2012 State Cup Preview

Should be an interesting and wide open tournament on the boys side this year with DAP players and teams not eligible for State Cup Play. Good luck to all the players, clubs and coaches!

I am looking for 2 U15+ girls and 2 U15+ boys to share there perspective on the State Cup competition by writing a blog post after each State Cup game. I am more interested in hearing about a players perspective on training, game preparation, team chemistry, excitement of the cup, etc. than match highlight stories. I will turn comments off for player's posting upon request. Please contact me at mnfutbol@yahoo.com if you are interested. Talk to your parents first as I will ask for their written permission if you are under 18.

Please direct State Cup chat to the new chat section to the right. Please be civil and do not call out any players by name unless you are complementing them. Thank you!

Questionable Decisions From MYSA and My Beloved U16

MYSA is soon to be a thing in the past. The association is ran by a group of incapable ego maniacs. Some may have some experience in soccer, some are just enjoying the droplet of power that they feel entitled to.

It is frustrating when incidences that have big consequences happen to you repeatedly. I coach a U16 team in St. Louis Park. When the boys were 13 they played C1. They were at most an average team. They finished the season with 25 percent of the max point that can be earned in a season.

The rule states that is a team earns 25 percent of the total points or more they will not have to face relegation. It took weeks for the decision to be made, and the final word from MYSA was...they had to move down to C2.

The kids worked their butts off! They won C1 tournaments locally and went undefeated and was promoted back to C1. There, they had a successful season as well. They won the league, finished C1 state runners up and was promoted to Premier, and so we thought until MYSA got involved.

Soccer Unites People

A few months ago, I had an opportunity of a lifetime to live in Mexico. I spent about five weeks volunteering at an incredible orphanage in Puerto Vallarta.

The first couple days of volunteering I traveled via taxi between my grandmother’s condo and the orphanage. On the third day of the experience, I gathered up enough courage to try to find my way home by foot.

The experience was both terrifying and exciting. I started on the right path, but suddenly I found myself going in circle. The more I walked, the faster my heart beat, and I don’t think it was because of my fitness. As a person who is scared of dogs, the combination of being lost and stray dogs were not calming to my nerves.

After being drenched in sweat from the heat and probably anxiety, I stumbled upon a futsal court. The sound of a soccer ball being crushed against the cement wall put a huge smile on my face, and my anxiety vanished.

There were two eleven-year-old boys taking turn shoot on each other. I stood there observing them for about five minutes, until I built up enough courage to use my Spanish to ask if I can just kick it around with them.

My first shot was pretty embarrassing. With a one step approach I skied it, and the ball sailed over the fence into the garbage filled river that ran underneath the court. Fortunately it got better after the first shot.

Shortly after, another one of their amigos joined us, and we started a two on two game. After about an hour of an intense match under the scorching sun we ended our game. One of the kids asked me if I played professional, I laughed and told him no. With some extra change in my pocket, I gave the boys 50 pesos to get a soda to share. After we started to part way one of the boys, Felipe, asked me if I was going to return the following day.

That day’s adventure was about being lost and found, but that experience was about soccer and how it can be such a powerful tool that can unite strangers. For all I know they probably thought I was Mexican, so I never told them I was Cambodian American.

Soccer: Not Just a Game!

Tears streamed down my face. Post-game treats didn’t taste good. Parents of my teammates used to tell me that soccer is just a game. But when I was young, soccer was never just a game to me.

I moved to the St. Louis Park, Minnesota from Cambodia when I was nine years old in 1998. Half a world away from home in a strange land and not being able to speak a word of English, I felt pretty small, scared and lonely. I carried on my shoulders these feelings for the longest time, until my gramma signed me up for traveling soccer that very spring.

Until this day I can never thank her enough. Soccer has been a footstool that has allowed my to stand eye level with everyone else that had a head start. It became a game that has helped define who I am today.

I can recall my first practice like it was yesterday. On a chilly spring morning my gramma dropped me off at Ainsworth Park in St. Louis Park. On one side of the field there was a great big hill, and on the other side was low-income housing. I showed up to my first practice in denim shorts and a grey tee shirt that read ‘World’s People’ across my chest. After the first practice was done, that was my history in the making.

Chat: 2012 European Championship

Chat: 2012 European Championship

Chat: '12 Boys State Cup

Chat: '12 Girls State Cup

Early Years

I would like to give a shout out to the youth players/parents/coaches and anyone else who might shape the young players of the game. When I look back on when I was a young player, just learning what offsides really meant, starting to play for a real soccer club, and going from a size 4 ball to size 5 ball, I am extremely thankful for the people who trained me. I do not know if they fully realize how much of an impact they had on my confidence with the ball, but after I write this I will be sure to remind them.

In the winter months when my team had to play indoors in a basketball gym, we would go up to the wall with a ball each and just bounce kick it over and over with the right foot. "Count how many in a row you can get." I always remember my coaches saying that. I am such a competitive person that it drove me to keep trying to beat my own personal record. I would go home after practice, race down to the basement, and keep kicking against the wall. I wanted to go to the next practice with an even higher record. That is what drives me to keep doing the simple drills even now. I want to keep improving on them. If I get to comfortable on a drill I tweak it to make it harder. Now, I warm up with the bounce kicks against the wall, but then transition to kicking against the wall with no bounce. For a visual, I am just juggling with the wall. Every couple touches I kick it against the wall and it bounces back to me where I must control it in the air and begin juggling again. I like to also add certain restrictions or juggling combinations to the drill. I will go into a raquetball court for an hour and do simple drills like kicking against a wall and enjoy it. I love being on the ball.

The Beautiful Game

I cannot begin to imagine my life without football. Since I could barely walk, that's what I have enjoyed. There is nothing like the game. I feel free when I am out on the field and for 90 minutes the game belongs to the players, and the players alone. There are no time outs. Only three subs are allowed thus, giving the power to the players on the field. In real life, getting 11 people to work together seems like a strenuous task, but on the pitch it is a different story. Once you get to a quality level of football, 11 players working together almost comes naturally. Anyone who plays the game knows the amazing feelingly when everyone just clicks and the game becomes something like a dream. You know where the ball will be in two or more passes with your teammates supporting you in every direction on the pitch. It's beautiful when everything comes together. No other team in the world has figured this out better than Barcelona. You become mesmerized when they string more then 30 passes together to create a goal. Their mix of Total Football and Tiki-taka is what every team should strive for, not only for the players, but for the fans of the game. It's amazing to watch.