Drew Hartell

Drew Hartell, a freshman at Norfolk Christian High School, has been selected for the U.S. Under-17 national soccer team and is now living and training with the team at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla. He will post periodically on his experiences with the team.

Playing the Professionals!

 Since I have been here in Bradenton, we have had the opportunity to play a number of MLS teams.  They have come through Bradenton as part of their spring training.  We've played about 5 MLS teams.  It wasn’t their full squads, but it was still a challenge.  We have played the Chicago Fire (1-4), Kansas City Wizards (0-3), DC United (0-3), Toronto FC and the Colorado Rapids (0-1; 0-3).  I actually got to play against the KC Wizards, DC United and Toronto, but we never won.  Playing these teams has definitely improved my game; a lot!  Even though the players that are here are primarily not the first string, they still play like it because they are trying to secure themselves a spot in the starting line up.  So these guys are out there absolutely hammering us!  We've had probably 5-10 injuries and everyone had a cut or a bruise.  Even though all that was going on, we still had fun playing with the professionals!  It has been a great learning experience.




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