Hampton U15 Football Tour: Villarreal

By George Scholes

Over October half term, the Hampton U15 A and B teams had a great experience being hosted by Villarreal CF in Spain, during which they played some good football, had some excellent training sessions, and overall learnt a lot to put into practice for the rest of the year. 

They started the tour with an afternoon training session at a local pitch, followed by a session early the next morning using the Villarreal facilities. This was then followed by a great tour of Estadio De La Cerámica, the Villarreal CF stadium. There, the U15s visited their museum, the changing rooms and even got a pitch-side view. 

Following this, Hampton had two hard fixtures against strong club-affiliated sides. The A team game began with little action, but after the visitors went a goal down, the match became one-sided in favour of the Villarreal squad and Hampton could not respond. In the B team game, the Spanish side proved a very tough opposition under the floodlights and despite their unbeaten start to the season and being just 1-0 down at half-time, the Hampton side were clearly outclassed. Although both matches did not go well for the U15 teams, it proved a great experience to see how they could deal with very strong opponents and show how they could improve.

The next day began with another training session on the Villarreal pitches. Hampton were fatigued from their matches the day before, but motivated to win their last fixtures against different sides. After the session, they managed to watch some of the Villarreal CF vs Manchester City U21 match at the training facility, then prepared for the last football of the tour. 

In the A team match, they were playing against IDA Valencia and feeling optimistic about their chances of a win. Despite conceding a scrappy goal early, they turned the game around to win 3-1 and were unlucky not to win by more. In the B team match, a scrappy game in very hot conditions against a local team, Vall De Uxo, ended in a 1-0 win for Hampton thanks to a Freddie Reed-Sperrin goal and solid defending. 

Overall, the tour was a great experience for both teams, with several aspects allowing them to improve their game, such as playing tough Spanish opposition with different tactical styles, and receiving expert coaching from the Hampton staff at the professional-level facilities.

Both teams have already put their learnings from the tour into practice, achieving several strong results this term, and can be very excited about what’s to come this season.