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Nearly 50 join tryout for EAFF tourney
Nearly 50 players participated in the first day of tryout for the CNMI U13 National Team last Saturday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.
Chelsea FC Soccer School Hong Kong technical director Luam Khen Koo watches U13 players perform drills during a try out for the CNMI youth team that will participate in the East Asian Football Federation Boys U13 Festival 2015 in Guam next month. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)
Northern Mariana Islands Football Association scheduled the series of tryouts to select the players who will represent the CNMI to the East Asian Football Federation Boys U13 Festival 2015 that will be held in Guam later this year. NMIFA organized three tryout/training sessions with the second one set yesterday at the Koblerville Elementary School Field and the third and last slated today at 4pm back at the Oleai pitch.
Chelsea FC Soccer School Hong Kong technical director Luam Khen Koo and CNMI Women’s All-Star Team members Angie Ito and Lalaine Pagarao facilitated the two-hour tryout last weekend. They divided the participants into three groups and required players to do drills to gauge their skills.
“Move quickly and always look where the ball is heading and where the other players are,” Koo said during the tryout as players dribbled around the disc cones.
Players from Tan Holdings Football Club, MP United FC, Shirley’s FC, Paire FC, Matansa FC, and Kanoa FC attended last weekend’s tryout and some of them are also from the same team that went to Beijing, China last month to participate in the AFC U14 Regional Festival of Football.
Of the nearly 50 players, 30 will be initially selected to make up the training pool. For the final cut, only 18 players will be picked to represent the Commonwealth to the EAFF-sanctioned competition that will run from Nov. 11 to 14.
Players who will be named to the CNMI U13 National Team will challenge teams from Chinese-Taipei, North Korea, Macau, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and host Guam.
“This is a very good opportunity for our young players to represent the CNMI and compete at an international level,” NMIFA general secretary Ross Zapanta said in the invitation sent out to the different football club officials.
The invitations were sent just two days before the first tryout took place as NMIFA only received information about the festival late last week.
