Academy Manager wants players to stand out
- Leigh Bromby discusses Tournament in Germany
- Academy Manager reflects on Bayern Munich win
- See how you can watch Town’s U19s in action
Huddersfield Town Academy Manager Leigh Bromby told htafc.com that he wants Town’s Under-19 side to go and stand out at this weekend’s Champions Trophy competition in Germany.
The Young Terriers travel to Düsseldorf to take part in the prestigious Under-19 Champions Trophy over the weekend, playing two games on the Saturday and two on the Sunday.
Mark Hudson will lead the side in Group 1 facing German sides Borussia Mönchengladbach and Fortuna Düsseldorf; Polish outfit Legia Warsaw and Italian side U.S. Sassuolo Calcio.
Bromby welcomes the challenge at the weekend as he views the tournament as a great opportunity to test the Academy against some of the top European Clubs, as he explained:
“I think it will be a challenging one as this is a first experience for me, Mark [Hudson] and a lot of the staff in terms of Tournament Football and I think it’s something we need to do a lot more of. The players are going there to try to perform and win and it’s good to put them under that pressure.
“They will also come up against lots of different styles of football; English, Italian and German teams. Everton are also out there who are probably one of the best Academies in this country, this gives us an opportunity to really test ourselves.
“We want to go out there and make our players stand out, which won’t be easy. Our first game is against Borussia Mönchengladbach and they have one of the best track records of producing players for their First Team in Germany, Elias Kachunga is one example.”
This will be the second trip to Germany in consecutive weekends following on from last Friday’s international friendly against Bayern Munich, where Hudson’s side triumphed in a 2-1 victory.
Aside from the positive result, Bromby explained the main benefits he took from the game:
“It’s really pleasing as the result is nice and its given the group the belief that they can go to such a big Club and perform. In terms of an experience and a challenge for our players, this is exactly why we decided to restructure the Academy. It’s a perfect example because the challenge of the game and the experience far outweighs what we were doing before.
“Playing such a big game was a real leap forward, but we made sure we researched to ensure they were who we wanted to play against. We threw ourselves up against one of the biggest teams in Europe and that was a brave decision because we didn’t know how we would perform in our first game at Under-19s level.
“I’m really proud of the performance we got on the day; I think they [Bayern Munich] were surprised at the quality of our players. we dominated the first-half in terms of performance and ball possession.
“Take the second goal we scored. This isn’t scored against a normal team - this is scored against an outstanding team and to be able to do that you need to have good players, so hopefully some of these players can kick on.
🔁 Count the passes from @M_Hudson5's #YoungTerriers.....
— HTAFC Academy (@htafcacademy) March 26, 2018
📺 Highlights from #htafc U19s win over @FCBayern are now available to view from the link below.
👉 https://t.co/hp3WRgeVL2 (CL) pic.twitter.com/LOLm5086vO
“We need to start progressing some of these players to men’s football and into careers, and potentially knocking on the door of our First Team. We are trying to bridge the gap between the Academy and the First Team because historically we’ve been too far apart.
The games schedule for this weekend’s Champions Trophy timetabled below showing both the German and UK kick off time:
Saturday 31 March 2018
11.30 (10.30 UK Time) – Huddersfield Town vs Borussia Mönchengladbach
18.00 (17.00 UK Time) – US Sassuolo vs Huddersfield Town
Sunday 1 April 2018
13.00 (12.00 UK Time) - Fortuna Düsseldorf vs Huddersfield Town
17.30 (16.30 UK Time) – Huddersfield Town vs Legia Warsaw
The two groups winners and runners-up will progress to the Semi-Finals and resulting final on Monday 2 April 2018. There will also be a one-off play-off game to determine the team finishing fifth.
Town fans can watch the game via a stream from this link; www.sportstadt.tv or below!
