Thunder Bay youth soccer players face international competition at new tournament

Thunder Bay's young soccer players are getting a chance to see how they measure up against some international opponents.

The first annual U13 Thunder Bay Chill International Invitational Tournament has been running since Wednesday at Chapples Park..

In addition to the Chill, the tournament includes Thunder Bay's Superior Rush, Winnipeg's 1v1 Futbol Dreams, Toronto Azzurri and Venezia Nettuno Lido from Italy.

"They play very, very nice soccer," Tony Colistro, executive director of the Chill, said of the Italian team. "You can see that. I think the players are always excited to play teams from different competition, from different cultures. I think it was exciting also for the fans just to see a different brand of soccer being played. So it was nice for everyone."

Playing in a tournament like this one is vital to the development of young players, Colistro said during an interview at Chapples on Friday.

"You could train every day, but if you don't have the competition where you're playing games and in and out, it's really hard to speed up that development, right?" he said. "So these kinds of games where you're seeing a different team from a different city, different country, it's only going to help you hone your skills."

Cole Perna of Superior Rush said he's been enjoying playing in the tournament so far.

"Every team here, [is a] very good team. But definitely [we have] a lot of confidence in our team," he said. "Just gotta keep playing our game, keep doing what we're doing.

"Moving on the ball, and off, and yeah, I think very good chance we either win this tournament or make it to the finals."

The finals are Tuesday.

"I've just played one game," Thunder Bay Chill player Paolo Galle said Friday. "It was good, we played Italy.

"They were pretty good, they pass the ball really good," he said. "But we just scored our chances and ended up winning."

Galle's teammate, Brody Scott, said playing against the Italian team was a good learning experience.

"I think we had a good performance. They taught us a lot because of their play style. I think it was very technical and fast."

Colistro said the Chill hope to not only continue to the tournament next year, but expand it as well.

"We'll definitely go back and revisit," he said. "So far, we're liking what we see.

"Our plan is to expand the tournament to both a male and a female division, and to older age groups, like a U15 and a U17."

Play continues Tuesday at Chapples Park, with the bronze-medal game at 4 p.m.

That will be followed by the gold-medal game at 6 p.m. and closing ceremonies at 8 p.m.