Prague Trip Region IV Boys 90's

WPS Soccer would like to thank Region IV for letting us make their stories more available to our readers. After contacting the people at Region IV and asking to publish pdf files they had on the trip to Prague for all of you they responded and said "YES" Above both of the Region IV logos link to the Region IV site. Special thanks to Phil McDonald a reader who turned the light on in my head to contact Region IV about using them and other stories they may do in the future. An even bigger thanks to Rick Freehan, Region IV Program Administrator who made sure it was okay to use them on WPS Soccer. These are the type of relationships we are trying to forge for future content.

Region IV 90 Boys - Czech Republic Tour
Game One vs. Central Bohemia Select

This trip marks Region IV's first official trip to the Czech Republic. For many of these boys, this is also their first major trip from home, let alone to Europe. The combination of the two meant that there was much up in the air in the way of expectations. We were
able to get two short sessions in prior to this first match. The first session was yesterday on our day of arrival and the second session this morning. Both sessions were very simple. The first session, after a warm up that allowed the boys a chance to find there legs after a very long travel day, was centered on possession and allowing the boys to get to know each other again. Today's session focused a little more on tactics playing 11 vs. 0 and 11 vs. 6 allowing the boys to get to know each other within the confines of the game and a certain system (4-4-2). We also briefly touched on a few set pieces (knowing that this could be the difference in us winning or losing.....however not on this day). Both
sessions, as expected with this group, were lively and played with a good spirit. (It should also be stated that we were able to get in just a couple minutes of basketball at the end of our first session......let's just say they are good soccer players!)

Central Bohemia Select, as we were led to believe, was a collection of some of the top players from this region. Well, this was/is not exactly accurate. We won 17-0. That is not a misprint, 17-0. We are good, but......

Unfortunately, sometimes the first time our American teams travel to certain countries they are not shown the respect they often deserve. This seems to be one of those times. In fairness to our boys however, they scored some absolute class goals. Goals off of set pieces, goals off of crosses, goals off of a series of one touch passes, two goals off of volleys.......class. In the end it was another training session, but I think we improved because of it. We were not held to any substitution rules, so we mixed up positions, played everybody pretty close to equal and experimented just a bit on two different versions of a 4-4-2 system.

I am proud of the boys for their performance and attitude. At no time did they disrespect their opponent or the game. Tomorrow a true test is expected. Sparta Prague is perhaps the most recognized club in the Czech Republic and they are one of the top teams in the youth league. Where today's game did not necessarily prepare us for the level ofcompetition we will likely see tomorrow, did give us one more days opportunity to learn more about one another. And included in our victory, most likely (hopefully), is a large measure of respect...for us and our country.

Following is a list of goal scorers and assist getters (in the order they were scored):
1. Zimmerman from Felipe 11. Barrerra from Villon
2. Wenzel from Villon 12. DaSilva from Escobedo
3. Felipe from Molinar 13. Escobedo from Villon
4. Zimmerman from Trncic 14. Yanez from Bates
5. Trncic from Felipe 15. DaSilva from Villon
6. Hamada from Trncic 16. Molinar from Barrerra
7. Wenzel from Barrerra 17. Harris from Escobedo
8. Barrerra from Escobedo
9. Molinar from DaSilva
10. Molinar from YanezRegion IV 90 Boys - Czech Republic Tour

Game Two vs. Sparta Prague 88-89

Just to kill the suspense......game two was nothing like game one. The Sparta Prague training facility consists of an eight field complex (two of which are field turf, the rest very nice grass), sign boards surrounding fields, an excellent club house (consisting of
locker rooms, offices, a club cafe which overlooks one of the fields, and much more....) and teams training from seven and eight all the way up to the first team. Not to mention the facilities are surrounded by stadium seats, enough to house an Olympic track and field event (which it did many years ago). Needless to say, it was a very unique and special facility. As we walked up and took notice of our surroundings and watched the Sparta Prague Reserve Team train, we had a decent idea that a repeat performance of day one was likely not to happen.

There has been a great deal of rain here in recent times, so for the second day in a row we would play on the field turf field. In fact both our training sessions and both our games have been played on turf. Though there were teams training on it, we were not allowed to play our game on the grass. The turf was very nice, but we were a bit disappointed not to be on grass. In addition, as we stepped up to the field to begin warm up, a U-10 team was training and fought not to be removed from the field which left us about 30 yards of the field to prepare for this big game. A bit of insult was added when our opponent showed up and began to warm up in our small 30 yard area of space. And last but not
least, we were assigned two club players as linesmen and a young center ref who looked as though he had just walked off the training pitch himself. But this was only the beginning.....

Kick off was at 4:30pm. Today was a busy day as after breakfast we headed out for a tour of Prague, in particular Old Town and Lesser Town and the Saint Vitus Cathedral and the Prague Castle. It was a very nice tour but with a lot of walking. I guess we just
looked at it as an extended warm up. No worries though, the boys were ready to play come game time. Twenty minutes prior to kick off was the first we saw of our opponents. They were physically mature athletes (some a year, most two years older than
us), who pretty much to a man were bigger than our boys. We started with a very attack oriented unit and played a 4-4-2 but slightly different than we normally do. We played flat in the back as usual, but pinched our midfield into a diamond because of our
personnel (very technical and skillful). We were going to encourage our outside backs to get forward, move the ball quickly inside and get numbers in positions to score. We wanted to think and play aggressive attacking style soccer. Though we spent a fair
amount of time defending, we did so knowing we could get forward. We were able to hold some possession, but rarely did we possess the ball in the attacking half or attacking third. Their size and strength ended up giving them an early advantage as far as field position goes; however we showed some very fine flashes of quick and crafty play.Before the first half came to a close we were able to connect some passes and create a couple half chances in front of goal. The half time score after 35 minutes was 0-0.
The half time interval was used to reassure the boys that our soccer ability and quickness would win out over the bigger, stronger players. In the 43rd minute, Temistocles Molinar
received the ball at midfield. After turning the first defender he was fouled, but maintained his balance as well as possession of the ball, so play carried on. As he approached the second and third defender, he was being fouled again and againÉwhile
half of us were yelling pass it and others of us were waiting on a whistle, Temi kept running. In a flash he had broken free of the pack and now only the Sparta Prague goalkeeper stood in his way. A sudden toe poke as he entered the box surprised the
keeper; the ball eluded the keeper, hit the inside of the left post and bounced across the goal and over the line. A great great goal. 1-0.

Typically, this brings a shift in field position and pressure and the team that has just gone up a goal falls into a shell and defends until they concede a goal or until the final whistle is blown. We actually fought this off pretty well and kept playing. As the game
progressed however, the flow did change and we had to face more long serves which put us under more pressure. At times we pressed a bit too high up the field which ended up
creating space in the midfield allowing our opponent time to serve the ball up field and thus putting us under pressure. We continued to fight though and our big players matched up with their big guys and our smaller guys fought their big guys. A gritty
performance for sure. With time dwindling, we committed a foul 25-30 yards from goal. In the commotion and in our attempt to defend their free kick, we failed to take care of the one player they had sitting wide to our right. The ball was played to that very player. We adjusted quickly sending out defenders, but because we were late in doing so, our timing was off and another foul was committed this time, it was in the box. Penalty! We defended in this game more than they did. They had more shots on goal than we did. Our goalkeeper, Brooks Hopp, made more nice saves than their goalkeeper, but we fully deserved to win this match (in the coaching staff's humble opinion......as well as our player's). And now, that victory was in jeopardy. With all the great saves made today, this would not be one of them. 1-1. We did not stop however, and off the kick off, though time seemed to be out, we went forward. With great pressure from Victor Yanez
we almost stole the win. Victor pressed the goalkeeper, beat him to the ball, dribbled along the end line to the middle of the goal as he went to pass it in the empty net, he was tackled (I mean like a football player tackled.) Surely a penalty referee! But "play on"
was the call and seconds after the whistle would blow, not for a foul, but to end the game. And what a game it was.

There were so many good performances. I feel bad that I have only mentioned a couple players.....our back four of Bates, Wenzell, Hamada and Murillo was a wall. Our creativity in the midfield from Barrerra, DaSilva and especially Villon was impressive. Our defending in the midfield by Escobedo, Zimmerman and Harris was hard. The work up front by Trncic, Felipe, Molinar and Yanez surpassed that of our opponent. A few
players were not able to get in this game, but even the players on the side were into the game from the first minute. There will be talk of the referee and some of his "out in left field calls", his phantom cards handed out, the penalty "not" called, the fact that in a 70 minute game we played 82 minutes (oh yeah, the penalty was called in the 79th minute) and I'm sure there is more. But we could have managed the game better. We could have won. The ref is just a part of the game. A part which we cannot control (to some extent),and that part which we can control, we have done better.

All this having been said, we were in many ways absolutely brilliant today. Our soccer, attitude, spirit, passion and work ethic were awesome. The Region IV staff is so very pleased with this team's representation of our region and country. Great things lie ahead. Two games down. Still two to go.

Region IV 90 Boys - Czech Republic Tour
Game 5 vs. Motorlet FC - A Team

The added game meant a lot to players and staff. As we approached the stadium the excitement amongst the players grew. Unfortunately, one final (though minor) slap in the
face was the fact that a small international tournament had been taking place there all day long. Our game was supposed to kick off at 5:45pm. Upon arrival we were told that it was pushed back until 6pm. No problem except for the fact that we saw no lights in the
stadium. Darkness might become an issue. Because the final game of the tournament was still being played, we began our warm up on their upper training field. Next we were told that we would also be playing our match on the training field. This simply would not
do. We wanted to be in the stadium. Our administrators (Darl Rose and Jack Rosenhan) who had bartered to get the game in the first place, now had to make it clear we were going to play on the stadium.......period. They did this and we moved to the stadium field to complete our warm up even though the award ceremony was just now beginning for the tournament, who's last game had just finishedÉlong story shortÉbecause of light, the ceremony and a lack of communication, we moved back up to the training field (a
nice pitch, though smaller than the stadium) to start the game and make sure we would get a full 80 minutes in (fortunately, we were able to get all 80 minutes in). All the off field games were now complete, time to simply focus on soccer.

We started our fifth different line up in five games, but again with the same 4-4-2 system we had played since game two. The previous four games, eight days of travel and touring, and all that took place in between was now looking like it was having an effect
on the players. The effort and spirit were still very good (as usual with this group) and their ideas were very good, but not everything was coming off as smooth as we would have liked. We persevered however, and within 20 minutes, a cross from Rodrigo
DaSilva from the left side found Caleb Escobedo on the far side who redirected the ball across the goal not once but twice, finally finding an open Temi Molinar who calmly volleyed home the opener. The score remained 1-0 into the half time interval. Half number two was much of the same. We had some good moments for sure, but again were not as consistent as we would have hoped for. The fight continued and for this we were grateful. We had hoped for more games like this all week. We were under pressure from time to time, mostly from counter attacks or long free kicks, but we defended well and when called upon, our keeper(s) answered the call. Late in the game, Danny Wenzel
who had pushed forward for a corner, was able to get on the end of a bouncing ball and placed the ball between the clusters of players to ice the game at 2-0.

In the end, I was most pleased with the game. We were not at our best but we never stopped trying to play. Where we weren't as clean as we might expect, we still were able to create some good soccer moments and at no time did frustration get in the way of us securing our fifth game unbeaten or even conceding a goal for that matter. The boys showed heart and grit and performed admirably. For that I am proud of them. All week long the boys have taken what was given and what many times seemed like
lemons were able to make lemonade. This is an outstanding group of young men and as we tried to make clear to them, if you want to become a great player, you must first become a great person. Each of these boys is well on his way. As this is the last report
for this trip, I wanted to take one sentence on behalf of Greg Maas and myself to say how much we enjoyed these boys and their performance, attitude and spirit both on and off the
field.

WPS Soccer again would like to thank Region IV