Aussie tournament whets young footballer’s appetite
Promising young Twizel footballer Kouper Lynch is ready to get straight back out training after returning from the largest international youth tournament in the Southern Hemisphere.
The 10-year-old loves playing football so much he travels over 300 kilometres every weekend to train and play with his team in Oamaru and this month the team travelled to Canberra to compete in the Kanga Cup, joint-fourth in their group of seven teams.
Kouper’s dad and team coach Chris Lynch, who returned this week, said everyone enjoyed the tournament and it was ‘‘a great learning experience’’.
‘‘It was a lot more physical over there but they held their own. Some of the scores where they lost didn’t reflect how well they played,’’ Chris said.
‘‘I think they scored in every game. ‘‘A lot of the teams probably aim for that [tournament] every year – like the Australian teams that’s probably their number one target – whereas we only got together last November and thought we’d give it a go and didn’t do too bad.’’
Despite the ‘‘full-on’’ nature of the tournament, they even played friendly matches against some teams they shared accommodation with for ‘‘a bit of fun’’.
Kouper said the best part of the experience was ‘‘just being with the team and playing football’’.
The Lynchs will return to their weekly trip to Oamaru this weekend to start training for the South Island junior championships in Blenheim, and festivals in Timaru and Alexandra.
Chris said the travelling is worth it.