FRISCO - For soccer players everywhere the dream has always been the same: playing internationally against other talented footballers from around the world.
The FC Dallas U-18s will have a chance to do that this Sunday, when their participation in Dallas Cup gets underway. They will play the world’s best academies the Gordon Jago Super Group.
Placed in bracket ‘C’ of the Super Group, the FCD U-18s will face Fluminese FC (Brazil), Middlesbrough FC (England) and Queretaro FC (Mexico). Also making appearances in other brackets are Tigres (Mexico), Everton FC (England), CF Monterrey (Mexico), Kyoto Sanga FC (Japan), Real Salt Lake (US), Hoffenheim (Germany), Fulham (England) and the United States U-20 National Team.
This will not be the first international experience for the team. The U-18s played in January in the Copa Chivas tournament in Mexico, and five of their players participated with the U-19 US Youth National Team at the Copa de Atlantico tournament in Canary Islands, Spain.
Weston McKennie and Ben Hale, the team’s starting attacking midfielder and goalkeeper are two players who played with the USYNT in Spain, and can talk about playing at an international level already.
“It was a good experience because you got to see the international level.” said Hale. “And we got to play against kids from different countries. We got to see the European style to soccer and really how we compare to that type of level. Hopefully when you become a professional you play players from everywhere, so we’re getting a taste of that now. That’s a good preparation for the future.”
Speaking about the future, McKennie, the team's number '10', believes there’s a mental aspect internationally soccer that they don’t have here.
“I believe mentality-wise there’s a difference,” he said. “For them, [playing soccer’s] their life, that’s their lifestyle...Here, we have another opportunity in college, another route. I think skill-wise we can compare, mentality wise we’re still trying to get there.”
“For them it’s life and death,” agrees Hale. “I think that’s one thing they said: it’s life and death. And for us, we have another option, soccer’s just an option and we have other opportunities.”
Thankfully, even though academy players are not faced with ‘life or death’ situations at this point in their careers, coach Francisco Molina is very clear in the mentality the academy is trying to develop with the kids.
“We’re focusing on creating MLS players,” he said. “Everybody is aligned with Oscar [Pareja]’s vision. The technical staff and the team’s front office, we all know we’re focusing on developing first team players. The kids want to win. They’re used to rivals wanting to beat us, and we’ve tried to generate a winning mentality on them since they were very little. The kids want to win the Dallas Cup. They want to win every time they play. That’s how they’re wired.”
Starting Sunday, the U-18s will need that winning mentality to show as they host the Dallas Cup.
“We’ll be playing at home, in front of our own fans,” said McKennie. “That’ll be a confidence booster. We’re ready to just go out there and play. Opening match is against Fluminense. And yeah, it’ll be a fun match.”