Sunday May 13th, on Mother's day, the U8 Boys of the Dayton Dutch Lions were able to win the championship in their MVYSA league. After a rocky start, with a 3-0 lead for the opponent, the Dutch Lions showed they are the best skilled team in the league and won the game with 4-8. Because of this win the U8 Boys will finish in first place in their division and won the Championship!
With an impressive record of 7 wins and 0 losses the boys truly deserve to win the championship. The performance is even more impressive when we take into account that the boys lost 7 games and only tied 1 game in the fall. By keeping the focus on developing skills, learning how to play the game and of course lots of hard work of the boys they have been able to completely turn it around.
The Dutch Lions want to develop players that are able to compete at the highest level. These young boys have proved that learning skills like moves, receiving, passing, turns and shooting technique are key into being able to compete in high level soccer. Teams they lost to in the fall were beat in the spring. The improvement of the skills is translated to the results of the games.
Academy Manager Tommy Spijkers: "I can not be more proud of these players that I am today. After a really hard fall season they kept it together and worked so hard. I am very happy they won their division, but even more happy with the way they improved their skills and how they play the game. Watching them looking for open team mates and never just kicking it away, using moves and turns and of course score goals is just a pleasure.
Coach Martin: "Winning this game would mean that we become the champions. All the boys had this fact on their minds before the game and that was the reason why we started so poorly. Being down 3:0 and turning the result over needs a lot of effort which our boys demonstrated pretty well. We saw the moments when defenders passed the ball to each other twice from left to right side or reversely which opened the space and that play was followed with the through pass to the striker. That’s the way to combine! Quite admirable at this age, even though some of the goals were scored after the individual actions. Despite becoming the champions, we still have one more game to be played."
The Dutch Lions have open try-outs for the 2012 fall / 2013 spring season from May 29th till June 5th. Try-outs are for all age groups. For more information please visit our try-out registration page.