Ellinger from Argentina

Couple notes this morning...John Ellinger has extended his stay in Argentina, staying there until Friday. With that, Drew Keeshan traveled to Brazil to attend a couple of Atletico Paranaense scrimmages. It's good to have a larger coaching staff.

John, as executive director of FCDs Youth Program, has had a great opportunity to take in how River Plate runs their youth program. At the same time, he's getting the opportunity to look at some of their younger professional players. He shared the following on Wednesday (keep reading):

On Tuesday morning, I watched River Plate's youth team training, which included U14-U20. While the lower age groups sessions were great to observe, I spent most of my time watching players in the U18 and U20 groups. The U20 team plus several first team reserves will play against Venezuela U20's this morning at 9:00 (Wednesday).

After lunch, I met with CARP Youth Director-Gabriel Rodriquez (who worked with Pablo Richetti when he was here) for two hours discussing everything regarding how the youth teams are organized.

Some notes: each age group from U14-U20 has around 35 players each...on any given weekend during the season, the players will either play with the first team from the age group in the National Youth League or on the team that plays in the Metropolitan League....all first division clubs put teams on the field for these games...the teams train five times a week, then play on Saturday, and are off on Sundays...the U20 plays in the 4th Division, the U18 team plays in the 5th Division, the U17 team plays in the 6th Division and so on.

In the afternoon, I watched U11-U13 training sessions. The U8-U10 teams were training in what they call "baby soccer" which is 5 v 5 w/GK's. If time allows, I'll try to talk more about this tomorrow.