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U14 girls heading to Sweden in 2010
‘Celebrity' soccer game at Kin Park to kick off campaign

By Marco Smits
The Review-Mirror
July 17 2008

The Portland Football Club’s U14 girls team could not have picked a better night to announce that they have decided to enter a soccer tournament in Sweden in 2010.
In front of 80 hometown fans at Kin Park in Portland on Monday, the girls of head coach Scott Halladay defeated the Cataraqui Clippers 4-1.

After the win, the team, parents, friends and fans gathered for a meeting to officially declare that they will follow in the footsteps of the U18 boys of 2004 and head to the country known for its large-scale international soccer tournaments.

“This will be a unique experience for the girls,” said Halladay, who himself admits never travelling much further than Syracuse. “Syracuse, New York, that’s the extent of my travels. And I do not think there are too many on our team that travelled a lot. A few girls have been to Cuba.”

Story continues below - Photo by Marco Smits



The girls will be an under 16 team when they travel across the Atlantic. They will enter the Dalecarlia Cup in Borlange. Over the next two years they will raise the money to go, beginning with a game between the girls and a team made up of local politicians and business people tentatively scheduled for August 10.

“Besides the experience of travelling abroad, the girls will open up to a whole new skill level. Some of the kids I have are pretty good players. If they stay at it, who knows, they might even be able to go to college with it,” said Halladay.

Bringing a girls team to Europe will be a different endeavour as opposed to the U18 boys of 2004. In many ways, girls soccer in Canada is some of the best in the world, while boys soccer is some times considered to be in its infancy.

“It is completely different from the boys. There will be people who will think, ‘Oh boys, the Canadians are coming’, when will we play against them,” said PFC’s Anders Carson, who will travel with the team as assistant coach. He also speaks the language as his family roots are from Sweden and he has spent many summers there. It was Carson guided PFC to the Gothia Cup in 2004, a trip that was filmed by Decode Entertainment of Toronto and featured on TVO.

The Dalecarlia Cup is held in a Northern part of the country where the sun doesn’t set in July until 11 p.m. According to Carson, the group will get a true Scandinavian experience when they get there. The buzz at Kin Park was alive on Monday with many parents declaring they will travel along with the team.
“True. The parents response has been great, they are all for it. Some of them are as excited as the kids,” said Halladay.