Story by Phillip Millar and photo by Jeff Andrus
The summer of 2014 provided a very special opportunity for one of Ontario’s top girls’ soccer teams. Thirteen 12-year-old girls from the London area travelled to Sweden to participate in the Gothia Cup, the world’s largest youth soccer tournament.
The AG London 2002 Girls team is led by Jose “Garrincha” Figueiredo, a former professional soccer player and professional soccer coach who is recognized internationally as one of the best technical trainers around. Garrincha prepared the girls for this challenge by including them in his International soccer camp two weeks before the team’s departure. The girls were trained by outstanding European Soccer coaches from Arsenal, Tottenham, Clubbe Bruge and FC Twente over five days. Our goalkeeper actually received one-on-one training from the Canadian National Team goalie coach.
Back row: Rachel Rosborough, Karsen Furhman, Emily Sheculski, Kaila Novak, MJ Andrus, Ally Hicks, Sydney Bandarra
Front Row: Hope Spitzig, Hailey Burk, Sofia Millar, Sam Bell, Briana Garcia
Keeper: Nadia Chylia
The team’s first two games resulted in a pair of victories against top Swedish teams. There were 46 teams in AG London’s age bracket from all over the world, including the USA, England, Singapore, China, Sweden, Finland, Thailand and more. Our division was mostly Swedish. Following our victories, we travelled to the spectacular Ulevi Stadium, which was originally built to host the 1958 World Cup.
Our team was selected to represent Canada in the opening ceremonies. This young group of soccer players entered the stadium carrying the Canadian Flag in front of 60,000 people cheering them on. It is impossible to put into words how amazing the experience was for these young girls.
But after the opening ceremonies, it was time to get down to business. Our girls went undefeated for the next five games, and soon everyone was talking about the Canadian team that played soccer the way it is supposed to be played. In fact, after AG London’s quarter-final victory, the coach of the defeated team approached the coaching staff and said the following: “thank you for this wonderful game, I am the team physician for the Swedish national soccer team and have two silver medals in my home. I just wanted to say I have never seen a girls soccer team play a more beautiful style of soccer… Congratulations.”
Such high praise is directly attributable to our coach and his philosophy of training and development over winning. Sadly, the stress got to the girls and we lost in the semi-finals to an Elite team sponsored by Arsenal and based out of Singapore.
Our girls nonetheless were thrilled to be called to the podium in front of a giant crowd to receive their bronze medals. Few, if any, Canadian teams have performed so well in this competition, and the AG 2002 Girls team will now travel North America with a resume of soccer success that is impressive by any standard.
The future is very bright for soccer in London!
