"The starting XI" Tom Mitch - Owner Forca! Soccer Tours

Tom Mitch is the owner of Força! Soccer Tours which provides international soccer travel experiences for players, coaches, and supporters through team trips, player academies, international tournaments, and leisure tours abroad. He is also the Coaching Director for Grasshopper F.C. (MA). Tom was a four year starter at Duke University where he won a national title in 1986 and holds a Premier Diploma from the NSCAA.

1. Your company, Forca Tours, takes youth soccer teams all over Europe to play in soccer tournaments and experience new cultures – How important is it for young American players to be exposed to complete soccer cultures, as they don’t really exist here in the US? A - "The soccer cultures outside of the US are much richer because the sport is an important part of the overall landscape, and for a greater percentage of the population. This includes, of course the media. The validation of the sport provided by expose to soccer cultures as they exists outside of the US, particularly in Europe and Central/South America, can really change one’s sense of the greatness of the game."

2. After coming back from a tour abroad, what aspect of the trip do you feel makes the greatest impact on the young players? A -"Training and playing with players elsewhere in the world can open one’s eyes to a much more sophisticated way of playing the sport. The game in Europe, in particular, even at the youth level, is played with much greater tactical awareness, and with deception, that you don’t typically find in the US."  (Read more)
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