Former Manchester United Coach: 'I love Dana Cup'
This year the soccer club Dallas Texans has travelled from Dallas in the USA to Dana Cup with two teams led by U11-coach Neil 'Nipper' Thornber and U18-coach Clint Craft.
'Nipper', who worked as youth coach for Manchester United for 10 years, thinks that soccer in the USA at the moment makes progress: one reason being a lot of focus on youth work.
'Personally, I think that the clubs in the USA have sort of "upgraded". Dallas Texans cooperates with the schools in the area, which means that I get to coach the boys four hours a day. In this way they have 10.000 hours of football training before they are to play senior soccer. '
Even though it is a long journey from Dallas to Dana Cup, 'Nipper' does not think that it affects the players in a negative way.
'The boys adjust perfectly. Many of them bring their families along so, of course, it helps when they are overseas for a couple of weeks. It is also important for the players to get away from their usual This year the soccer club Dallas Texans has travelled from Dallas in the USA to Dana Cup with two teams led by U11-coach Neil 'Nipper' Thornber and U18-coach Clint Craft.
'Nipper', who worked as youth coach for Manchester United for 10 years, thinks that soccer in the USA at the moment makes progress: one reason being a lot of focus on youth work.
'Personally, I think that the clubs in the USA have sort of "upgraded". Dallas Texans cooperates with the schools in the area, which means that I get to coach the boys four hours a day. In this way they have 10.000 hours of football training before they are to play senior soccer. '
Even though it is a long journey from Dallas to Dana Cup, 'Nipper' does not think that it affects the players in a negative way.
'The boys adjust perfectly. Many of them bring their families along so, of course, it helps when they are overseas for a couple of weeks. It is also important for the players to get away from their usual surroundings, thus enabling them to cope with away games and long travels before they turn professional,' 'Nipper' says while praising Dana Cup.
'I love it! The tournament is well-organised, and it is important for our players to play against different teams and countries,' explains the coach, who hopes that his team will do really well playing 7-a-side in Hjørring.
'I do not want to put any pressure on them, but our former results show that we can perform. I hope that we make it into the playoffs, but I am happy as long as they do their best,' the youth coach explains.
You can watch a lot more about Dallas Texans on Dana Cup's YouTube-channel:
