Over 1,100 teams hit the field in Blaine, Minnesota last week for the 2017 USA Cup Youth Soccer Tournament and the Moose Jaw Excelsior F.C. was one of them.

The local soccer team came away with a 2-2 record in the Girls Under-19 Silver division, making it into the playoff round before falling 1-0 on penalty kicks to the Heads United Spartans.

“It was a fantastic experience and to come away 2-2 was good,” said head coach Jason Jones. “Half our team would be characterized as under-15, so for them to play up that many levels and come away 2-2, we’re very happy with it.”

The tournament sees teams from across the world come together for games across 20 age divisions. Jones said it was a great showcase of the sport.

“Just seeing the different countries there and the different flair and passion,” he said. “We were leaving one of our games and we saw two teams go into penalty shots and it just kept going and going. The one team was from the Cayman Islands and the other from Mexico, and the passion was just unbelievable.”

Moose Jaw was able to match-up well with the competition in their pool with both their losses coming by one goal.

They won their opening game, 3-0, over Lakes United F.C. last Tuesday and Jones said that win really helped build the team’s confidence for the rest of the tournament.

“Once they saw that they were able to compete and do well and do the things that we were talking about in training, their confidence just grew as the week went on, which was really nice to see,” said Jones.

“The things that they learned from game one to game four was really, really good.”

Three of the four games that Moose Jaw played actually ended without the competition scoring on them.

Their only loss in the round robin came when they fell 3-2 to Euro F.C. Brigatto on Wednesday morning after the opening ceremonies.

They then knocked off the EPSC Eagles, 1-0, on Thursday to finish the round robin at 2-1.

“We’re very pleased defensively how we talked away from the tournament and offensively, we started with three goals, the second game got two, the third game we got one and in the fourth game we unfortunately couldn’t find the back of the net,” said Jones.

“It was an amazing learning experience for the players and just to be immersed in soccer was fantastic.”

While they had a busy schedule with four games in four days, Jones said they also spent plenty of time watching the other teams play and took a lot away from those games.

“We watched the Japanese girls play in the Under-19 Girls Gold division and we when we seen how they played it was just eye-opening for everybody,” said Jones.

“Just the discipline and the movement and the physical literacy was amazing, just how they move on and off the ball. It was a different style and just beautiful to watch.”

Jones added that the team came away confident that their style of play will allow them to compete with these teams and are hoping to head back next year to see how they match-up again.