The University Heights Academy Lady Blazers are in Sweden, taking part in the Gothia Cup, the world’s largest youth soccer tournament. UHA opened play Monday with a 4-0 loss and will play again on Tuesday. Audrey Perry is a senior and captain for this year’s team and provided YourSportsEdge.com with a summary of UHA’s first few days in Europe.
On Thursday, we started our trip to the Gothia Cup! We flew from Nashville to Detroit, Detroit to Amsterdam, and then Amsterdam to Gothenburg. Many of us have never been overseas before, so it took some time to adjust. Our first two days were just spent traveling!
We started our first two days going to practice in the morning, then doing some different sightseeing. On Saturday, we had early morning practice, then went on a boat tour through the canals of Gothenburg, then out to the North Sea.
On Sunday, we had another morning practice, then headed to look around Heden. Heden is in the heart of the city and has many different sponsors associated with the Gothia Cup. They had a puma booth where you could try on cleats and play small-sided games, table tennis, and Nintendo. Monday, we went to the World of Volvo Museum and were able to do many different interactive activities involving Volvo vehicles!
On Monday morning, we played our first game of the Gothia Cup. We played a team from Sweden called Värmdö IF and lost 4-0. Although it was a loss, our team learned the physicality aspect and the pace of play that many teams play at in Europe. It will help our team to grow and be able to keep on a new level that can hopefully enhance our play when we get back.
The Opening Ceremony was on Monday night, where each country is represented by one team at the Ullevi Stadium, and many teams are able to meet others from multiple different countries. We are looking forward to many more days of soccer and sightseeing!
