the 1991 Holland cup u16 championship: 30 years ago!

KNVB headquarters, Netherlands, 1991. Team photo after Holland Cup U16 championship.

KNVB headquarters, Netherlands, 1991. Holding Holland Cup U16 championship trophy. (Hit the gym kid!)

I was reminded that this summer—2021—is the 30-year anniversary for a team I was on that won the Holland Cup U16 championship in 1991. The tour was successfully organized by Lyle Ward. Our coach was St. Louis native Ed Gettemeier, SIUE national champion in 1979, NASL and MISL goalie, who led us to victory. In summary, our one-off Metro East team from St. Louis had only two practices before departing. We were supposed to ‘have fun and get a taste of Europe.’ This was code for ‘maybe win a game and lose the rest.’ We went undefeated and became the first North American team to win the Holland Cup. In doing so, we defeated talented clubs from Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Italy. How? It’s a testament to St. Louis soccer! (Much more to come!) To the best of my memory, after our conquest one of the local Dutch organizers suggested to Ward a top-notch team near our living arrangement at the KNVB headquarters.* This team was the equivalent of Scott Gallagher** or something of that sort. Shortly before we left, we played a friendly with them at KNVB and won 2-1. 
 
Now 30 years later I’ve written a book The Euro 2020-21 Book. It seems I’m back in Europe! 
 
Details of the Holland Cup are in Why American Soccer Isn’t There Yet. 

​EURO Cup 2020-21
​All games take place: June 11-July 11 2021 !

The Book & Tournament that Almost Didn't Make it! 
COVID-19 Will Be Defeated
Enjoy the Tournament Safely!

* Also staying at the KNVB headquarters, in dorms next to ours, included a youth farm team of Ajax, and Sampdoria with none other than Gianluca Vialli, the Italian national team star forward at the time; we saw him on the way to breakfast, groggy, asking an assistant for water. 

​** For any new-comers to American club soccer, St. Louis-based Scott Gallagher has traditionally been one of the best in North America since the 1970s.