Total Soccer Cayman’s Under-11 team recently returned from a tour of England, where the club took three wins from five matches and faced some of the Premier League’s best academy teams.
Total Soccer beat academy teams from Wolverhampton, Nottingham Forest and Everton while being edged by Liverpool and Arsenal during a trip that also featured a tour of Anfield.
“These are excellent opportunities for our players to face top-tier talent in some of the best facilities in the world,” said Total Soccer head coach Peter Reijn. “These are clubs with deep histories and the majority of our kids have shown that they are playing at the academy level.”
Total Soccer opened its England trip with an 8-6 win over Wolverhampton. The matches were played with four, 20-minute quarters and Total Soccer took a 4-0 lead over the Wolves after the first quarter and would never look back. The Cayman side then beat Nottingham Forest 3-0.
After a stadium tour of Anfield, Total Soccer then took on the U-11 team from Liverpool, falling 10-7 in a fast-paced match that came down to the final quarter.
“I was proud of their performance,” Reijn said. “These are players who just traveled for hours and thousands of miles. To lose to a quality side like Liverpool in a competitive match, we’re proud of the team’s performance.”
Total Soccer quickly rebounded with a dominating 11-3 win over Everton before wrapping up the trip with an 8-6 loss to Arsenal. After the match, Arsenal coaches came aboard the Total Soccer team bus to express their thanks, their admiration for the team and extend an invitation back at any time.
“For an under-11 team from the Cayman Islands to line up against five Premier League academies in six days and get three wins, losing only to the best of the best, was quite unbelievable,” Reijn said. “They’re a very talented group. We look forward to watching them continue to develop and grow as players.”
Total Soccer’s England tour results
Wolverhampton 6 – 8 Total Soccer Cayman
Nottingham Forest 0 – 3 Total Soccer Cayman
Liverpool 10 – 7 Total Soccer Cayman
Everton 3 – 11 Total Soccer Cayman
Arsenal 8 – 6 Total Soccer Cayman
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