A group of local soccer players will be packing their bags for Portugal in the coming weeks as they will compete in a prestigious international youth tournament in the city of Casacais.
Turlock Sports Park’s TSP FC 2007 Boys (U16 team) will be heading to Portugal on April 1. While there, they will be competing in the IberCup world youth tournament from April 5 to 8. Each IberCup tournament takes place in different countries and hosts teams from across the globe every year.
“Part of my job here with the kids playing soccer is development while also creating pathways and creating experiences. If I were to look at pathways and experiences, there's nothing better than going overseas and looking at European style soccer,” said Fred Rasuli, who is the CEO and president of Turlock Sports Park as well as the head coach of the 2007 team.
Rasuli believes that it will be a unique opportunity to have his players test their skills against the European talent while being able to learn from their style of play at the same time. While this happens over the course of the tournament, players can also garner interest from international coaches and recruiters.
“I have kids that have aspirations to be professionals and play overseas,” said Rasuli. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t dream like that, and this international tournament is another step.”
It may be cliché for some people to say that they could do anything they put their minds to, but for many enrolled in Turlock Sports Park’s soccer programs, the results of past seasons and the accomplishments of former local soccer players have truly made them believe.
In terms of the TSP FC 2007 squad, they won the 2022 National Premier League tile, achieved fourth place in the California State Cup, and for their age group, were ranked as the #1 team in Northern California, #2 team in the state and were in the top 15 in the entire nation in GotSoccer.com rankings.
“I told the kids, “Hey, you deserve to be here, and we’ve earned it,’” Rasuli said. “We’re going there to win and to represent not only our town, but our country.”
National pride is a huge deal for the team, as they will be donning jerseys with American flag patches on the side. Not only that, but Rasuli will also have his players wear different warmup shirts detailed with the flags of each individual’s nationality.
“The warmups will really show the diversity of our team, and then when we take them off, we all have American patches. I think that it will look really well going international and being able to represent Turlock, the United States. We’re a diverse group but we’re all going to travel and play under one flag, which is amazing to us and something we want to show,” he said.
While proudly waving their own flags and representing their own cultures, Rasuli is also wanting his players to be immersed in the Portuguese culture, describing the trip as a once in a lifetime experience.
“For me and my family being refugees, I experienced different food, language, music, and I feel I became a very well-rounded person as far as accepting all types of cultures and languages, and I want the same for the players,” he said. “At the same time, not everybody has the opportunity to do something like this, whether it’s a financial situation or even the hesitancy of travelling out of the country and overseas.”
When Rasuli first shared with his team and their families that he was wanting to take them overseas to compete, the combination of excitement and hesitancy definitely existed. Nevertheless, over the course of the past year, the team fundraised and did their fair share of convincing, and are all set with 19 players, 5 staff members and 16 family members scheduled to take flight on April 1.
Aside from participating in the tournament, the group will tour the city alongside a guide and translator, watch the home team S.L. Benefica compete in a game and have the opportunity to go through drills with their club’s trainers.
“It’s really going to be an amazing experience for everyone. I mean, how many times are you going to have a chance to be trained by professional, European trainers and how many times are you going to watch a European soccer game? This is truly a one-of-a-kind experience.”
