The 2008 Springfield Sister Cities Soccer Exchange team was on tour in Tlaquepaque, Mexico between June 26 through July 2nd. This year’s tour included games against area teams from Tepatitlan, Zapotiltic, Club Atlas and a Tlaquepaque All-Star team which was the featured Sister Cities Cup match. Upon arrival into Tlaqueqpaque, the team was quickly shuttled to the game site which has been transformed into two sport-turf fields, just minutes from our host hotel. The facility also has a Olympic size outdoor swimming pool, five tennis courts and a velodrome ; all of which are under construction in preparation for the 2012 Pan-American games which will be hosted by Guadalajara.

Our first game was against Tepatitlan on Friday, June 27th. As we were told, the Tepatitlan community is the hot bed of youth player development in all of Mexico. It most certainly showed with the impressive size and equally expressive skill, speed and soccer creativity of the 14 and 15 year olds. The game was definitely and eye opening experience for most of our Ozark-area players, many with their first exposure to foreign players and a foreign style of play.

Our second match, on Saturday, June 28th, was the featured Sister Cities Cup match versus a youth All-Star team from Tlaquepaque. We knew it was going to be a challenging game when, during pre-game ceremonies the mayor of Tlaquepaque was to ceremoniously kick the game ball to our one of our goal keepers, Andrew Guilliams on a make shift goal of cones in front of the crowd of spectators and attending delegates from both Sister Cities Associations. The mayor, instead, with a three step drop, unleashed a pill of a shot to Guilliams’ lower right side taking out one of the cones and one of Tlaquepaque players. The game itself was a back and forth tug of war with all the drama and controversy of a top flight winner take all finale. In the end, Springfield fell short of maintaining ownership of the cup and was relieved of its possession, on the losing side of a 3-2 scoreline.

Our third game was against Zapotiltic on Sunday, June 29th, which is a community about three hours outside of Guadalajara. This game, much like the one against Tepatitlan was another exposure to the many differences in youth soccer between our two communities. After the first two matches, our boys’ were beginning to get up to speed and put up a fight worthy of recognition on tremendous effort on the field.

Club Atlas coaches from the team which had visited Springfield last year, were in attendance at these games and were wanting to schedule a fourth game with a Club Atlas youth team. The game was scheduled for Monday morning and much to the delight of the players and parents who traveled with us, earned our first road victory of the weekend. That game was won 3-2 by Springfield.

Tuesday morning, we were shuttled to Club Atlas’ training facility and community in the Guadalajara city limits. An impressive 600+ acre facility includes an upscale housing development, an 18-hole championship golf course, tennis training facility (where most of Guadalajara’s championship tennis players’ train), club house and of course, the soccer training fields. We were introduced to several of Club Atlas’ bosses including the first team coach, director of coaching and team operations directors. We watched a 2nd division scrimmage, (2 straight red cards in the waning minutes were issued) and then scrimmaged another Club Atlas youth team. The first half of our scrimmage was our team versus their team. The second half of the scrimmage, we shared players on both sides of the ball.

Later that afternoon, we were scheduled to also visit the Club Chivas training facility and work out with their players and coaches. Unfortunately, the dreaded rains which were falling between 3pm and 6pm decided to come early as a thunderstorm rolled through at 2pm in the afternoon, thus causing the cancellation of our Chivas trip.

Through the trip, we were able to visit the local square several times where food and other vendors of sorts sell their wares. The square featured plenty of music, fireworks and rides and games, much to the delight of our American visitors. The kids spent their money feverishly buying up replica team jerseys and other items at every opportunity. Our tour also included cultural trips to a few historical sites and the Guadalajara mall.

Our meals, which were arranged at our sponsor hotels or other restaurants, were absolutely outstanding. We were treated to lunch at the first Chinese restaurant ever to open in Tlaquepaque. The male owner is Mexican and his wife (of 15 years) is Chinese. Great food!

The Sister Cities Sport and Cultural Exchange is definitely a worthwhile endeavor and one that any child, if opportunity presents itself, should take advantage of. It was my first trip outside the U.S. and one that I look forward to in 2010 (world cup year) … There is so much more to share about this trip, but space limitations won’t permit.

The accompanying photo was shot on the field at Jalisco (Mexico) stadium where Club Atlas and Chivas play their professional league games. It was also one of the host stadiums where games for the 1971 and 1986 world cups were played, in addition to numerous matches between the U.S. and Mexico national teams over the years. Pictured in the photo (left to right) back row: Kelly Ross, Jan Stahle, Hunter Durham, Nic Bauer, Matt Treml, Tyler Hamilton, Reece Conner, Jackson Patillo, Travis Joy, Ricky Wallenburg, Bryan Murray and David Cheek. Front row: Andrew Guilliams, Gehrig Haberstock, Derek McDiarmid, Scott Sterling, Jesse Bihlmeyer, Josh Wegenka, Izzy Chappell, Gage Mossman and Andrew Treml (not pictured, Dr. Jim Cook, Cindy Jobe, Araceli Hanks)

Thanks to Kelly Ross for this report and photo.

For the 4th consecutive year, the Springfield Sister Cities Association is hosting a cultural and soccer exchange with Tlaquepaque (Ta-lak-ee-pak-ee), Mexico . A group of 17 young men, between the ages of 12 and 15, depart on June 26th. They will play 4 games over a 6 day period against teams that are part of Atlas Football Club, a team that competes in the Mexican Professional League and supports a large Youth Academy, a model that is just beginning to be emulated in the US by Major League Soccer.

Photo slideshow and gallery of photos from the Friendly

The Sister Cities site describes Tlaquepaque as a city of more than 525,000 that is both traditional and cosmopolitan and places its emphasis on art and culture. Known as the “Soul of Mexico,” the city borders Tonala to the south and Guadalajara and Zapopan in the north. The city is located less than an hour from the major metropolitan city of Guadalajara, Mexico, the country’s second-largest city.

This is the second visit by a Springfield team to Tlaquepaque, the first coming in 2006 following the visits to Springfield by the Atlas players in 2005 and then 2007. The home-and-away series is a hotly contested set of games leading to the award of a classic trophy and medals with Springfield winning each of the past two years.

This years players are well aware of the history and look forward to continuing the winning trend. Jackson Patillo, 15 and a member of the Willard Tigers as well as Springfield SC, will be making his first visit beyond US borders. What is he looking forward to the most? “Playing in the stadium that Atlas FC competes in. It will be a fast game, and rough, but we can compete with them. We’ve got a pretty good team as well”

Video from KOLR 10 including interviews with Jackson & Gehrig

The youngest member is Izzy Chappell, who will be a seventh grader at Pershing Middle School this Fall. Asked about his expectations, he was confident. “We’ll win” was his response, which went hand-in-hand with his personal plans. “I want to buy jerseys of teams from Mexico, and a soccer ball for my trophy case”. He’s a speedy forward with good skills and his greatest memory currently is scoring against the KC Wizards goal keeper in costume during half time contests of a game against Missouri State.

There is one young man who will be making his second trip to Tlaquepaque, a 14-year old veteran of international travel. Gehrig Haberstock, from SpringHigh Select SC who will be a sophomore at Waynesville this Fall, is the son of a recently retired Army veteran. Like me, Gehrig was born in Munich Germany but has gained all of his soccer experience in Missouri, his home since 2001. He was one of the youngest on the trip in 2006 and besides the games, the cultural experience still resonates for him.

“We toured the city, seeing their old buildings and plazas. It was pretty neat. We ate a lot of fajitas, more than I ever want to eat again!”

The Sister City relationship between Springfield and Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico was formalized on June 27, 2003 and has included a number of visits besides this soccer event. According to their website, the SSCA sought this relationship with a Spanish-speaking community because of the growth of the Hispanic population in the Ozarks region and for the opportunities for business and cultural development. As these boys can attest, it’s been a great relationship. Bring home the hardware boys!

I arrived in Granada, Spain at the end of January to begin my year long study abroad experience. When I learned that the U.S. MNT would be playing a friendly against Spain, in Spain, while I would be in the country, it was like a dream come true. It would be an understatement to say that I was excited about the game.

I talked up the game up to all of my friends in attempt to recruit a group to travel north to Santander. FYI, Santander is located on the north coast of Spain while Granada, where I study, is about an hour drive from the southern coast. In the end we had a group of 4 Americans plus one British chap that made the trip. Getting tickets to the game proved to be an interesting task as they were never officially advertised on the U.S. soccer website. Luckily we were able to purchase tickets for the 13th row from a bank in Spain. This, of course, meant that we would be sitting in a sea of Spanish fans but we were content with the location and price (€20 = $30).

Most of my Spanish friends told me they would watch the game on TV and often sympathetically assured me that the U.S. wouldn’t lose that bad. To be honest after the performance against England a week earlier I had my fears of things that could go wrong or us simply not playing well. But for the most part I kept confident that our team would step up to the challenge and play a good game.

Just like an MLS or NFL game there were plenty of activities outside the stadium in which fans could participate before the game. Although the activities tents were almost exclusively filled with Spainards we still took at most of the stuff. There was tent that contained a bunch of World Cup memorabilia from each competition. We found our seats about an hour before the game. It started to drizzle light rain but luckily we were just under the overhang of the stadium so we kept dry.

As soon as the U.S. team entered the field to warm-up I whipped out my camera. I had never been so close to any of these players. As in all international friendlies both team’s flags were presented along with the playing of their national anthem. My group (minus the Britain) and I proudly stood up among of crowd of 14,000 Spanish fans and sang. It was a really exciting experience if not a bit intimidating.

As far as the game goes I feel that all I can say has already been said by other commentators or bloggers. Compared to last week against England the U.S. team was much improved and they provided an entertaining match. I would even go as far to say that we appeared to be the more dangerous team during the first half. Our seats allowed us to get a great view of the U.S. defensive line during the first half and I think all four full backs played well. It was good to see Freddy Adu get a start and perform well. And for those of you who haven’t seen Michael Bradley up close – the kid doesn’t look 20 years old – he’s developed an impressive build and is quite an athlete. I’ll add that I was also happy to see former KC striker Eddie Johnson create some dangerous chances. In the end I left the stadium a bit disappointed – but only because I thought we had chances to beat Spain but failed to capitalize.

It is also important to add that we had no trouble with other fans before, during, or after the game. We were treated politely and even shared a couple of friendly conversations after the game. – I have a lot of respect for the Spanish fans. I did talk with several U.S. fans (there were maybe 50 of us total) before and after the match. It seemed that a large part of the U.S. fans were in Spain on some sort of a study abroad trip in Spain, which allowed them to make the trip. A few said they were in Wembley the week before and a few actually migrated from their homes in Europe.

I am extremely content that I had a chance to see the U.S. Men’s team in Spain. I was impressed by our team’s effort and it was fun to cheer on the U.S. and be part of something of which I was proud while in Spain. On so many levels the U.S. is not recognized as an international contender in soccer so it was fun to share my knowledge and passion of the national to my foreign friends.

On that note I’m excited to see that there is consistently a group of fans gathering weekly for soccer matches at Coester’s. It is great to know that we have a strong mini-hotbed of soccer in SW Missouri that can gather together and enjoy the beautiful game. That is a group I’ll look forward to joining when I return from studying abroad next January. Until then I plan on finding a pub in Granada where I can watch the U.S. vs. Argentina game on Sunday.
–

Nic Zweifel
www.niczweifel.com

Summer’s here, surf’s up and that means it’s time to hit the beach for the 2008 Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational. Hosted by the Illinois State Soccer Association, Illinois Youth Soccer Association and Chicago Soccer, the 2008 Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational runs from July 26 to July 27 and is the ultimate sand soccer experience.

Defending champions Santos Degollado will hope to repeat in the Men’s Open Division, while last year’s Women’s Open Champion, Chicago Vectors, will hope to retain their hard-won title, The Serbian Consulate were last years COED Champions and Branko’s Bombers won the Men’s Over30 division.

Registration remains open for teams looking to knock the defending champions off their perch. Teams are guaranteed a minimum of three games, played in a 5-a-side format according to FIFA Beach Soccer rules, and teams can have squads of up to twelve players.

This is the first year Illinois Youth Soccer Association (IYSA) has joined forces with the Illinois State Soccer Association (ISSA), their counterparts in adult soccer, to co-host the 2008 Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational tournament. The two-day event, which takes place at Montrose Beach in Chicago, promises to be the biggest and best ever.

“We are truly delighted to be working with the IYSA on the Beach Soccer Invitational” said George Chazaro, President of ISSA, “the addition of the Youth teams to this fun event will provide more excitement and build on the family atmosphere” For the very first time, this year’s Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational will feature designated youth age brackets at the Under-12, 14, 16 and 19 divisions for boys and girls thanks to the support of the IYSA.

The 2008 Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational is run in conjunction and with the assistance of partners Chicago Soccer and sponsors Ford Motor Company, Spanglish Ideas, Snickers, Soccadelic, Los Comales, Adidas, Daily Herald, Athletico, Chicago Fire, Chicago Storm, Q101 and Univision.

The 2008 Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational is a unique tournament experience unlike any other. For further information, including entry forms and details on how to register and adult team, please contact the ISSA at 312-226-7920, or via email at soccerissa@aol.com. To register a youth team, please contact IYSA at 847-290-1577 or via email at info@illinoisyouthsoccer.org.

In addition to some great soccer on one of Chicago’s largest beaches, The 2008 Chicago Beach Soccer Invitational also offer a variety of activities off the field, featuring some of the finest DJ’s in the area, a play area for kids, adult pick up games organized by Windy City Wanderers FC, a beach soccer clinic for players of all ages and more.

For more information, including rules and photos from last years event visit www.chicagobeachsoccer.org.

Lake Country Soccer in cooperation with the Springfield Sister Cities Association and the Springfield/Greene County Park Board are planning to visit Tlaquepaque, Mexico for a sport and cultural exchange.

Lake Country Soccer is spearheading the soccer activity for this event.

We are in the initial planning stages to assemble a team of youth male U12 (birth year 1995); U13 (birth year 1994) and U14 (birth year 1993) players.

Players who are selected or elect to participate in this program shall be expected to pay approximately $900 for air fare and uniform costs (est. $100). Some other expenses (housing, some food) will be covered by local hosts.

Parents who wish to join in this exchange can expect to pay $1600 for double occupancy and $1900 for single occupancy. Air fare, hotel and some food are included in this price for adults.

We are seeking to take approximately 18 (eighteen) male youth players this summer.

Those desiring to attend should initiate the process of applying and securing passports as passports are now required to travel to Mexico. Expedited applications may be necessary in order to have passports in hand well in advance of the anticipated departure date of June 25th.

Jan Stahle, David Cheek and one or two other individuals will serve as coaches for the team.

Lake Country Soccer will hold an informational session on Saturday, March 29th at 2:00pm at the SoccerDome indoor facility. Any male youth soccer player in the designated age groups interested in this exchange program are strongly encouraged to attend the informational session.

Questions may be directed to the immediate attention of KELLY R ROSS by email; kelly@lakecountrysoccer.org

The Springfield Soccer Club is pleased to announce that this summer they will begin an Under 23 Men’s Program with a mission of providing a professional soccer environment for college age players. The program will offer many highlights for the college player; later start date so players can relax after the college spring semester is over, 6-8 matches so players have an appropriate level of training-match ratio. Finally, players will participate in a 7 v 7 InnerLeague which will allow for weekly opportunities to play during the summer.

“Having been a former coach in the PDL with the Chicago Fire Reserves (currently Chicago Fire Premier), I look forward to this program starting. We look forward to providing a professional environment, where college players can develop their game during the summer months. Players will also be taken care of like professionals, both when we travel and train.” said Jeremy Alumbaugh Director of Soccer Operations for Springfield Soccer Club.

Highlights of the match schedule will see the team traveling to Chicago for a weekend series of three games. Other trips will include matches in St. Louis and Arkansas. “After visiting with college coaches, many of them feel that too many of the current summer soccer programs place too much emphasis on games and not enough on training. We are going to try and provide a professional training environment with enough games to keep players sharp.” said Alumbaugh.

Interested players should contact the Springfield Soccer Club Office at 417-832-1552 for more information.

I’m off on a soccer adventure folks. I’ve been approved for a sideline pass for tonights MLS game between the Chicago Fire and the New England Revolution. I’m planning on concentrating my efforts on Fire goalkeeper Matt Pickens (Missouri State Bears 2003) and the offensive juggernaut that the Rev will throw at him tonight, including three St Louis boys - Taylor Twellman, Pat Noonan and Steve Ralston.

Watch for photos and an interview with Matt Pickens on Sunday or Monday. I’ve got another surprise in store for you as well…

You might also recognize the fellow on the right in this photo - its US Men’s National Team player Chris Armas, also an original member of the Chicago Fire. He’s joined by Judith and Ross McLean (center), who were my correspondents for the Brazil game. They spent the next day, their 19th anniversary, enjoying their second favorite activity (golf) while being teamed with Matt and Chris. Judith is the Executive Director of the Illinois State Soccer Association, the organization that manages all amateur soccer in the state.

Happy anniversary Judith and Ross. Oh, and how about that result!

Some players play for the love of their club or country, Brazil players play for a love of the game, a love and a need to break down defenses by using small passing triangles around flat back fours.

So it was with anticipation and excitement I made my way to Soldier field in Chicago, a stadium more renowned for American Football than Football, to watch the USA take on Brazil …… and I wasn’t disappointed.

From the moment we walked over the 18th street bridge to the final whistle the Brazilian fans tried to make it feel a little bit more like San Paulo than the South Loop. Inside the stadium the carnival atmosphere continued with the ratio of the 45,000 fans being split 50/50. The only thing that detracted slightly from this was the way the fans were distributed around the stadium, in football stadia around the world the away and home fans are highly segregated this makes for an incredible atmosphere as one group of fans tries to outdo the other, in Chicago, it was a much more friendly arrangement with little pockets of Brazil fans intermingled with little pockets of USA fans.

For an exhibition game ….. the game was good……6 goals, two blatant penalty kicks turned down and even an impromptu juggling act by Ronaldinho in the center circle while the USA trainers worked on Tim Howard to relocate a dislocated finger.

The Brazilians tried to work their samba magic on the uneven Soldier field pitch and on occasions, succeeded.

The USA side worked hard to run down the Brazilian playmakers and to stifle their space and on occasions, succeeded.

However, when the USA valiantly attacked and pushed up into the Brazilian half there was too much space available for the Brazilians to play and play they did, with enough back heels, flicks, step-overs and dribbles to fill a whole coaching manual and as we have seen so many times before their intricate passing patterns broke down the flat back four and eventually they beat the USA by 4 goals to 2 .

It was not all doom and gloom for the USA, they had spells when they looked flowing and accomplished and they even scored the first goal, but my guess is that only the most diehard USA fans were dreaming of an upset.

In the end, once again, Brazil showed us that they are an incredible football power, sure there are other football powers, like France, Argentina, Italy and Germany that are extremely good and on any given day can and have beaten Brazil, however, only on rare occasions are they capable of playing “the beautiful game”. Brazil is different; every Brazilian player seems to have a strand of “jogo bonito” in their DNA that creates a scintillating samba style of football that is well worth the price of admission…..maybe now is the time to start saving up for the 2010 World Cup, to hang loose with Ronaldinho and the boys from Brazil.

This soccer adventure involved a walk across Lake Shore Drive via the 18th Street bridge by my by my friend and former teammate, Ross McLean, a fellow who roots for Scotland, Rangers and Manchester United in that order. Former teammate Kathleen Dunbar Illes is pictured above with her husband Jeff (Miami of Ohio) and their sons.

My family and I went to Dallas, Texas for a family vacation and one of the highlights of our trip was going to see FC Dallas play against Pachuca at the Super Liligua. Pizza Hut Park is the name of the stadium where they played at and it is huge. There were a lot of people there and a ton of them were Mexicans yelling in Spanish for Pachuca. The game ended in a tie 1-1 and that one goal was scored by Carlos Ruiz which is the player that me and my brother got our picture taken with. The whole game was a blast and it was so awesome to be there because I am such a huge soccer fan!

~Olivia Solari~ Total Soccer Club

Thanks Olivia. The Superligia game the Solari’s attendend, FC Dallas vs. Pachuca, was played on July 28 in Dallas, TX. The semifinals of this international tournament between teams from the Mexican League and Major League Soccer has reached the semifinals. Pachuca will face off against the Houston Dynamo Tuesday while the LA Galaxy and DC United will battle on Wednesday for the right to play in the Final. Games are broadcast on Telefutura or you can follow the action on the dedicated website.