Seven teams from the Cayman Islands from a joint group of Academy Sports Club and ESM participated in this year’s Target USA Cup, with several teams making it to the semifinals and finals, earning two major trophies in the process.
The annual event, held this year on 18-22 July in Minnesota, is one of the largest youth football tournaments in the world, with more than 1,200 teams competing from 17 countries.
The ESM U9s were “very exciting to watch”, Academy said in a press release.
The youngest team in the group made it to the semi-finals where they lost 2-1 in a tight match.
The ESM U11 boys made it to the finals and, after “another great performance”, won their match 3-1 to become U11 boys champions.
The Academy U13 boys also had a great run throughout the tournament, losing a tight quarter-final match 4-3 in the U13 boys Silver flight.
Academy’s U15 boys made it to the U15 Boys Silver finals before losing 5-2 to a strong team from Iceland, earning runners-up trophy.
The Academy U16 boys played well in the Gold flight, suffering a loss in their tight quarter-final match that was decided by a penalty shootout.
The U17 Academy girls had an excellent tournament, making it to the U17 girls Silver semi-finals, losing 3-0 after a tough battle and incurring several injuries along the way, according to the press release.
Academy’s oldest team, the U19 boys, also demonstrated some great performances, conceding only two goals all week and making it to the U19 boys Gold semi-finals. They narrowly missed out on a place in the finals after suffering a 1-0 loss.
Academy’s head of youth development and U19 boys head coach Paul Byles praised the Cayman footballers.
“All the teams performed extremely well this year. Having 5 out of 7 teams make it to the semifinals or finals and bringing home two trophies is one of our best performances. This demonstrates that our program is very effective, and our boys and girls are improving significantly,” he said in the release.
“We owe a lot to parents, volunteers, and several sponsors for their support in helping our youth players to have another great experience at the Target USA Cup this year,” Byles added.
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