DANONE CUP AN EYE-OPENER FOR KIDS
Canadian teams soak up energy, culture at world’s biggest youth soccer tourney
Canada was always going to be an underdog at the Danone Nations Cup, but proved it had some bite on the opening day of the biggest youth soccer tournament in the world.
The Canadian boys team finished fourth in its five-team group after posting a pair of draws and two losses in four games on Thursday.
Canada opened the event with a scoreless tie against England (games are just 20 minutes long) before losing 4-1 to France and 3-2 to Hungary. Canada finished the round robin portion of the tournament with a 1-1 tie against Tunisia and will play in the consolation pool of the 20-team tournament today.
“This is my first experience here and this setup is fantastic. The energy and the culture here is fantastic,” said Canada head coach Pat Raimondo. “It’s not really a fair fight for our boys. We’re playing teams that have been training all year together. We’ve had five practices, they’ve had about 300.
“But on the field, the boys gave it their all, and that’s all we can ask from them.”
Canada’s boys and girls teams were selected after a series of camps at the provincial and national level.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the event, this year’s Danone Nations Cup features 56 teams from 27 countries competing in two separate tournaments. Teams are divided into 2018 and 2019 divisions. The 2019 tournament is for 10-12 year olds, while the 2018 tournament features players aged 11-13.
Canada is playing in the 2018 tournament with the team having been chosen last year after being whittled down from 5,000 players nationwide.
“We didn’t win a match, but we still qualified to play in the second division, and it’s been a lot of fun to be here,” said forward Luca Domanico of Ottawa.
“We had a really tough group. We had teams like France in it, who are really, really good, but we still fought hard and we played really hard. We were still able to score a few goals and we were able to get into the second group.”
Canada will play another round robin today, looking to finish as high as ninth. They’ll be grouped with Tunisia, Netherlands, Romania, Indonesia, Algeria, the United States and Portugal.
The preliminary rounds are taking place an hour south of Barcelona. The finals will take place Saturday in Barcelona at RCDE Stadium, home to La Liga club Espanyol.
Two years ago, Canada made it to the final of the first girls tournament at the Danone Nations Cup.
In order to return this year, Canada is going to need to put together an inspired second day of play after opening with a win, a loss and draw, which puts them second in their group following the opening day of competition on Thursday.
Canada defeated England 2-0 in their opener, then lost to France 3-0 before playing to a scoreless tie with the U.S. The three teams meet in another round robin today, with the top team after two days advancing to the final on Saturday.
“It’s just a gorgeous, gorgeous venue and I think that’s exciting for the players to be able to see that and live the culture of football here in Spain.” said head coach Dean Howie. “I think that that’s something that we maybe don’t see enough of this culture at all, so I think that’s an amazing eye-opener for them.
“I think that’s what happened against France. We sort of got shell-shocked a little bit, giving up an early goal, and then we went, ‘Holy, geez, we’re in Spain, playing France.’ After we fell behind 1-0, it got real.”
France is one of the strongest sides in the eight-team tournament, also featuring Italy, Spain, Germany and Brazil. The French defeated the United States 3-1 and England 4-0 in the eight-aside format.
“Against the Americans, I think we gave up one opportunity and we had a couple, but we weren’t efficient in that we weren’t dangerous in the attacking third,” Howie said. “I think we need to be a bit more dangerous.”
Canada lost in penalty kicks to Brazil at the inaugural girls tournament two years ago at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. In order to get into the final this time, the Canucks have to finish first in their group, meaning they’ll likely have to beat France.
“This tournament has been really cool,” said defender Gabby Ramdeen of Whitby, Ont. “The first day we were a bit nervous, but I think it’s getting better. I’ve never played against teams from England or France before, so that’s been cool, and it’s cool to just walk around and hear all the chants and watch other teams play.”
The Canadian team was selected last year and came together recently to prepare for the tournament. Other teams have been practising together for the majority of the year, including France, which features a number of players from the Olympique Lyonnais academy, the best women’s club team in the world.