B1 Soccer Academy runs yet another successful Camp in Costa Rica in collaboration with Proyecto Goal from December 3rd to December 6, 2019 at Federación Costarricence de Fútbol‘s facilities.
Over 75 male and female players born between 2000 and 2012 attended this camp organized and run by B1 Soccer Academy coaches Didac “Didi” Rodriguez, Marc Fortuny, and Eric Bertran as well as the two heads of B1 Soccer Academy, Jessica Ortiz and Jaume Solis.
Introducing a new approach
The main idea of this B1 camp in Costa Rica was to introduce and apply new training methods to youth development in football, and there is no better way to demonstrate it than through training sessions with young players.
Throughout these three days, our B1 coaches designed 3-hour training sessions every day composed of different drills and exercices for each of the participants to learn a lot while still enjoying playing the beautiful game.
These drills ranged from passing drills focusing on ball control, precision and body positioning to small-sided game situations to prepare for the matches on the last day.
B1’s staff divided itself into three age groups (one B1 coach per group) in order to work more efficiently with the players and to ensure maximum attention to detail; as well as the group of goalkeepers trained separately by coaches Carlos Avedissian and Sergio Alfaro.
In this way, all players were able to train with and learn from each of the Barcelona coaches.
Our Head Coach Didi Rodríguez was impressed by the high level at which the participants played, and also stated: “We would not have been able to work with such large groups of players without the instrumental contribution of local coaches Michael Mora, Roberto Rojas, Sergio Alfaro, Charlie Avedissian, Pablo Araya and Robert Arias as well as assistants Jurgen Schlager and Juan Carlos Estrada. They did a magnificent job.”
Good times, new drills, great determination, and especially many smiles throughout both the grass fields provided by the FCF in order for our training sessions to take place.
Match Day
The camp did not end there. After these three days, it was time for the players to apply what they had learned to a real match.
Once again, B1 coaches divided the players into groups. An additional group was created so that the youngest players could play a match against each other, while the other three groups would face youth teams from UCR Fútbol Club.
The match featuring the youngest group playing a 4-a-side game ended in a thrilling 5-5 draw and was decided by penalties, making it an extremely exciting and tense matchup until the very end.
In the second match, the participants born in 2010 and 2009 faced a well-worked opposition, and fought well to keep the game scoreless at halftime. The home team took the lead in the second half before B1 tied the scoring. It proved to be a very even matchup as neither team appeared to be able to break the deadlock, until B1 scored the winner in the match’s dying moments.
The players born between 2008 and 2006 also played a tough match, and probably the most quarreled of them all. Both teams had their opportunities, and small details proved to make the difference as the match ended with the local team victorious.
“It is complicated to work on these concepts in such a short period of time with players coming from different clubs, yet they were able to compete very well against a team that has been training and competing together for over 3 years now. We are very happy with their performance” declared Michael Mora.
In the last match featuring the eldest players, the team was extremely motivated throughout the match and dominated ever since the first minute. B1 opened the scoring from a corner and ended the match winning 4-1.
“A remarkable performance, especially considering that the players didn’t know each other and come from differen parts of the country. It was a worthy effort, and we could only congratulate the players for the work they had done” said Marc Fortuny.
Each of these matches were officiated by licensed referees of the Costa Rican Football Federation.
B1 Surprises from Barcelona
After all the players’ hard work throughout the three days, it was time for B1 Soccer Academy to give out the surprises they had for the camp’s participants.
First came the #Crossbarchallenge. B1 joined the famous trend in the form of a contest, the prize being a wonderful pair of Puma Future football boots, as worn by Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann, as well as some fantastic Puma goalkeeper gloves as worn by world-class goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
After various qualifying rounds and many shots that came agonizingly close to hitting the crossbar, we finally had a winner for each age group. For the youngest group, Aldo Carrillo won the prize, while the middle group saw Felipe Fernández and Julián Vicente hit the crossbar.
Alexandra Ortiz was the only one to complete the challenge in the eldest group. Goalkeepers were also rewarded, as the two youngest goalkeepers Matias Valls and Saul Aguilar were each given a pair of gloves, also the winners of the crossbar challenge Isaac Rivas and Jeremy Herrera. Congratulations, Champions!
We hope to keep on enjoying working with Costa Rican talent at our academy in Barcelona and in the MIC 20 tournament, in which B1 Soccer Academy shall participate in April 2020.
We also look forward to seeing you again in the next edition of B1 Camp Costa Rica! PURA VIDA!
