The Target USA Cup — a youth soccer tournament — wrapped up Saturday at Blaine’s National Sports Center. During the week-long event, teams from 28 countries played more than 2,500 games.
Parents cheering, drums, vuvuzelas and flags. A soccer player’s dream: the limelight.
Here are a couple of storylines from the event.
Expanding referee program
Soccer referees are often chastened by fans. Sometimes, they are the villain calling infractions. Other times, they are the villain not calling alleged infractions.
Yet, they commit and share the same love for the game as players and coaches. And just like an athlete’s trajectory, a referee needs guidance and growth. At this year’s Cup, officials from around the world worked on their attention to details and fairness.
Referee HQ was at local elementary school. At its center was 82-year-old Donald “Donnie” MacKinnon of Motherwell, Scotland. MacKinnon has been the USA Cup’s lead referee assessor for the last nine years. He is part of “GOAT,” the game observation and assessment team.
After suffering an injury that derailed his playing career, MacKinnon thought about his love for the sport. “I want to put something back into the game … why not referee?,” he said. “And that was the beginning.”
Since then, MacKinnon has officiated for nearly 53 years and has been part of the USA Cup for 23 years.
MacKinnon said many of the referees that stepped through the tournament have become FIFA referees because of the experience gained.
Part of becoming a veteran referee is understanding different languages and cultures that filter through soccer and onto the pitch.
“An opportunity in an event like this where you get to see a lot of different teams, from different places with different styles … it’s really healthy for young referees to get that,” said Steve Olson, chief operating officer at the National Sports Center.
The referee academy, designed for fast-tracking referees, is a surplus to the USA Cup experience.
Referees must be comfortable with being uncomfortable.
“You travel. You are in a suitcase, you have to figure out where to wash your clothes. You eat different food. You stay up late,” Olson said. “When you become a professional referee and you live in New York and they send you to L.A., and your kickoff in L.A. is at 7:30, which is 10:30 your time, you have to be able to deal with that.”
It’s never too early to become a referee. This year, there are referees as young as 13 and MacKinnon said they’re putting in the work. They’re confident; they learn from their mistakes.
“It can also be career building. And if you go to a job interview, and you say, ‘I’m a soccer referee,’ they realize you’ve had to work hard to get that qualification,” MacKinnon said.
MacKinnon said one rule to live by as a referee is “expecting the unexpected.”
English soccer shows its dominance
English football is royalty in the world of sports.
The country is home to the prestigious Premier League and its national team is consistently among Europe’s elite.
And then there’s the country’s younger soccer talent, represented by EMC Academy, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England. Their under-18 squad played a category up at the USA Cup, in the under-19 bracket. They also have several players who are 17 years old or younger.
On Friday afternoon, EMC Academy demolished Minnesota’s Winona Euro FC Flamengo, 16-0. Decisive and precise passing led the way. If the boys eclipsed their opponents’ side, and after four-to-five meticulous passes, the ball was going inside the net.
“They’re really, really technical,” said Jonny Elwood, academy manager. “We like to play possession football, but we also like to play really high tempo.”
After the game, Corey Holden, 18, gathered everyone for postgame stretches. The center midfielder is modest about his role, but when asked if others look up to him, he said: “I’d say so.”
Added Holden, “It’s important … to encourage the rest of the team to play to their full potential.”
As the game wrapped, a soccer scout from the University of Wisconsin – Stout approached one of the EMC Academy players, 16-yeard-old Lukas Skleinikas.
“It’s been amazing to come out here and get the exposure, get the interest from college coaches,” Elwood said.
Some of the team’s players will move on from soccer after this tournament, some of them will remain involved with EMC and others aspire to make it to the exclusive world of professional soccer.
“We’ve had them for such a long time, the main thing for us is just to try instill the confidence and the consistency that they’ll be able to take away from us, and it’s really important they have habits that they’ll have in the future,” Elwood said.
