The Yukon Strikers SC U16 girls notched their only tournament experience at the USA Cup earlier this month, en route to the upcoming Western Canada Summer Games.

The U16s finished the Schwan's USA Cup International Youth Soccer Tournament, held in Blaine, Minn., with a 2-3 win-loss record in the silver flight.

The Strikers lost their opening match 2-0 to the St. Louis Park Orioles before picking up their first win, 4-1 over the Rebels SC Nimmer in game two.

A 2-0 loss to the NSSA Pumas in their next match forced the Strikers into the B playoff bracket of the silver flight. The Yukoners won their quarterfinal game 5-1 over Minnesota's PSA Spartans before dropping the semifinal 1-0 to Mahtomedi FC Zephyr.

Strikers head coach John MacPhail said that experience in the lead up to Westerns in Kamloops, Aug. 5-14, is more important than Ws.

"Our girls have a tendency to look at the other teams and psyche themselves out, so we tell them, ‘Do your own thing, who cares how good they are at the other end,' and then trying to start out strong, because we also have a tendency to wait to see how good the other team is before we decide what we want to do, and sometimes we're down 2-0 or 1-0 before we settle into games.”

It's a trend MacPhail has seen in the 20 years he's coached.

"We're trying to get that philosophy out of their heads. We can play this game pretty good, why don't we go show them how we can play, not watch them and decide how we want to play,” he said.

The Strikers' competition level grew as the tournament progressed, MacPhail added.

"In the first game they were more inclined to worry about the heat than the game itself. And then the second game, once they figured out it wasn't going to kill them,

it was a whole different game,” MacPhail said of the severe weather all teams faced in Minnesota, with temperatures rising to 35 on average.

The Strikers have been preparing for the Western Canada Summer Games since last October.

The majority of the club's game experience has come from playing a women's team Monday nights.

Needless to say, MacPhail was interested in getting in some game experience and adapting to life on the road, sleeping in dorms and eating cafeteria food.

"That's exactly what we'll have at Westerns, so it's going to give you an idea of who can deal with it and who can't deal with it.”

Most of the Strikers have another year to compete at the U16 level. Four are of U16 age and four are of U14 age.

The USA Cup features 1,000 teams from 18 countries yearly to play on 52 fields at the National Sports Center in Minnesota.