WCFC U19 soccer team competes in Target USA Cup
Jul. 27—BLAINE — The Worthington Community Football Club sent a U19 team to the Target USA Cup last week.
The Target USA Cup is described as the largest youth soccer tournament in North America, hosting more than 1,200 teams from all over the world at the National Sports Center campus in Blaine.
The Toros team competed against three teams in the group stages.
The Toros lost 2-0 in the first game to Academy Sports Club, which came to the tournament from the Cayman Islands.
The Toros' offense found pay dirt five times against the Minneapolis United second squad, winning 5-0. Jonathan Banegas scored twice, and Eli Broomfield, Carlos Castillo and Christian Banegas each scored a goal.
In the final group game WCFC played UMF Selfoss from Iceland. Selfoss possessed great height and technical skill in the game. Selfoss won 3-0 with two goals from penalty and a late goal scored from play.
"It was really good competition. We were in the highest bracket of U19," said WCFC coach Kody Honius. "They (International teams) had different styles of play. Sadly we weren't able to score against them, but we did compete with them very well, we had chances and every game really was a good game."
With their 1-2 record from the group stage, the Toros were placed into the 'B' bracket of the knockout round and played Fusion Soccer Club on Saturday.
"How they did the knockout was the top two from each group would be in the 'A' bracket, which is kind of like the championship side," said Honius on the tournament's arrangement. "Then the third and fourth from each group would go to the 'B' bracket and that was the consolation tournament, pretty much."
Fusion defeated the Toros 2-1, with WCFC getting a goal from Kaine Vela. The Toros were forced to get creative with their starting 11 in the knockout round as the grind of the group stage put players out of top form.
While attending the cup tournament, the Toros interacted with several teams. One Toros' player, Adrian Sanchez, took up the mission of taking photographs with as many other people as possible.
The Toros also took a photo with Minnesota United players Emanuel Reynoso and Franco Fragapane.
"It was a fun experience for sure. There were a lot of activities to do and it was kind of nice to spread stuff out so you have one game a day," said Honius. "It was really big. There were 17 different countries and I can't remember how many different (United States) states. It was an awesome experience and definitely something we would want to do again."
