Erika Garcia Named to Mexican Federation List – National Team Pool
Posted On June 16, 2011 by PUSC
Erika Garcia and Leonardo Cuellar, Mexico Federation National Team Head Coach
Erika Garcia of the ’93 Girls Gold team was invited by the U20 Mexican National Team coach to travel down to Mexico City where she participated in the Mexican National Olympics. This event serves as a scouting network for the Mexican Federation to identify potential players for their National teams.
Said Erika…
“Every state from Mexico had a team entered in the women’s soccer event. My team was entered as another state under the name of IME, Institución de los Mexicanos en el Exterior. This organization handles the Mexicans who live outside of Mexico and participate in this Mexican competition.
All of the athletes arrived on Monday May 30th. Everyone flew into Mexico City where members of the organization, IME, picked us up. From there we were taken as a team to Toluca on a bus, it was about an hour drive. We stayed at a very nice hotel and the bus transported us everywhere. Meals were provided by the event, but we were also able to go out to the town and eat authentic Mexican food.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we played one game a day. Tuesday, we played Jalisco and lost although we dominated, score 3-2.
Wednesday, we played Quintana Roo and we won, score 7-1. I scored one goal this game and assisted one goal with a cross. The best part about this game was that Leonardo Cuellar, the women’s national team head coach, was in attendance. After the game he said that there will be a national camp in July when they come back from the World Cup so to be ready for an invitation to camp.
Thursday, we played Nuevo Leon and won in PKs. When IME went last year they made it to the final and played against Nuevo Leon so this game was kind of a rematch with lots of hunger on both ends. We tied but our forwards had numerous failed prime shots on goal. We ended up winning in PKs but it wasn’t enough to move on. The coach for this Nuevo Leon team was Roberto Medina, the women’s national U20 head coach. He’s the one I’ve been in most contact with because he was also in LA when I went back in April and that is when we first began contact. After the game, I had a chance to talk with Roberto. He said he would be going to Germany with the the team for the World Cup. He said I am on the Mexican Soccer Federation’s list, and that they’re interested!
These three games were our bracket games and only one team advanced from each bracket. We had to win our last game during regular playing time to get max points and move on. Had we won during the game instead of during PKs then we would have automatically been in the semi final on Friday. The final was played in the Toluca Stadium where the Mexican men’s pro teams play, but unfortunately we didn’t make it that far.
Since we were eliminated on Thursday and I was scheduled to fly back on Sunday. My dad checked me out and I was able to go to Michoacan and Ixtapa to visit my family who lives in Mexico.
The whole experience was unforgettable.”