Soccer Tournament News: Nomads Soccer Club Wins Dallas Cup 

Great News for local San Diego and Southern California Youth Soccer. The Nomads Soccer Club brings home the prestigious 2011 Dallas Cup victory to San Diego for the U13 Bracket. Director of Coaching Derek Armstrong is thrilled and says "Winning the Dallas Cup represents a lot to our county!!" 

Nomads Soccer Club Wins Prestigious 2011 Dallas Cup Tournament

Great News for local San Diego and Southern California Youth Soccer. The Nomads Soccer Club brings home the prestigious 2011 Dallas Cup victory to San Diego for the U13 Bracket. Director of Coaching Derek Armstrong is thrilled and says "Winning the Dallas Cup represents a lot to our county!!" 

Winning the Dallas Cup is a huge accomplishment, recognized world-wide.  Congratulations to the Nomads!

The Dallas Cup, founded in 1980 by the Texas Longhorns Soccer Club, is the oldest international youth boys soccer tournament in the United States.  This tournament has hosted teams and referees from over 45 states, 100 countries and 6 continents and is held every spring from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday for boys ages 12-19. More than 160,000 spectators watch these soccer matches and cheer for their players.  This year, San Diego's Nomads Soccer Club came away victorious in the U13 bracket.  The Nomads also won the Dallas Cup four years ago. 

Derek Armstrong, Director of Coaching for the Nomads Soccer Club says he is "Obviously thrilled to have his boys team win the important Dallas Cup.  This is the second time the Nomads have won the younger age group in four years. It shows how well we develop players and how great our coaches are."

The Nomads team faced strong competition in the soccer tournament to claim the title of champions. "I think the team got better as the week went on and coming from behind in a lot of the games.  The players were very strong at the end.   A lot of the soccer players on this team will play in the U.S. Development Academy at Nomads."

The players were away in Dallas all week for the soccer tournament and, according to Armstrong, 'were really disciplined and did the all the proper homeschooling. I am proud of the players. The kids behaved themselves marvelously and got great respect from all those around them. The Dallas Cup staff told me the Nomads' players were wonderful."

According to the team's coach Melvin Cuellar, "This whole experience could not have been possible if the parents of these players did not support this project and I truly thank them.  We had to spend lots of hours fundraising so that the whole team could attend the trip.  We were also supported by individuals and companies that served as sponsors to help some of the players minimized the expenses of this trip.  Some sponsors were Attorney Jennifer Scott,  Dr. Jean-Jacques Abitbol, Sarvia Lopez, Universal Copy." 

When asked how did it feel to win, Coach Cuellar said, "It felt great!!! To have won one of the most prestigious soccer tournaments in America was amazing.  It was also very nice to have played some of the best youth soccer teams in the country.  I am very happy for our boys and very satisfied by the whole Dallas Cup experience." 

"The core of the team has been together for at least two years and that is what makes them special.  It was really nice to have all the players adapt to the discipline imposed during the tournament and just weeks prior. All the games at the Dallas Cup were very competitive and the weather was a factor in most of the games.  We had to not only adapt to the weather but to each team's style of play.  The player's trust on Coach Fernando's, Coach Manny's and my decision to start a game and/or substitutions during the game was a key factor for the win."

The Nomads team will now take a small break from the fields but will soon start preparations to compete in U.S. Regionals and Surf Cup. As Coach Cuellar said, "These boys are part of the near future of U.S. soccer," and the future is a bright one.

The competition in the Dallas Cup is tough with teams coming from all across the country to play soccer in this prestigious tournament.  Here are the U13 teams that participated in this year's 2011 Dallas Cup:

Nomad's Coach Daniel Musatti said, "I would say that this is an amazing achievement for all San Diego County and California. It show us the great level of our local players, coaches and soccer in general, as well as the important role that sponsors and the soccer community in San Diego have to support the development process of our local youth soccer players." 

The Nomads' website has a special message from the coaches, "Fernando and I thank you for all of your support in making DALLAS CUP 2011 an unforgettable experience for the boys.  Our team did not only win the tournament but earned the respect of individuals such as the tournament staff, hotel staff, restaurant workers, other team coaches, scouts from different places and just random people we would meet.  They all behaved the best way possible and represented their families, the team and Nomads very well.  Fernando and I are extremely proud of all our boys and cannot wait for the PAINT-BALL celebration!!!" Clearly well deserved and a great idea!  

"The schedule we had included breakfast, study time, rest-in-bed time, lunch, game, shower, rest, dinner and meetings at the end of each day.  All of these happened while Chano, Temo, Debra and Manny worked on the hardest part of this trip.  They somehow managed to get the laundry done, go shopping each day for snacks, lunch, dinner, medicines, set up and clean up after each meal and making sure that our boys were always drinking water."

Note: Due to extreme weather conditions the Gordon Jago Super Group Championship Match was initially suspended in the 65th minute at approximately 1930 hours with the scored tied at 1-1.  Due to conditions continuing to worsen the match was declared cancelled at approximately 2100 hours and Eintracht Frankfurt (Germany) and Tigres (Mexico) were declared Co-Champions.