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CNMI youth strikers off to Beijing
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Posted on Apr 23 2012
By Roselyn Monroyo
Reporter
Reporter
The CNMI U14 Team left Saipan for Beijing early this morning to compete in the AFC U-14 Boys Festival of Football.
The team has 22 players with Kiyoshi Sekiguchi coaching the Commonwealth strikers. Included on the team’s roster are Emmanuel Aniana, Christopher Aninzo, Daniel and John Auther, Gideon Borja, Jordan Butcher, Louie Calayag, Carlson Cruzat, James Ermitanio, Joel Fruit, Joshua Galarion, Dakota Hall, Alan and William Hinson II, Kennedy Izuka, Won Jun Kim, John Masga, Julian Pellegrino, Watari Takima, Jeremi Tanghal, Ryu Tanzawa, and Moris Villanueva.
Sekiguchi conducted the team’s final training last Thursday and coached in a scrimmage against several players from the men’s and U15 and U18 youth leagues. He said the squad has been training for more than three months and he hopes everything they learn from him and the coaches on loan from Chelsea FC Soccer School (Hong Kong) will be helpful in their campaign in the U14 team.
“We have a very young team and all of them are eager to learn so I hope they get to use the skills we teach them when they play in Beijing. We have some players, like Dakota and Kennedy, who had already played in off-island competitions, so they are expected to help their teammates settle down against tough teams,” Sekiguchi said.
“We don’t pressure this young team to win, but we expect them to learn new things after each game. This will be very helpful as they compete in more tournaments in the future,” he added.
In Beijing, the CNMI strikers will be joined by players from DPR Korea, Chinese-Taipei, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Guam, Korea Republic, Macau, and Japan. The U14 event will run from April 23 to 30.
Meanwhile, a referee preparatory course kicked off one of the activities in the AFC U-14 Boys’ Festival of Football for the East region last Friday with Yishan Wang representing the CNMI.
Wang Xin Low of the Chinese Football Association Technical Department welcomed the 17 participants in the five-day course.
