Special Feature
Article from DC United web site
United U - 17 Boys Continue Tour
August 18, 2003
Sitting at a Glasgow airport with 2 cappuccinos and a copy of the local sports paper in front of them, United U-17 Boys Head Coach Todd Hitt and Youth Technical Director Richie Burke were reflecting on the Scottish leg of their European tour.
On the back of a good display at Premier League Youth champions Blackburn Rovers, United players gained some much needed rest and recovery as they travelled between the English and Scottish legs of their tour. Their first game, two days later (Tuesday 12th), against Celtic U-17’s at Barrowfields Park, next to the famous home ground of Parkhead, the players fought-out a close scoring game only to have a draw pinched from them with a delightful effort by the Celtic center midfielder in the final five minutes. Thought the scoring was close, the pattern of play was dominated by Celtic, especially in the first 60 minutes where they created many 2v1 situations out wide and built-up play off the lively number upfront. In the final 30 minutes, United got going and brought themselves back into the game with a wonderful free-kick by Jeremy Barlow. United built in confidence from this and began to work more chances, but the strength and depth of the Celtic squad was evident when a half chance was presented to the Celtic substitute who took the opportunity to win the game by finding the net from 30 yards over the top of the unfortunately stranded Steven Mapp.
Coach Todd Hitt commented on the game: “The Celtic team seemed to overlap with 2v1 situations down the flanks and rotated their midfield more then English teams. We competed well and should have held for a draw after we got back into the game against the run of play. But an unlucky ricochet and an excellent chip deservedly won the game for Celtic. Our fitness showed that we are not playing this standard of football regularly and we seem to have 20-minute spells where we struggle to maintain intensity especially going forward. In the second half, we posed them more problems and got back into it with a top free kick. In fairness though, Celtic played very well for 60 minutes and deserved a win.”
The following day saw DC take-on Hibernian. Hitt and Burke used this game to provide some valuable experience for the U16 squad members on the tour and the players responded well by creating a whole host of good chances over the 90 minutes, but were unable to convert any of them. For 60 minutes, United was on top of the game both in possession and territorial terms. But the absence of execution and incisiveness in front of goal always kept the Hibernian team in the game and in the final 25 minutes the Hibs team capitalized on this and converted all 3 chances that the Black-and-Red presented them to finally run-out 4-0 winners. A score line that probably does not reflect the true pattern of the Game, as this was probably United's most dominating and attacking game they have played on this tour. This is what the European tour has been like and will prove a priceless learning experience for United's young players.
Hitt reflected on the game: “I thought we played well and created the most chances we have through all the tour, but we weren’t clinical. But what we have learned from this UK section of the tour is that if you don’t take chances you get punished and compared with US teams we get punished for defensive mistakes far more clinically and that’s what happened here. We had the better of the game and of the chances for 65minutes but couldn’t convert and when we made changes and some defensive mistakes occurred we were punished.”
Richie Burke later summed up the Scottish section of the tour: “The Scottish leg was a positive experience. We gave good accounts of ourselves in both games. Our defensive play was very solid in the games until the final 20 minutes of the Hibs game. Other than that, we were able to absorb most of what the Scotts threw at us, which is a pleasing sign for our development.
In a long chat with Tommy Burns (head of youth at Celtic), he seemed pleasantly surprised at the quality of players and our game, which bodes well for our program. We are very pleased at the way the players have learned and benefited from the experience ISOS has provided us from this tour.”
He continued: “In Scotland, it was noticeable how they used 3 in midfield far more compared with a traditional 4-4-2 that the English teams used. Both Celtic and Hibs wanted to get the ball very wide and create 2v1 situations to overlap and get crosses in. The nature of the games in Scotland were more open that did test us tactically more but also allowed us to create more chances compared with English teams.
We would like to take this opportunity to extend thanks to Tommy Burns, Jim McNally, John Park and the clubs of Celtic and Hibs for an excellent experience. I certainly hope that we have developed a good link there.”
Todd Hitt concluded: “You noticed that the depth of ability in UK academy clubs is far greater than US rosters. We don’t have the strength in depth. This is probably due to the level of training our players receive at a very young age compared with UK players. British players play very simple straight forward games but they do do the simple things, an the whole, better that our guys – but we are certainly not far behind as our performances and results show.”
To finish off the Scottish leg the players were treated to a visit at Ibrox stadium, arranged by ISOS, to watch Rangers play FC Copenhagen in the Champions League qualifier. The passionate 45,000 crowd was a real eye opener for the guys and an experience they enjoyed and won’t forget as well as being a nice way to send-off the UK section of the tour before hitting Germany to play Bayer Leverkusen and Kaiserslautern.
Ross Emery
ISOS - Europe
Article from DC United web site
Other D.C. United Youth Team News
- 08.26.03 D.C. United Academy European Tour Review
- 08.11.03 Fulham Rains on U-17 Parade
- 08.09.03 United U-17 Boys Spurred onto Victory
