Any youth soccer player always look forward to playing in major soccer tournaments or any tournament for that matter.

Playing in tournaments are part of development in a soccer player’s life. A player’s skill and technical ability can be spotted in any game even in a game alongside a dirt road but in a tournament it is the mental strength that makes a player stands out.

Over the past weekend our under 18 team won the UWC Provincial Academy Cape Town Youth Cup and one thing that was admirable of the players were the mental strength shown by some of them.

One youngster, the 16 year old Jason Poggenpoel, stood head and shoulders above the rest in the mental toughness stakes. For such a young player to play such a major role in this tournament speaks volumes for the future. If he can remain levelheaded then surely the sky will be the limit for him.

Tournaments are always good to watch and good character builders but there are only certain limits organizers must go to too make it even better.

The use of guest players in teams are something that needs to be looked at. In youth soccer and tournaments we always talk of development but using a player from another team is definitely depriving one player from your team an opportunity to show off his skills.

Whose player are you developing any way? In this specific tournament quite a few teams used guest players, even academy teams, and in the end they were happy with the performances of the teams. Whose team are they talking about anyway?

Maybe using quest players are a sign of desperation and situation of winning at all costs.

If that is the case then those teams need to have another look at their development policy.