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Unity Cup Recap
Posted on: Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Highlanders FC Unity Cup finished in an exciting 1-0 win for the U11 Penarol Bravehearts over the U10 Penarol Bravehearts at Bear Mountain Stadium. Both sides earned berths in the final with Division wins over Victoria World Cup teams.
The tourny featured U10 and U11 team divisions. Next year the event will open up to more divisions and invite international clubs and academies to compete in a high level of football and showcase the island and the talent from the region.
AWARDS: Koyla Nielson won the Goalkeeper of the tournament; Caleb Nelson took home the Best Defender award while Martin Trapero won both the Golden Boot award for most goals as well as the Corazon Award for most heart and character.
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The Unity Cup, a youth soccer tournament that will be for the first time in its history sponsored by the Victoria Highlanders, will kick off their annual event June 19 & 20 at the Highlanders home ground of Bear Mountain Stadium in Langford.
“This is the second Unity Cup,” co-founder David Del Castillo said. “We held this tournament last year at the University of Victoria. After having arranged two separate tournaments for our boys on the mainland with the help of our like-minded friends at Westburn Soccer, Killarney S.A., I.T.S.F. (Italian Canadian Soccer Federation), Point Grey S.C. and Kerrisdale S.C. We decided that Victoria has such an abundance of soccer mad kids and families that we should try to start an annual tournament here at home.”
Del Castillo, and fellow co-founder Roberto Alberto, were also thankful to the Highlanders organization who got involved in his vision.
“After our first season was done we realized that we were dealing with an extremely talented and dedicated little group of fútbolistas,” Del Castillo said. “We had asked for the help of the exceptionally talented and very well respected local coach José Almeida in our endeavor. He had mentioned to me that the Highlanders owner, Alex Campbell, may share some of our ideologies on the game and that we should contact him. After meeting with both Alex and (Highlanders FC GM) Drew Finerty, we found that not only were they like-minded, but that they were great guys.”
“We want to make sure that everyone who comes to the tournament knows how much the support of the Highlanders is appreciated,” Alberto added. “We want to acknowledge Drew Finerty's and Alex Campbell's vision and their serious commitment to making football more than just something that parents do when they drop off their kids to a game on Saturday morning.”
This year, the event will showcase boys U10 & U11 divisions with the expectation of adding more divisions and a girl’s side for the summer of 2011. The purpose of this tournament is to highlight young talent from the island and invite quality teams from afar in future years. The Highlanders hope that the event will attract young footballers (boys & girls) that want to get involved with the club’s programs with the dream to play in their academy and ultimately in either the Men or Women's first team squads as their development grows.
Roberto Alberto, the other co-founder of the tournament, believes that the Unity Cup represents a great opportunity for the children of B.C, and even Victoria itself, to get their talents known both regionally and even internationally.
“[We want] to create a tournament that embodies the vision we have to form a competitive scenario for young boys who yearn for opportunities where their talents and most of all, their dedication, can be exposed to the world,” Alberto said. “Second, [we hope] to work with well established local academies and organizations such as the Highlanders to promote the betterment of soccer here in Victoria. Finally, we want to bring attention to Victoria - we have great talent on the island. By having [the tournament] here, we hope to grow and make this city one that can continue to get acclaim from the entire country as one that produces a large amount of talented players.”
The tournament will host teams from all over the island with more teams sure to follow in years to come.
“This year we have seven teams in total,” Alberto said. “Our idea was to have most teams come from local organizations here in Victoria. However, we did contact other out of the city organizations like the Whitecaps Prospects, Saltspring Island soccer academy, and a couple of other teams in Vancouver. However, due to scheduling conflicts, those clubs could not attend, even though most of them expressed their great interest and desire to be here. Nonetheless, the World Cup academy (from Victoria and Shawnigan) will be appearing and bringing their best boys to challenge for the Cup.”
Alberto was also keen to have a good crowd this year in what is sure to be an exciting event.
“Our goal is to make this tournament a permanent fixture in the city,” he said. “With the support of the Highlanders and their progressive vision; we aim to make this a tournament that, in years to come will be THE tournament to attend in the summer for teams who want to develop excellent players from not only Victoria, but all of BC and other provinces across Canada, as well as academies in the United States and yes, even as far down as South America. We will offer food for the parents to watch their boys while they play in what promises to be a great tournament. Parents will get to see their boys in action like never before, in the beautiful Bear Mountain Stadium, a setting that will instill a serious sense of reality to all the boys so that as they continue to develop, they will become accustomed to playing under pressure, with fans all around, in a real football stadium. We are working hard also to get parents involved. It should be noted that their commitment to help us out is one that has been nothing short of amazing.”
When asked whether this tournament was the start of Canadian coaches adopting the European based style of nurturing talent from a young age, Del Castillo was in no doubt that the Unity Cup and his organization could be the start of a soccer revolution here in Canada.
“Our program is called A.L.F.A. (Alma Latina Fútbol Association) and we are a completely free, elite youth soccer program,” he said. “In Latin America, as in Europe, the game is taken more seriously from a younger age than is seen here in Canada (It’s like the rest of the world’s hockey). We have taken soccer here and turned it into a game of affluent “soccer-mummery” where the objective is more about Starbucks and sideline chat than an actual sport that requires the same work ethic, youth development, and dedication to practice as all others. So an emphatic yes to your question – we do endeavor to see keen and talented kids properly trained at the appropriate ages to change the face of Canadian soccer and our current system of training them too late and charging them exorbitant fees to do so. Not to mention the veiled threat of not being involved with expensive programs will exclude these kids from the opportunity to be seen by professional scouts or University scholarships. We have in place a system that perpetuates itself in terms of rewards being given to those that can afford the training rather than those that deserve them based on merit alone. It is not good for the game or our society. To put it bluntly, if your child understood calculus in grade 3 would you keep him/her plugging away at adding fractions. It is a disservice to all children to not nurture given ability so long as the child wants the challenge. A distinction begs to be made to those that oppose our way of thinking and dismissing it as “living through our children.” My child greets me every day from work with a soccer ball at his feet. He knows the players names, numbers, clubs and countries, and has since the age of six – is not the real disservice in not seeing that he obtain every opportunity that his little heart desires?
In contrast, to that, there is a great deal of overzealous parents, I agree. We as parents, coaches, and community leaders need to look closely at each child and discern which ones want “It” and which are getting a little too much “encouragement” from their parents.”
The tournament format is Super 8 (with offside’s), starting with a round robin qualifier. The two teams with the greatest number of points in their division play a semi final with the two winners competing in the Unity Cup Final, slated for Sunday at 1:30. Admission is free.
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PDL 2010 Standings
| Western Conference - Northwest Division | |||||||
| Team | GP | W | L | T | Pts | ||
| Portland Timbers U23 | 16 |
16 |
0 |
0 |
48 |
||
| Kitsap Pumas | 16 |
12 |
2 |
2 |
38 |
||
| Tacoma Tide | 16 |
9 |
4 |
3 |
30 |
||
| Victoria Highlanders | 16 |
7 |
6 |
3 |
24 |
||
| Washington Crossfire | 16 |
6 |
8 |
2 |
20 |
||
| Vancouver Whitecaps Res | 16 |
4 |
9 |
3 |
15 |
||
| Abbotsford Mariners | 16 |
4 |
11 |
1 |
13 |
||
| Yakima Reds | 16 |
4 |
12 |
0 |
12 |
||
| Spokane Spiders | 16 |
2 |
12 |
2 |
8 |
||
Featured Highlander
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22 |
Jamar | |
| DIXON | |||
| Position: Midfield | |||
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