What amazing finish to an incredibly exciting experience for Arnav Maskey at the MIC (Mediterranean International Cup) in Girona, Spain.

Tournament Recap:

In the u12 Category E of the tourney, he is in the top u12 group of the tournament, which hosted 64 very talented u12 teams from around the world including top professional clubs from around the world: Barcelona FC, Real Madrid FC, RCD Espanyol, Tottenham Hotspurs, Paris St Germain, among many others.

He played with Team ISL, a Select all star from Barcelona camp system in the United States. He was on the only 2008 birth year player selected to an all 07 birth year team. His entire team consisted of players from top Development Academy MLS level youth academy teams from around the United States to include Sporting Kansas City, FC Dallas, and New England Revolution. Arnav from United Soccer Club of Huntsville, AL along with one other team member from St Louis were the only non DA members selected to attend the prestigious event.

In group play his team lost their first game 2-1 to YSL World Select from Japan. Game 2 they lost 5-2 to Paris St Germain of Paris France, and in game 3 they won 4-2 to AE Monells of Spain.

The tournament set up is such that after the opening round robin group play, the top two teams in each group advance to the knockout phase of the tournament with 32 teams then competing in single elimination matches. The eventual winner of the top bracket was RCD Espanyol winning 3-2 over Barcelona FC. The bottom two teams in each bracket also advance to a 32 team knockout single elimination tournament.

In the lower bracket knockout phase, Arnav’s team went on an outstanding run of a four game winning streak with wins over:
JP Academy (Japan) 6-3
Irvine Strikers (California) 1-1 (penalty kick victory)
CSI (Catalunya team out of Spain) 4-3
And another
CF Matadepera 4-4 (penalty kick victory to reach the final.

In the Championship game they came up just short losing 5-4 to professional youth club Maccabi Haifi Nahalal out of Israel. Arnav was very excited to get on the score sheet in this match scoring a game equalizing goal in the 31st minute.

Overall, it was an amazing experience for Arnav and his family.