Capital Football at the Dallas Cup

 

After two games out of three they are sitting third in their group of four (the top team only goes through to the next round).

 

They've won one and lost one but in the US of A you get points for things like "shutouts".

 

Results and standings are here: http://www.dallascup.com/standings/XXXI/17616404.html

 

Featuring national teams and foreign professional teams like Chelski, Frankfurt, Spurs, Hoffenheim...and the Vancouver Whitecaps...

 

Updated: CF beat their next opponents Prepa Tec (Mexico) 3-0 which has temporarily put them top of their group, but with unbeaten home team Dallas Texans still to play winless Los Angeles Rampage I would say they'll win and go through.

 

It's one of the big four American tournaments, but it's prestige comes mostly from that supergroup.

 

There will be a significant number of College scouts watching and a good number of the players playing will go on to play College soccer, which is the primary American pathway.

 

Those in the supergroup are already on the path to professional football of course, so most of them will go on to play for a living.

 

In terms of the the Kiwi players I think all you can confidently say is that we regularly produce players capable of playing at the highest level of College soccer which is hardly news.

 

And in terms of comparable standards it is certainly competitive, and an interesting insight into playing football internationally against different styles of opposition and in different conditions.  Is the football a lot stronger than, say, the now-defunct Federation National Tournament here?  Probably not.  Stronger than the National Youth League, almost certainly not.