So, interesting tourney coming up this weekend just before the school year starts. Slavia's U13 travelling to Bonn for the Hannah Stiftungs Cup 2018. Sixteen teams taking part, divided up into four groups. Interesting lineup including: Wolfsburg, FC Basel, Leverkusen (@bpet15), Aarhus, Racing Strasbourg, FC Cologne, Rapid Vienna, Slavia, Bayern Munich, Slask Wroclaw, and Club Brugge. Games are 25 minutes long and it looks like 11X11. Boys staying with local families. Busing there and due back at 11ish on Sunday night just in time to get some sleep before the first day of school on Monday!
Was just able to pull up the groups - see you are with Koln. Who knows how it translates to 11v11, but Koln ran away with the league this past season - well ahead of Leverkusen, Dortmund and Schalke. Hopefully, they are still good and will give you guys a test. Would love if you posted updates during the tournament. Good luck!!
Thanks. Interesting info on Koln. It should be a good test. Unfortunately, I won't be there as I have to work. Better than Dortmund? That's interesting. Of the German 2006ers Slavia's has faced, Dortmund and Bayern Munich always seemed to stand out just a bit above the rest, especially Munich, obviously, I guess. We'll see. I will post results on Monday. Thanks for the well wishes!
I didn't get to see many matches, but did get to see Koln play F95 and Koln was pretty good. Table finished - 1. Koln on 50 points 2. Bochum on 46 3. Schalke on 43 4. RW Essen on 40 5. Dortmund on 35 5. Leverkusen on 35 What I noticed about German teams was similar to some of my previous posts. Some seem to be focused on the individual player (Leverkusen) and some seem to be focused on putting a really good team out there (Koln). I guess its just a different philosophy inside the individual club. When I watched Koln there wasn't a player that really stood out to me, but they were very organized in their style. On the other hand, Leverkusen has some outstanding individual talent, but tactically were way behind other teams. All that said, and you know as well, 9v9 is completely different than 11v11. Some great 9v9 players don't make the transition very well and there will be some kids that are much more suited to the open spaces that 11v11 provide. We wish your son good luck in the tournament.
Ahead of the tournament in Germany this weekend, Slavia's U13s had a game this morning against FK Pardubice, birthplace of ice hockey goalie great Dominik Hasek. Pardubice is a 2nd division side with a soccer academy serving central Bohemian, so they are a decent side. Slavia's U13, however, were a bit too much, winning 11-1. Son had two goals as an attacking central middie. Still not up to top fitness level yet and could probably drop a pound or two....This will take some time.
I mostly know Pardubice as the large train station between Brno and Prague. I once got stuck there for over an hour because of a track issue... While probably not their youth footballers fault, I'm still glad they lost.
So, Slavia's U13s had a good start to the tourney in Bonn on Saturday, although it began on a downer, losing to the local filler team, CfB Ford-Niehl 1-0; but came back to win by the same score 2-1 against FC Cologne and Rapid Vienna. Slavia finished second in the group behind Cologne just on goal difference and will advance to the 'gold' group on Sunday. Son had two assists, playing as a defensive midfielder. Wasn't subbed once, played every minute of every game, which I guess means the coach was satisfied with his play. In other news, Bayern Munich finished a shocking third in their group....
What started well, ended poorly at the Bonn tournament. Results: First round Slavia 2 FC Koln 1 Slavia 2 SK Rapid Vienna 1 Slavia 0 CfB Ford-Niehl 1 Standings: 1 FC Koln 6 points (7 goals scored, 2 allowed) 2 Slavia 6 points (4,3) 3 SK Rapid Vienna 3 points (4,6) 4 CfB Ford-Niehl 3 points (1,5) After Saturday, Slavia qualified for the playoffs Results: Slavia 1 Racing Strasbourg 1 Slavia 0 FC Basel 1893 2 Standings 1 FC Basel 1893 6 points (5,2) 2 Racing Strasbourg 1 (3,4) 3 Slavia 1 point (1,3) Round for 9-12 place Slavia 0 WKS Slask Wroclaw 1 Game for 11th place Slavia 7 JSG Beuel 6 (on penalties after game ended 2-2) Final standings 1 Club Brugge KV 2 FC Basel 1893 3 FC Bayern Munich 4 SK Rapid Vienna Lot of frustration now as the new coach is moving players around a lot. My son is playing as a defending midfieder after spending most of the time as an attacker. Hard to believe just a few months back, Slavia's U12s had beaten Ajax Amsterdam and Feyenoord. Plus, we had played Wroclaw in a friendly at home in the spring and beat them easily 6-0.
At the U13 level in the Czech Republic, their version of ODP begins. These teams from the various districts of the country play once in a while. Today was the first 'tryout/practice' for the 'Prague team.' Forty Boys from 10 of the biggest clubs were there. Slavia and Sparta along with Bohemians had the most players. My kid was among them, and did pretty well. Playing in three scrimmage matches had four goals, one a real cracker. At one point the trainer took him out, saying he and another boy were too dominant and he wanted to see what the other boys could do. So, a good day. Who knows? His trainer said this is the start of the process to be selected to Czech national youth teams.....
Tough luck on the final results of the tournament. It is early days for these kids on a full sided on a full field. Some adapt a bit quicker than others, but it will all even out. Good luck in the season.
So, my son's 'representation' career began today. As mentioned, he was selected for the Prague-area select U13 team. Today, they played in northern Bohemian against the Liberec region select team. They played 7+1 with a size four ball and smaller goals. In my son's game, Prague won 5-1 and my kid assisted on four of the goals, playing as a central midfielder. Also got to wear the captains armband! Coach said he played well and carried himself like a true captain. What a relief! Strange. While this is a 'select' side, I'd say Slavia's U13 could probably beat them. That due to the fact that some of the players from the smaller sides probably wouldn't make the Slavia roster. So, I doubt if was much of an adjustment for any of the Slavia players...Update, his 'agent' was there and said he was rock solid today. Really impressed!
Acting on a tip from @feyenoordsoccerfan, I reached out to SC Heerenveen to ask about whether I could score a tryout for my son. Wasn't really expecting much if anything other than a standard reply, which I kinda got. Was told by the scout there to send video and they would get back to me if they were interested. Weeks passed and I figured the video from Slavia's game in the spring with Feyenoord didn't convince them. But yesterday, the scout sent me a brief note saying based on the video, my son could come for a trial next March for a week! Seems like Heerenveen could be a good step in his career. A top Dutch team, but not too big. Anybody else out there with any thoughts on the team?
Kik Pierre is a good young player getting quality minutes at Heerenveen and it's only a matter of time till he's sold either up the Dutch pyramid or abroad depending on where he wants to go. I cannot imagine the coaching there is worse than Slavia and the exposure as a Dutch team would be far more. Obviously the goal is to increase exposure while also increasing or at least staying constant with the quality of coaching. If your family is not required to stay in Prague I'd suggest you do the same thing and reach out to other mid-table Dutch, Belgian, French or German teams. Probably most won't respond but as long as you can get more video to send out as he plays this year eventually someone is going to reply just like Heerenveen has. Every tournament you go to see if you can talk to someone on the local host team's staff. Most coaches and scouts are always looking but having them know you're interested and getting them to focus on your son is the priority. One other option is to DM Wes McKinnie's agent. I can't think of his name off the top of my head but he's obviously looking to move American clients overseas and he already has contacts with several Bundesliga teams. You may not want to go the full on agent route but there may be a middle ground of "advisor" to where you won't have to sign a contract with him or pay him too much just yet when you're not sure what exactly you want for your son. At the very least he may tell you how to go about finding the person you need to contact at each prospective team you send video to. My other very long shot suggestion is to reach out to Jurgen Klinsmann. He's still very much on twitter, very pro-American soccer, and has a ridiculous contact list of German and other clubs. It can't hurt you to DM him and see if he responds. He probably won't because I'm sure he gets requests like that fairly often but your son is already abroad at a decent academy. You're not Billy Joe somebody with a kid from a minnow DA academy trying to reach out to Europe's giants. Get as much video as you can and send it out to whomever you can track down. Teams are always looking for new talent. I think you'll be surprised at how many respond if you can get that video into the right hands. Oh yeah one last option, reach out to the parents of these kids abroad. Most of them are doing the same thing you are. Ask them what's working, and what's not along with who they know. Parents are generally very motivated. @bshredder and @Dave Marino-Nachison may have other suggestions too.
Good for your son. If you don't mind, why are you looking for a change? Would this require a move for your family that you are able to do with employment? Are you set on Netherlands or just looking for a step up? Just want to understand your thought process before I could lend any decent advice.
Hey, Why change? This would be when he turns 15/16. He's been at Slavia since he was six. The club does not have a good record getting players into the first team. If he played at the second, third division level here, the money would be very poor, not more than a $1,000 a month. And the exposure would be pretty minimal. I think Heerenveen -- right now -- might be a lateral move, but in a few years, I don't think so. I think the overall level of competition in Holland is higher. Ajax, Feyenoord, Alkamaar, PSV... those would be good teams to play against, better than here. Not dead set on Holland, but they, seem to have a good track record developing young players. Also, would be open to Belgium too, for the same reasons. I'm not going to uproot the family for this. He'd have to go on his own.....
Obviously the goal is to increase exposure while also increasing or at least staying constant with the quality of coaching. If your family is not required to stay in Prague I'd suggest you do the same thing and reach out to other mid-table Dutch, Belgian, French or German teams. Probably most won't respond but as long as you can get more video to send out as he plays this year eventually someone is going to reply just like Heerenveen has. Every tournament you go to see if you can talk to someone on the local host team's staff. Most coaches and scouts are always looking but having them know you're interested and getting them to focus on your son is the priority. Thanks, for this. See those guys floating around at tourneys, and you're probably right they'd probably like to hear from parents that are amenable to a club switch. He kinda has a rep now. The same agency that represents Petr Cech, although they don't do a whole lot now. Talked to the scout there yesterday, and was surprised my son got the invite, asking how it happened. He's now going to check it out with their people in the Netherlands to see it is legit, which I believe it is, since the guy who got back to me is the scout at Heerenveen. Scout said Slavia might not be too keen on this however, which makes sense.....
Yes I would advise you to keep very quiet about this. If you take him in March say it's a family vacation or something. Slavia doesn't want to lose him for free after training him for a decade. I don't think you'd have any problems by posting here but I certainly would keep it off twitter, except for private messages.
You're right. I haven't said anything about this to anyone outside his scout/agent/adviser. Figured I'm safe here.