Now that the list has settled on a highly successful AFC Academy Tour to Miami we can now release the festivities in the form of a 54 minute long movie.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH MIAMI 2022 - THE TOUR MOVIE

Here is a diary summary of the time we spent there...

Tuesday 24th May - Arrived in North Beach Miami, late afternoon where we found our feet and the students were sent on supply missions to provide themselves with breakfast and lunch items for the forthcoming days.
After that the students had free time to pick up an evening meal from any of the many local eateries.

Wednesday 25th May - Time off spent at the beach for games and bonding in the morning was followed by a trip out to Florida Atlantic University where we were shown around their impressive facilities before taking in a local women's football match in the evening.

Thursday 26th May - The morning saw everybody at the Sawgrass Mills Mall, one of the largest in the state before heading across to Weston in late afternoon evening for a round of friendly fixtures. The U18 & U19 boys played friendlies in which we were able to field some of our girls as well before the girls got a friendly fixture all of their own. Results were mixed but it was a fitness exercise and it helped to get the students acclimatised to playing in the Florida heat.

Friday 27th May - Back to the beach for some more rest and relaxation before a volleyball session and then an afternoon taking in the sights and sounds of South Beach miami.

Saturday 28th May - The first day of the tournament saw the girls in action first taking on Cooper City Cobras. This ended with a 1-1 draw in a game the girls could and should have won. Our goal, the equaliser, being scored from the penalty spot by first year student Yasmine Drake. At the same time the U19 boys were in action against Weston Utd and despite leading 3 times we would end up drawing 3-3 again in a game that should have been easily ours. Lennie, Stokes and Cohen scorers for AFC. It was clear that both the playing style of the opposition and the heat were going to take some adjusting to. Next up the U18 boys were taking on Weston F.C and a goal from Ben Montieth Weed was enough for us to secure our first win in the tournament. The U18's were scheduled to play again later this day but their fixture against Juventus was called off after just 60 seconds due to thunder and lightning around the area. This brought an early end to proceedings on our first full football day.
From here we headed off to watch the evening fixture that saw Inter Miami take on Portland Timbers in the MSL. A cracking spectacle that saw the home team take all 3 points with an entertaining 2-1 win.

Sunday 29th May - The girls started early today with a game against Florida United and a tough, hard fought fixture went the way of the locals who won 2-1. Our goal scored via the penalty spot again by Leonne Bezant. Next up the U19's were in action against Homestead and at half time we had a 2-0 lead with both goals coming from Josh Stokes. Unfortunately the weather intervened once more and the game was abandoned with AFC being given the points. Unexpectedly when it looked like the rest of the day would be a wash out, we were called back to play an evening fixture against Boynton. It all proved to be a bit too much for our lads who turned up with no warm up and had to play with little warning. In a game that saw our opponents lose 2 players sent off in the 2nd half we couldn't overturn a two goal deficit racked up during the opening half. Our U19's were effectively knocked out of the competition.

Monday 30th May - The final day of competition saw the U18's finally face Juventus and it ended in a 1-0 defeat in a match where we squandered a late penalty that would have sent the lads through to the final. So in a disappointing turn of events both boys teams were now eliminated. It was left to the girls to rescue some pride. First up they faced Weston Utd and went in search of a first win in the tournament. This they achieved with a resounding 4-1 victory with goals coming from Sealey, Edwards x 2 and Kennard. The girls had arrived! Later on in the afternoon they had to lift themselves again to play Florida Utd once more in the Enigma Cup Final. A tight game was played out and the scores remained deadlocked at 0-0 thus a penalty shootout would determine the winners. After an epic shoot out AFC triumphed with a 7-6 win and the scenes afterwards were quite something!

Tuesday 31st May - A morning spent around the local area getting packed and a final visit to the beach before heading off to a mall near the airport for some lunch and a final shopping opportunity before making the short trip back to the airport before the rather longer flight back to Heathrow. We came, we saw, we experienced and the girls, well they conquered.