here's what I saw: a total of 16 girls (ladies) showed up which included one goalie (last name Santos and very good, BTW). There were girls as young as 13 and the oldest was 23 I think; but they all comepeted at a very high level and there wasn't any "terrible' girl out there... They came from as far away as Nova Scotia ! I personally drove this young girl and her mother back to the Hotel after this morning's session. She was thrilled with this opportunity even though she didn't speak much Portuguese (her father is Portuguese and he was in Portugal just a few months ago). She might have gotten a scolarship to NJIT from this because the Women's coach was there and was looking to recruit some girls and was impressed by her play. Anyway, the youngest girls there belong to the Den of Lions Under 16 team which is pretty good from what I've heard. My friend Bertolo has a daughter that plays for Union High School and was there, Xico Barra's 14 year old daughter was there too and besides their young age they still impressed Jose Augusto. From what Al Coutinho told me JA would like to take 4 of the girls but there are problems with the Citizenship Laws and he made it sound as though he might be restricted (perhaps by the FPF) to only take 2 girls. I saw maybe 5 or 6 that were very good. I saw 2 #10 girls (goal scorers) with some powerful shots from both feet. I am not sure about the current NT but Jose Augusto looked happy and personally thanked all the parents and the people present at the tryouts (which was nice of him)... Time will tell, not sure if he will make any report public from this trip but I'll try to get some more insight from Al Coutinho. Also, the idea will be to get a "travelling team" from some of these girls and go to a tournament in Portugal (between Associacoes= Distritos). Next time they need to advertise this sort of thing much more to get a better turnout. But, it's a start.
Thanks for the recap. I'm kinda shocked only 16 tourned out but atleast they were good. A girl from Nova Scotia? I'm surprised at that.
If they had done a better job in notifying Portuguese communities like New Bedford, Toronto, Fall River, Danbury etc... they would easily get about 40 girls. It sounds like a conspiracy to me, i.e. JAugusto being limited on the # of girls he can use from this pool of players...
From listening to Portuguese radio (sports) in Toronto I could tell you there was no mention of this at all and in a time where there isn't much going on you know that someone must of dropped the ball big time
I'm kind of upset at no mention of the portuguese young ladies playing for Kearny Thistle, and this kids the I saw in the New Jersey finals were in the High School age, but some parents my have there doubts about letting their young ladies go out to Portugal by themeselves, or afraid of losing theme.
i think that they should have try outs here in california in santa clara where there is a large population of portugese.
you can send your credentials to the portuguese federation, they will arrange you a workout fut_feminino@fpf.pt