It’s a huge weekend for the National Centre of Excellence as we host our Regional Performance Tournament.

The tournament invites the very best players from across the NCE Soccer regions to showcase their skills at Ophir Field in Purchase, NJ.

Between 300-350 boys and girls will take part in the day-long tournament.

Teams are selected from the North, West, East and Southern NCE regions and will play in a six-against-six format.

They play three x 25-minute games with the top two teams in each group playing off in the final, and the other two competing in a third / fourth place play-off.

NCE Soccer founder John Curtis, said: “This is a terrific event, it gives the best players from around the region to compete against each other – and make a few new friends along the way.

“It is an opportunity for those invited to showcase their skills and the standard is extremely high.

“The players selected for the tournament have been performing well in their COE training groups and this allows us to compare those in different groups, as we consider those that may be selected for the NCE Select Squads.

“We know players behave differently in competitive games and training environments, and the competitive game environment stretches players more, testing their techniques and decision making.

“In the past NCE Select Squad inclusion was based on training performances only. This limited squad selection to players who thrived in the safe, controlled environment of the training session.

“Some players are only stimulated in the more competitive game environment. Their motivation, and as a result their performance, improves only when stimulated by increased levels of competition.

“When making selections for NCE Select Squad events we try to select players who demonstrate improved performances in competitive situations.”

The tournament can attract external scouts and coaches from a variety of educational institutes. Their attendance is not guaranteed, but it is a regular occurrence, and our coaching team can help parents connect where appropriate.

The games begin at 09:30 on Saturday for boys and girls born in 2009 and 2010 and runs until 13:30.

The ’08 and ’07s begin at 13:30 and play until 17:30, with the day of soccer culminating with the ’06 Boys and Girls, the ’05 Boys, and the ’03-’05 Girls with matches due to conclude at 21:30.

Play well everyone!