With the national men's club championships less than two months away, the Yukon Selects have been busy fine-tuning their skills.

The Selects recently returned from a four-day trip to Edmonton, where they competed in an eight-team tournament against squads from all over Alberta.

In their first game, the Yukoners took on the first place team from the Alberta premier soccer league, which had come into the tournament undefeated for the season.

It was a close game, but in the end, the Selects walked away with the victory.

'It was excellent,' said Yukon's Peter Mather in an interview. 'We played really well.'

Up next was Bosnia Canadian, a team which featured a former professional striker, who Mather called 'incredible.' It was partly thanks to the former pro that Bosnia Canadian was able to claim victory over the Selects.

In their final match, against Fort MacMurray, the Yukon was up 1-0 until their competitors scored two late goals to take the game 2-1.

'We seemed to get a lot of goals scored on us on set plays,' said Mather. 'It's really tough when you dominate the game, play really well, but then they get a couple goals on free kicks or corner kicks.'

The Selects were also somewhat drained, said Mather, due to a short bench.

'We were just a little tired, I guess. We kind of used up all of our energy, so for the next couple of games, our lack of depth we had just two subs on the bench really took its toll on the team.

'We took a real skeleton lineup (to Edmonton).'

A lot of the Selects couldn't make the trip due to work or school commitments, including head coach Joe Zuccarini, who is off to Italy for two weeks.

While some of the players seemed to struggle somewhat, Mather said there were two guys who really stood out throughout the tournament goaltender George Maratos and Ryan O'Donovan.

'George, he stepped up. He played really, really well and that gives our team so much confidence, knowing he can play like that. In two games, he allowed just three goals and one was on a penalty shot and two were on tough free kicks.

'He didn't have one goal scored on him in open play.

'Ryan, we kind of expect him to be one of our top two forwards and he was, so that was great.'

Mather said all of the Selects learned some important lessons heading into nationals, such as how much quicker the game is played down south and how fit some of the other players are.

'Our fitness has to be much better. We all want to do running before practices now.

'(Also), we're going to have to go through practices with free kicks. We have to get a lot more organized.'

Mather said it was tough not having Zuccarini at the tournament, but when the coach gets back, there will be important decisions on the horizon.

Right now, Mather figured Zuccarini has 16 or so of the 20 players which are allowed at nationals chosen. The other few will need to be decided within a matter of a few weeks.

A couple of those spots will probably go to some of the athletes who just returned from the Canada Summer Games.

'It will be a big boost to our team, to have some of the younger players back from the Games,' said Mather. 'Some of them are the best players we have.'

For the next couple of months, the Selects will be practicing three times a week in anticipation of nationals, as well as taking part in the fall soccer league, which will feature local men's teams.