played a Columbian team in the quarter finals and learned about “Columbian gamesmanship”. We were 1-0 down until the final thirty seconds of the game when Anthony fired a rocket shot from the midfield to the upper right “V” to tie the game. During overtime, he scored another from the middle of the field to put us into semifinals. This was probably the most satisfying game for the Samba team in the whole tournament. In the semifinals, we learned about the “ugly cheating ways” of the Spanish club ASPE. Their coaches were crude and rude. Their players played dirty. Our players got a glimpse of the “ugly” side in competition when adults put winning over everything.

On the lighter side of things, we all appreciated the “quick change” show our goalie Erin put on the field when she was asked to change her goalie jersey with a field player so she could play on the field in the semi final game!

On Saturday night, Aage and the FirmaKlubber crew hosted a party for NSA. It was quite moving when all our players and supporters sang the National Anthem. Michael Lingaton, Nicole and Melody provided the Hawaiian music and Hula dancing lessons. The Danish, the Swedish, the Russians and Americans all joined together to learn to dance Hawaiian from our 9 year old Nicole. This was a fun evening that most of us will treasure.

Sunday was another long travel day to Borlange, Sweden. This is the fourth year we have participated in the Dalecarlia Cup. The NSA STARS continued winning playing the NSA style. Before the final, the buzz around the tournament was that two teams from the United States would have a great game in the final. The opposing team was West Lynn Pumas from Oregon. They recently won the Oregon State Cup and placed third in the Western Regional prior to attending the Dalecarlia Cup. We knew we would have a tough match so all the girls stayed away from the disco the night before. The NSA Stars were on fire for that game. Katie (playing Stopper) dribbled all the way from midfield to the goal line, took an incredible left foot shot to score the first goal. We were all ecstatic. The players stuck to the NSA style. We dominated most of the game and Arlene scored a second goal. The NSA Stars were crowned champions of Dalecarlia Cup. (18 games, 18 wins, 3 championships!) This was incredible.

The Oregon girls exhibited good sportsmanship after the game. However, their coach seemed really angry and refused to shake hands. Instead, he “talked” to their team for over 45 minutes after the awards ceremony. What a pity. This is another lesson our players learned about the ugly side of “adults and the need to win”.

The Samba team proved to be the best team in the 12 boys tournament and captured first place. On Saturday night, we had a victory party and invited players from IK Brage, Arizona Sunbirds, the Brazilian team and other NSA fans. Winning the championship was also a great birthday present for Coach Jaime Maldonado who turned forty something that Saturday (in addition to the signed sports bra he received from the players and a walking stick with a bell from Terry). Jaime’s other wish was to coach the National team — mmm, maybe some day!

On Sunday, we took the bus to Stockholm airport, stopped at Uppsala castle to have one last ice cream, stopped at McDonalds for dinner, then boarded the plane to Helsinki. The overnight stay was pleasant for everyone — a real bed after three weeks and a private shower! Some of the older players stayed up most of the night talking.

We will remember Sylvia’s gymnsatics after every goal, Lauren’s consistent performance playing on all three teams, Janice and Brandi becoming “twins”, Anthony and Conners groupies, Reiko’s happy face, Nattie becoming the mother for everyone, the ice cream, the discos, the stage performance of Crissy, Greg M. & company in Stockholm, C.J.’s first international yellow card, the 173 goals and many other moments. We had indeed become an NSA family.

And so, this was the end of the 5th successful NSA EUROTOUR.

On Monday, we blinked and we were home.

The players (NSA EUROTOUR 1996)

Coaches: Frederick Hsu Jaime Maldonado Terry Mott

Administrators: Kevin Devitt Nattie Roux Patrick Hellefors

HIGHLIGHTS:

• NSA82-Tigers(1982 boys) was crowned champions at the Dalecarlia Cup (265 teams).
• The NSA81-Grizzlies won second place at the Dalecarlia Cup. (heart-breaking lost on penalty shootout)
• At the Dana Cup (the second largest tournament in the world with 750 teams), five teams won their qualifying group.
• The NSA81-Dragons and the NSA82-America both went on to win third places at the Dana Cup.
• In 3 weeks, we played a total of 111 games, 64 wins, 18 ties & 29 losses, 287 goals for, 147 goals against. Five tie games were decided by Penalty Shootouts, we won 2.

Planning for NSA EUROTOUR 1994 tour began upon our return from the NSA EUROTOUR 1993. Several tryouts were held beginning November 1993. Over 250 players attended tryouts. NSA selected 68 boys born between 1979 to 1984 to join the tour. Training began in February with the NSA Soccer Festival and spanned over S months until we left for the tour. We had Sunday training sessions, weekend sleep Dyers, scrimmage games and other fun events to ensure the players become a cohesive group. Before we boarded the plane, we were all part of the National Soccer Academy in body and spirit. This early planning and training went a long way towards achieving our goals in Scandinavia. We traveled with 112 people including 68 players, 7 coaches, 4 administrators and 33 supporters.

Patrick USA was a partial sponsor of NSA. It was quite a sight to see all the players, coaches and supporters all dressed in their red-white-blue PATRICK outfit at the airport. After the team picture and the “OLE,OLE… NSA…USA’ song, we were off.

We began the tour playing in the Helsinki Cup in Finland. This tournament had 711 teams from 24 countries participating with a total of 2007 games played. NSA entered six 11 men teams. The NSA80 Force was in a group of 81 teams. The NSA81-Grizzlies and NSA81 Dragons were among 77 teams. The NSA82.Sambas and NSA82-America were among 102 teams and the NSA83 Sting were among 87 teams. For most of our players, this was their first international tournament, played in a foreign country. In the 33 games played, NSA had 13 wins, 3 ties, 13 loss, 39 goals for, 49 goals against. The NSA82-America lost to Jockey club from San Paulo, Brazil in the Quarter finals (we played the Jockey Club again in Dana cup, see results later).

After a day of sight seeing and resting in Helsinki, we boarded an overnight cruise to Stockholm. It was very pleasant waking up to the peaceful surroundings as the ship sailed between the islands near Stockholm. Borlange, the home of the Dalecarlia Cup was three hours away. This cup awards the Dala horses - a traditional gift for the region, as trophies. Remembering the results in 1993 where 3 teams were in the semi-finals, we were determined ride some horses back to Californa.

We entered eight teams, three 11 men and five 7 men teams. All games except the finals were played in the sports ground with 13 fields. The results were overwhelming. Seven teams qualified for the A-group; five by winning the group and two came in second. The NSA80 Force came in third in the B-group. Unfortunately, the NSA81-Grizzlies had to play the NSA 81-Dragons in the quarter finals. The NSA81 Grizzlies went on to win 2nd place after a heart breaking loss in penalty shoot out. The NSA82-tigers were crowned champions while the NSA82-Sambas came in third place after being the semi-final game but lost by one corner kick The NSA-82 America won the B group final. The NSA83 Stings lost in the quarter final match to a powerful Atheltico Paulistinha from Brazil. By this week, the NSA warm up ritual has solidify amongst the players and every one knows when an NSA team is about to begin a match. It was very satisfying to see the improvement in our players both as individuals and team players. NSA, especially coach Jaime Maldonado and Frederick Hsu (who traveled with the 1993 tour), fulfilled a dream by assisting the players in winning the Dalecarlia horses.

The net results for this tournament was 43 games, 22 wins, titles, 9 losses, 118 goals for, 41 goals against. We dominated the 1982 group by winning both the A and B group and third place in the A group. It would have been as ‘ALL NSA FINAL” had it not been a confusing loss by one corner kick by the NSA82-SAMBA leans in the semifinals. The NSA81 -Grizzlies won second place (loss on Penalty shootout).The NSA80-Force won third place in the B Group.

The third week was spent in Hjorring, Denmark. At the Dana Cup (the second largest youth tournament in the world with 750 teams from 42 countries), 5 teams won their preliminary group, 2 came in second to be placed in the ‘A’ group. The NSA80-Force (vs. Duran Niederan, a team from Africa) and the NSAS3-Hornets (vs. Peru) went the quarter finals that ended in heart breaking losses by penalty shootouts. The NSA82-America played with a lot a heart to reach the semifinals but fell to the mighty Brazilian club Jockey from Sao Paulo again. (As aside note, Jockey club travels 2 months every year and play in eight top level European youth tournaments to develop their players.)

It was very exciting for our players to experience this high level of competition. The NSA82-America won third place. The NSA81-Dragons beat Spain in the quarter finals on what was probably the most emotional moment on the tour when the Dragons scored the 5th goal in the penalty shootout to win the game 5-4. During the shootout, in front of over 700 people crowded around the penalty area, the NSA players held hands, kneeled, said prayers together and cheered each other on. It was 3-3 and Spain team’s turn at the spot. Their player missed. Their whole team reacted by rushing to the referee and was ready to do him bodily harm! Fortunately, there were enough people around to protect the referee. Finally, several of their adults were ejected. The atmosphere was super charged with emotions and chaos. NSA gained several hundred instant fans chanting “NSA-USA’. Tim McKinney’s shot bounced off the goal keepers hands and scored. Their player scored to tie the goals at 4-4. When Frederick Serra-Hsu stepped up, took a deep breath, smiled and placed the ball in the corner, the whole NSA group and their hundreds of newly gained fans celebrated. The players piled on each other and in general “went crazy!”. What was most impressive was the bonding and the way the NSA players handled the pressure, the chaos and the excitement. The NSA81-dragons won third place.

In the 37 games played, we had 22 wins, 6 ties, 9 losses, 110 goals for, 60 goals against. We had five fist places in the preliminary round and ended with two Dana Cups (third places). This is probably one of the best results achieved by any U.S. boys soccer clubs playing in the Dana Cup.

On Saturday, all the players and parents spent the day at a beach at Lanstrup in Denmark. It was quite a sight watching our ‘tough’ NSA players transform back to a group of young kids building sand castles!

The NSA EUROTOUR 1994 was very successful. This tour demonstrated beyond any doubts that well trained players from California can compete with the best youth soccer clubs in the world.

The NSA Players were exposed to high caliber international competition. They made friends from many different countries; shared unforgettable moments with players from around California and hopefully added some quality to their character through soccer. The behavior exhibited by our NSA players on and off the field has earned due respect from youth soccer clubs around the world.

Judging from the feedback, a high percentage of the ‘94 tour players are ready to join the 1995 tour.