XF U-14 ECNL Boys Kick-off 2019-20 International Campaign
n early September the Crossfire U-14 ECNL boys will board a flight to Madrid, Spain, heading for one of the most prestigious youth soccer competitions in the world and in the process, kicking off the club’s most ambitious and far-ranging international calendar yet. In the 2019-20 season, XF will send more than 15 teams to Europe and beyond, making it an exciting time to be a Crossfire player.
The U-14 ECNL boys will be competing in the fifth edition of the Madrid Football Cup (madridfootballcupboys.com). Crossfire teams have taken part in the past three tournaments, with the 2006-born group making our fourth consecutive entry.
This year, Crossfire has been drawn into Group A, featuring FC Barcelona, a club that certainly requires no introduction, as well as Vegalta Sendai, a Japanese professional football club currently playing in J1 League, the top division of the Japan Professional Football League. The team hails from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. The third club in Group A is Breiðablik UBK, which currently plays in the Úrvalsdeild karla, the top-tier men’s football league in Iceland; they finished 2nd in 2018. The team is based in Kópavogur, a short distance south of Reykjavik.
After the initial round of group play, all teams move on to a tiered knockout round, and Crossfire could again match up with a host of noteworthy names, including Bayern Munich, Juventus, Chelsea FC, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, FC Porto, Getafe FC, Northern Ireland U-14 or many more. In all, besides Crossfire Premier, the lone American representation, there are clubs from Italy, England, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Russia, Latvia, Finland and one from Canada who’ll compete in the 32-team tournament.
The tournament will take place this September 14-16 and Crossfire will again live-stream all of the club’s games on our MyCujoo.tv channel (https://mycujoo.tv/crossfire-premier-sc). You can also check-in with @crossfireprmr on Twitter and @crossfire.premier on Instagram for regular updates.
We’ll have more information on the full Crossfire International slate here soon, which includes ten boys’ teams and five girls’ teams traveling to Europe and Mexico in 2019-20.
