Somerset resident Nico Ferrara and Swansea resident Skylah Dias recently played in a national soccer tournament for boys who are ages 12 years old and under.
From June 23 to June 25, Wallingford Pennsylvania hosted a National Soccer Championship Tournament fully sponsored by Volkswagen. It is called the Junior Masters Tournament.
The Volkswagen Junior Masters Tournament is a world-wide youth soccer competition for boys age 12 and younger. The tournament got its start in Germany, the home of Volkswagen, in 1999 — the year most of the 2012 participants were born. The tournament has established itself, into a "mini world cup tournament" for only 12-year-old boys who participate at a higher level of soccer.
Recently, local youths had the opportunity to represent their Massachusetts Soccer Academy clubs called, "MPS — Massachusetts Premier Soccer," and Boston Massachusetts in a National Tournament.
The MPS Premier Team Program aged 13-19 and the MPS Elite Team Program aged 10-12 is designed for serious and talented soccer players, focusing on the technical, tactical, physical and psychological development of individual players on a pathway towards achieving excellence in the game. MPS strives to produce players who can compete at the highest level of college soccer, the MLS, the USA national team and ultimately the highest level of soccer competition throughout the world.
At MPS, player development is the number one priority. The winning tradition MPS has established is based on each player improving significantly over the time they are with the club. The success of MPS programs is testament to the pursuit of excellence and the club's ability to take players to a higher level of understanding of the game.
After having 10 regional championship tournaments from "March to June of 2012," regional championship winners advance to the Nationals. MPS was the northeast champions after beating the U12 New Hampshire State Champions in June.
Volkswagen had an opening dinner ceremony at the Airport Marriott in Philadelphia Pennsylvania on Monday night July 23. The boys had a night to remember listening to a former professional soccer player, national player and former Olympian commence the night followed by a question and answer period.
On Tuesday, MPS played against Texas and New Jersey, then on Wednesday advancing into the semi-finals championship game in their selected bracket against Colorado. Colorado then beating MPS, and advancing into the Final Championship game later that afternoon. This setting up the championship game, Colorado verses Chicago, and Colorado loosing in penalty kicks 1-0.
On Wednesday evening, the boys ended their three day National Exposure at the 2012 MLS All-Star game in Philadelphia. Americas best played against the European champions Chelsea. The boys were acknowledged prior to the start of the game with highlights of the past few days on the large telepromptor.
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