July 24, 2008

Kicking through Scandinavia

Almaden soccer player travels to Denmark, Sweden to play in junior world games

By Carol Rosen
Editor

It’s not every teen that gets to play soccer in Denmark and Sweden and gets to celebrate her 16th birthday there.

16-year-old Brooke Beytin (pictured below left playing soccer as a freshman in Leland’s varsity soccer team) says the European soccer tour was a “once in a lifetime trip,” and that she had a “wonderful time.”

Brooke Beytin returned Sunday from a two-week trip to the two Scandinavian countries where she played soccer as a guest player on a team that came in first at a Danish tournament and third at a huge youth tourney in Sweden. The 5-foot 11-inch teen who plays defense or center mid-field—also known as a play maker—happened to be the only freshman varsity soccer player for Leland High’s Chargers this year.

Beytin also plays club soccer for the Alpine Ruckus, a travel team that practices in the Portola Valley with players throughout the peninsula and South Bay. A soccer player for 11 years, Beytin started playing at age 5 in Almaden where she played for seven to eight years. When her coach quit, she moved to the Portola Valley team where she practices three times per week. That team travels and has played all over the West Coast including Washington State and Orange County as well as Texas, Sacramento and Redwood City.

She and two of her Alpine Ruckus teammates were invited to play on a traveling team from Marin—called the Marin Football Club, which was entered in the two European tournaments. Playing one to two games per day, the girls still had plenty of time to sight-see, which Beytin said they did, especially the malls and one “great” amusement park.

While she noticed lots of statues, colored bridges and picturesque buildings, she still managed to make the most of her shopping trips bringing home “amazing chocolate, souvenirs and jewelry along with sweatshirts.”

The final game in the Denmark tournament, called the Dana Cup, did not appear to be going very well at the beginning of the second half. Beytin’s team was losing by a score of 1-0, when lightening hit the flagpole and forced a game delay. During that time, the girls were quite worried they might lose, Beytin said, until “one of the captains focused us and calmed us down. When we got back out, with four minutes left, one teammate scored and the game ended with a 1-1 tie forcing it into overtime. During the overtime, we scored on a header and we won,” she said.

What she failed to mention to the Times was that there were 29 other teams in their age bracket. “They took first place and were undefeated with a goal ratio of 32 to 2,” said Cindy Guilett Beytin, Brooke’s mom. And, Brooke had eight assists in the tournament.

In Sweden, the girls played in the Gothia Cup, the largest soccer tournament in the world, also called the Youth World Cup. At that tournament, there were 61 countries represented and 35,000 players. In the Marin team’s age group there were 112 teams. There were 52,000 people at the opening ceremonies, which included entertainment, fireworks and an athletes’ parade. A team from China won the tournament, a Swedish team came in second and Marin FC came in third.

Held in Gothenburg, the tournament is made up of soccer players between 14 and 20 with about 80 percent men’s teams and 20 percent women’s. The girls played teams from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, France and England.

The girls worked hard, losing only one game by tie-breaking kicks. They ended up in third place and each received medals. The team awarded the huge trophy to Beytin because it was her birthday, and she was the youngest on the team.

Beytin came home with a few unintended souvenirs including a couple of banged up knees, a punch in the face, a bruised tailbone and a stiff neck from headers. Normally at tournaments her parents, who are chiropractors and own Almaden Chiropractic, are there to help adjust aching bones, but they didn’t go along on this trip.

Brooke Beytin kisses the trophy her team won at the Dana Cup.

In fact, during one game, Beytin’s knees were bleeding so badly she had to be carried off the field. “You’re not allowed to bleed on the field,” she said.

Accommodations for the all of the teams were in schools, mostly high schools, where they stayed 40 per classroom in sleeping bags. The hardest thing, according to Beytin, was using the bathroom. Imagine 40 girls with one shower, one sink and one toilet. They ate in the cafeteria and on Beytin’s birthday, the coach’s family brought the team a pasta dinner along with birthday cake.

“It was a great birthday, we had ice cream and pasta for breakfast, my friends gave me special funny gifts as well as massages, fruit and European chocolate, which is the best,” she said.

“The boys were really good looking. We got in fun pranks where we would run into a team’s room all dressed in black and squirt whipped cream and toothpaste all over everyone. We did it to them and they did it to us, especially teams from Brazil, Italy and Russia,” Beytin said.

“I liked the people best. People over there don’t judge you on how you look,” she said of the populace of the host countries and the team members they met. “Everyone we met spoke English, but they aren’t fond of Americans and they kept asking me if I’d had Botox and fake boobs and lived in Laguna Beach,“ Beytin said.

“This was a once in a lifetime trip and it was a great gift, a great birthday and I really had a wonderful time.”