Miami Tour 2020
On the 4th of January, a cold, dark Saturday morning, Cambridge University’s finest footballers assembled at London Heathrow Airport before taking a 9-hour flight to cast off the interminable grey cold of England for the unbridled sunshine of Miami, Florida.
Here our stateside opponents would take various forms, but unquestionably the pick of bunch was a clash against David Beckham’s long- awaited new MLS team Inter Miami CF, whose U19’s we would face on the Friday.
Football focused, the squad was ready to start the decade off with a successful tour. After arriving at Miami International Airport, CUAFC headed to the wonderful Walsh residence. Graham Walsh, an ex-CUAFC player, contributed massively to the organisation of the tour and hosted the squad throughout the week. Graham went above and beyond for the club organising fixtures, pitches and even accommodation for the squad - without his generosity this once in a lifetime tour could not have happened.
On day two, CUAFC kickstarted a hard-working week with a productive training session at Little Haiti. This was a particularly hard two hours for our players as a quick adjustment to both the time and temperature difference were required.
Later that evening, the squad split off to welcoming guest homes, hosted by friends and associates of Graham Walsh and Cambridge’s Alumni network.
Wednesday morning saw CUAFC train at Flamingo Park, a great pitch with an excellent view of the towering architecture of Miami’s financial district. The light session included a spicy game of one-touch one-bounce, with a decider for last place between Ujjal Sunuwar and Ellis Birch. In the end, Birch was thrilled to take home the trophy for last place.
The squad continued an upbeat start to the day by heading to Miami Beach, before sitting down for lunch at Big Pink, a true American Diner to fuel up before the first fixture of the tour. CUAFC played a defensive shape in a floodlit match against Florida Soccer Soldiers, with several counterattacks that came close to goal with efforts from Kosi Nwuba and Ethan Radus. CUAFC held the semi-professional side for 80 mins before conceding to lose 1-0.
Friday evening saw CUAFC’s players travel to St Thomas University to play in the most hotly anticipated face-off of the week, a clash against David Beckham’s Inter Miami Academy Under-19 side. Keen to test their mettle, the boys gave their hosts a spirit performance but an unfortunate and unrepresentative 4-0 loss was to be the outcome of CUAFC’s second game in Miami with a questionable offside side call going against a goal for Ethan Radus not helping matters.
Nonetheless, spirits were high for CUAFC’s final match against Kendall Academy. Before the final game, the squad took to Brickell for a game of rooftop 5 a-side. The beauty of the golden, Miami sunset went largely unrecognised in the presence of the exquisite CUAFC passing and movement.
Sunday 12th January was the club’s final match. After a hattrick from Illiya Stoev and a brace from man of the match Ryan Hoffmann, CUAFC secured their first win of the tour, beating Kendall Academy 3-5. To celebrate, Graham and Candace Walsh treated the players to a complementary fine dining experience at Candace’s ‘Three’ Restaurant, a fitting reward for a week of dedicated, body on the line performances.
On the final two days of the trip, the players relaxed and enjoyed the area nearby to the apartments they had been living in for the past five days.
All of the squad want to give their thanks to Paddy Mortimer, Kosi Nwuba and especially to the Walsh family for all of their outstanding efforts in the organisation of this tour. The 2020 Winter Tour to Miami will forever be looked back on as a truly inspiring experience that the players will not forget.
#MesQueUnClub
