U18s head to Prague for CEE Cup, aiming to topple Irish… & Brazilian opposition? Posted By: TheSwanseaWayon: July 20, 2015In: Academy, Breaking, NewsNo Comments The first team went to Germany. The U21s have gone to Holland. It seems only fair then that the U18s get to go away too. They’re heading off to the Czech Republic where they’re to play in the Generali CEE Cup, an event which – in the organisers’ words – “brings some of the leading youth teams (under 19) from first leagues in, mainly (but not exclusively), Central & Eastern Europe to the Czech Republic”. Despite not having an U19 side (something very prevalent on the continent) the Swans are keen their young players experience playing abroad and against different footballing styles and cultures, and U18 manager Cameron Toshack is hoping his side can gain a lot from the trip. Speaking to Prague.TV (it’s an excellent interview and worth reading in it’s entirety) he said he was looking forward to seeing how his young charges cope: “One of the aims at our club is to stretch our players in different environments and the Generali CEE Cup allows us to do that early on in our preseason preparations. We have a young group which will raise challenges for our players and test their decision making. We look forward to seeing how they cope. “Our main strengths are creativity and belief, we encourage all of our players to express themselves and be confident in possession. As a club we preach a philosophy that entails players passing the ball well and looking to regain the ball during transition as quickly as possible. “Our main focus will be on ourselves. That said, we are looking forward to the different challenges the other teams will bring to our group. We do not know the sides well in the tournament plus in the UK we play mainly U18 or U21 fixtures, so the U19 bracket is not the norm. I would therefore imagine the physicality of other teams might test a number of our group. “I was fortunate to visit the city [Prague] on a site visit in May, it is a beautiful place and we will look to expose our players to as many different cultural experiences as possible and for them to experience the atmosphere in the old part of Prague, seeing the astronomical clock on the hour and walking through the square will I’m sure prove memorable.” “That said, we are in an important phase of our preparation for the upcoming season and the focus will be on using the experience to test ourselves and develop from a footballing perspective.” The young Swans side take on FC Academy Pandev (Macedonia) on Thursday, before a match against FC Bohemians 1905 (Ireland) the day after. If successful they could then progress via quarter and semi finals to the final on the 29th of the month, although even if they aren’t originally successful owing to the format of the competition there will be further games against the other sides eliminated earlier in the competition. The other sides involved are Fluminense (Brazil), AS Trencin (Slovakia), Vasas Kubala (Hungary), Sparta Prague (Czech Republic), Olympic FC (Australia), Slavia Prague (Czech Republic), FC Sarajevo (Bosnia), Hadjuk Split (Croatia) & Wisla Krakow (Poland). Good luck to Cameron Toshack & his side ahead of what’s sure to be an interesting experience
Well it just shows how cosmopolitan the Club has become , what great experiences which can only add to development of the players involved.
