The University Heights Academy Lady Blazers are heading to Europe to play in the largest youth soccer tournament in the world.
The Gothia Cup will feature over 1,900 teams from 76 countries in Gothenburg, Sweden’s second-largest city after the capital, Stockholm.
UHA is slated to play in at least four games over four days in the event, organized by BK Hacken, a football club that competes in the top tier of soccer in Sweden.
The Gothia Cup is nothing new to UHA coach Michael Parker, who grew up in Scotland and played in the event as a 14-year-old in 1987. Twenty years later, as coach of UHA’s boys team, he took that team to Sweden.
“I’ve always wanted to go back one more time, and I’ve been waiting for the right group of players and the right group of parents that could help make it happen,” Parker said. “We started thinking about it 18 months ago, and we were able to make it happen.”
After a layover in Detroit on Thursday, the team will fly into Europe and settle in Gothenburg ahead of Monday’s opening ceremony at Ullevi Stadium, Scandinavia’s largest stadium.
“It’s usually a sellout crowd of 54,000 people and set up like an opening ceremony for the Olympics. They’ll have bands playing, and they set it up where a team from every country that’s represented gets to walk in around the track before they take their seats in the stadium, and then the show starts, and it ends up with fireworks at the end of the night,” Parker said.
UHA is one of 101 teams from the United States that will be making the trip to play in a variety of divisions – boys and girls.
The Lady Blazers will play Varmdo IF (Sweden) on Monday, Ranheim IL (Norway) on Tuesday, and Toarpsalliansen (Sweden) on Wednesday. The game day experience, Parker said, will be like nothing his team has experienced before.
“You don’t have a team bus, and you’ve got to get up in the morning, get on a tram or get on a bus, go to the field where you’re playing your games, and you’ve got to make your way to the different practice fields. It’s just a life experience where they’re going to be mixing with kids of all different nationalities that talk in all different kinds of languages,” he said.
Parker is also hoping the trip improves the team dynamic, both on the field and off.
“It’s going to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience where they’re going to get to travel with their friends and teammates. We’re going to get to play some better opposition than we’ve ever seen before, and hopefully it’ll bring us together as a team and make us a little bit better for some of the younger ones. They’ll get to see just exactly how good soccer can be played if you’re willing to put in the time and the effort,” he said, adding, “the 2007 boys team probably talks more about the memories that they had from other experiences outside of soccer.”
Parker also wants his team to get a feel for the differences in the European game compared to the American version.
“Most soccer players in Europe, from a young age, that’s all they do. From as young as five years old all the way through to 17 and 18-year-olds, the soccer season starts the second week in August and it runs till the second Saturday in May.”
“So you’ve got a nine-month season and you’ll probably play 40 to 50 games, and because of that, these kids don’t jump from soccer to baseball to basketball. If they’re playing soccer, that’s probably all they’re doing.”
After playing in Sweden, the team will spend four nights in London and visit the Emirates Stadium, home of the Arsenal Football Club.
When the Lady Blazers return to the States, their preseason schedule will be different than years past.
The school requested and received approval from the Kentucky High School Athletic Association to take the trip since it fell before the official July 15 season start date.
However, for every game the Lady Blazers play in Europe, that will be subtracted from their regular-season schedule. UHA also has to give up its two preseason scrimmage games. In the past, the Lady Blazers played in the Bluegrass State games, but the Gothia Cup trip runs right up with the annual event in Lexington, July 18-20.
However, Parker is comfortable with the different look this year’s season has taken.
“We’re happy with our decision to allow the girls to experience this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
University Heights Academy is set to return its entire team from last year’s 15-4 team that won the Second Region All A Classic, the 8th District championship, and advanced to the semifinals of the region tournament.
