US Club Soccer wraps up final id2 Training Camp of 2019 in Southern California

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Chula Vista, California | The third and final US Club Soccer id2 Training Camp of 2019 was held at the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center, Dec. 5-9.

[id2 Camp Rosters: Boys Roster | Girls Roster]

As the conclusion to 2019 id2 programming, the four-day camp targets boys born in 2006 and girls born in 2005 & 2006, who were selected from US Club Soccer’s Player Development Programs (PDPs) and other nationwide scouting efforts.

US Club Soccer will invite top performers from this full age group cycle to participate in the id2 National Selection International Tour. The id2 National Selection International Tour for boys will be held in Spring 2020, with details for the inaugural girls id2 National Selection International Tour coming soon. Prior to this cycle, selected girls players attended the ECNL/id2 National Training Camp in Portland, Oregon.

Established in 2004, US Club Soccer’s id2 Program provides an opportunity for the country’s elite youth soccer players to be identified and developed, and scouted for inclusion in U.S. Soccer’s National Team programs. id2Program directors Gerry McKeown (boys) and Tricia Taliaferro (girls) implement curriculum and direct activities. The id2 Program is an Olympic Development Program (ODP) approved by the United States Olympic Committee and the U.S. Soccer Federation. There is no cost for players to participate or be scouted, and all meals, lodging and gear are provided by US Club Soccer and Nike.

The last morning of id2 training camps are bittersweet, as the athletes will be proud to have competed and trained amongst these players and coaches, but they will have to say goodbye to these newly forged connections.

Before beginning their trips back home, the boys players took the field at 8:30 a.m. for their final scrimmages of the weekend, while the girls met for evaluation meetingsafter playing out theirs on Saturday night.

On the second and last full day of the training camp, the players followed a similar schedule to Friday. However, the sunny, warm weather we were treated to on Friday was replaced by a rainy, cloudy day. The rain wasn’t enough to hold back these athletes as the boys and girls went through lighter sessions in the morning, before the girls played their final scrimmages of the weekend, in the evening.

After lunch, Beyond Pulse Co-Founder Marc-Andre Maillet presented the girls with data from their Smart Belt Player Monitoring technology, which the athletes have worn during each training session. The presentation explained the data’s recordings of work rates and physiological metrics, with each athlete receiving an email with their personal results.

After the boys evening technical session and the girls’ scrimmages, the boys met individually with their coaches for player evaluations.

Sunday will be a short day, as the girls will meet with the coaches for their evaluations, while the boys play their final scrimmages, before the athletes say goodbye and begin their journeys home.

The first full day of the training camp is a long and exciting one for the athletes. With the first day nervousness aside, the first group of players took the field at 9:00 a.m. PTto a beautiful, sunny SoCal morning. While the boys walked through tactical and technical drills with an emphasis on building out of the back, the girls participated in light scrimmages.
After lunch and some rest time, the athletes switched with the girls holding tactical walkthroughs and the boys playing their first 11 vs. 11 scrimmage of the weekend. The Sun quickly turned to clouds with some showers right before the end of the session. It picked up just in time for the athletes to head indoors for dinner and meetings before calling it a night.

The first day of Id2CA was an exciting one for the athletes, as as they arrived to the state of the art Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center and met their coaches and teammates for the weekend. After players checked-in throughout the late morning and early afternoon, the coaches  meet with their players on the field in the first training session, at 2:00 p.m. PT.

The first session was a warm-up for the weekend as the players got loose with technical drills before the coaches observed them in brief, small sided scrimmages.
After dinner, the  boys and girls players met with their respective program directors and coaches, where the girls did self-evaluations, while the boys discusses their expectations for both themselves and their coaches, at the camp.