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Thu, Mar

Atlanta United coach Matthew Lawrey observes a session at a camp held in collaboration with Queen’s Park Academy at CIC Ground, St Clair, yesterday.
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Atlanta United FC, Queen’s Park Academy host camp…

SIX young footballers will be going to Atlanta in January to get a taste of what training sessions are like for 2018 MLS Cup champions Atlanta United FC.

The announced was made yesterday by Atlanta United coach Matthew Lawrey who is in Trinidad for a five-day youth training camp with Queen's Park Academy at St Mary's Ground in St Clair. The camp, which was attended by close to 250 young footballers, started on Saturday and concludes today.

Lawrey told Newsday yesterday that while the exchange of ideas and styles was part of the reason for their visit, their ultimate goal was to open the eyes of the young players to the wider world of football.

“Ideally we would like to find the best players and invite them to come over,” Lawrey said, “Whether they come to Atlanta or not doesn’t matter, I think it is about helping them and showing them that there is more and giving them different cultural looks at what is going on in the (United) States versus Trinidad.”

The names of the lucky footballers will be revealed today. Four of the six selected attend Fatima College, with the remainder coming from Queen’s Royal College and International School of Port of Spain.

This is the third year that Atlanta United FC coaches visited the island and embarked on the exchange of coaching styles.

The partnership with Queen's Park and Atlanta FC developed owing to the friendship of director of Atlanta Academy Tony Annan and Queen's Park director Christian Uhre. The two developed a connection while attending Lindsay Wilton University and quickly discovered their mutual love for football.

Lawrey said the camp was held so local players and coaches could absorb training tips from the championship team, so Atlanta FC could get a glimpse of the football culture in T&T and scout some of the young players.

“I think Trinidad being a much smaller island and having difficulties of going around and playing different teams (provides a challenge) –there are not as many different teams to play. Versus in the States, there are a lot of kids but the travel is exhausting,” Lawrey said.

“Culturally in Trinidad you deal with different things and you deal with much different weather in Atlanta, battling the cold and things like that, so I think we do things differently that way. But I think the way we see the game is very similar and that is why I think we can continue this connection.” he said.

Each day of the five-day Altanta/Queen's Park camp covered different areas of football. Their first session focused on players' first touch and control, and yesterday they dealt with shooting and finishing. Each day finished with practice matches.

Lawrey commended the youths on their drive and discipline while practising and said since the beginning of the session the youths have showed improvement.

He welcomed the idea of the youths experiencing the Atlanta training session in January and believes they would do well abroad.

“Hopefully they would be able to deal with the cold, but skill-wise I think they would be fine,” Lawrey said.

Atlanta have enjoyed a meteoric rise since its formation in 2014. An MLS expansion team, the club made its MLS debut in 2017 and clinched a playoff berth in its first season. They improved significantly on that milestone in just their second season, beating Portland Timbers in the MLS Cup final to clinch the title.