In five years, US Club Soccer’s id2 national select team has tangled with some pretty heady competition. Tours to Spain, England and Germany brought games against titans like Real Madrid, Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund.

Never in that span has a tour gone as well as this one.

The 2014 id2 National Selection International Tour hit Italy earlier this month, and a tour including some of the best youth sides the soccer-mad nation has to offer yielded an unprecedented 3-0-1 record. That’s the best mark in the tour’s history, and this one included wins over the U14 sides from Siena (7-0), Fiorentina (3-1) and Juventus (2-0). The team also produced a scoreless draw against Inter Milan, meaning the 18-player side composed almost entirely of 2000s - Connecticut native and defender Joey Zarra was the only 2001 - produced an incredible mark of 12 goals for to just one conceded. 

As a learning experience for a group of up-and-coming players, this one was hard to top. In addition to their on-field duties, the team attended two Serie A matches, trekked to Lake Como and briefly visited with AC Milan and Netherlands international Nigel de Jong.

“We had a mix of guys, some who are playing in the academy, some who are not in the academy, some who are used to playing a possession style and some guys who were clearly not used to playing out of the back,” said id2 boys program director and coach Gerry McKeown. “The challenge was getting all of our guys willing to play from the back out. We dealt with that really well.”

McKeown oversaw the team’s selection process, which involved scouting players on the club level nationwide and then inviting them to id2 Training Camps for further scouting. From there, the staff selected 18 of the best players to travel to Italy to face a selection of robust youth sides sprinkled throughout Serie A and Serie B. This particular U.S. team represented 15 different clubs from 10 states, and they had just two training sessions together in New Jersey before embarking to Italy. 

“We emphasized to them the need to play as a group, to play as a team, to sacrifice for the whole team,” McKeown said. “I thought it was unusual for a group of guys who didn’t know each other to have bought into that so readily and show that on the field.” 

Since starting with a trip to Germany and the Netherlands in 2010, the id2 program’s National Selection International Tour has developed into a staple of early national team identification. To that end, former U.S. international goalkeeper Tony Meola joined the group’s trip to scout for U.S. Soccer. In the past, Youth National Team standouts like Kyle Gruno, Tommy Redding, Christian Pulisic, Nicolas Taitague and Lucas del Rosario put down a marker with strong showings on various id2 international tours.

In terms of on-field results, this one beat them all.

The standout performances were legion, and the trip seemed to fulfill its duty of filling the file of potential YNT players who haven’t yet broken in. Midfielder/defender JJ Foe Nuphaus, who plays for the San Jose Earthquakes’ U14 side, has yet to be included in the national team setup but impressed during the week. DMCV Sharks SC (San Diego, Calif.) defender Kelee Cornfield-Saunders, who played every minute of every game and helped keepers Hunter Pinho (PDA, Cranford, N.J.) and Alex Budnik (Sockers FC Chicago, Arlington Heights, Ill.) keep three shutouts, fell in the same category.

In terms of productivity going forward, the two names that continually screamed off the page were Zico Bailey (Heat FC, Henderson, Nev.) and Ricky Mendez (Marin FC, San Rafael, Calif.). The staff asked Bailey to scoot back from the attack to play right back in Italy, and he still managed a goal and two assists. Mendez, who wore the No. 9 for the trip, led the team in points with two goals and three assists in four games.

For McKeown, this trip offered a tangible glimpse at the strides the country’s best are making in cultivating possession soccer. And that all starts with the keeper.

“I think for me, the biggest stride that we’ve made in this country is now we have goalkeepers who can play from their feet, and they become now another option to play out of the back,” McKeown said. “He can organize the group as long as you show him where the movement should be in terms of the center backs splitting and getting far enough apart that they’re tough to deal with with one defender. Overall, the comfort level nationwide, I can see it for sure.”

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