Wisconsin Soccer Central

North Shore United's Under-13 boys and girls teams spent 10 days in Wales earlier this month, thanks to the club's partnership with Premier League club Swansea City.

"Swansea City AFC rolled out the red carpet for our teams and opened up their facilities and made their coaching staff available to our teams so our teams could experience what professional soccer in Europe is all about," North Shore United coaching director Joe Hammes said in a news release.

"Both teams had several training sessions at the Swansea City facilities that were led by members of the Swansea City coaching staff. Their facilities were first class and our players represented NSU and the quality of play that we are developing very well.”

The boys team from the Cedarburg club finished 0-2-1 in three matches, drawing the Llanelli Town Under-14 team 1-1 in its opener on April 12 before falling to Swansea City 5-2 and Newport County 4-2. Ben Brekke and Drew Schildt both scored against Newport County and Swansea, while Joe Raasch had the goal against Llanelli Town.

On the girls side, Katie McLaughlin had a hat trick and Maddie Kwiatkowski added two goals as North Shore United thumped the Garden Village Under-14 team 8-0 on April 13 before a 3-0 loss to the Welsh Under-14 national South team two days later.

The teams got to practice at Fairwood, Swansea City's first-team training ground, and had a session run by the club's coaches. They also took in a Premier League match, watching title contender Chelsea fight past Swansea City 1-0 at the Liberty Stadium.

North Shore United and Swansea City's partnership started in 2011, when the Swans were playing in England's Championship. The Welsh club again will send youth coaches to Cedarburg for the Swansea Summer Camps, which are July 14 to 18.

• FC Wisconsin Nationals had a tough day against the Indiana Fire on Saturday in Westfield, Ind., losing all three matches in U.S. Soccer Development Academy play. Jonathan Hernandez (Milwaukee) scored the Nationals' lone goal of the day in the final game, giving the Under-13/14 team a 13th-minute lead, but the home side struck in the 71st and 73rd to pull out a 2-1 victory. Hernandez's goal was his eighth of the season, tying Mark Orlowski (Waukesha) for the team lead for FC Wisconsin (4-9-4). The Nationals' Under-15/16 team saw its three-game winning streak come to an end with a surprising 2-0 loss, as the Fire got goals in the 70th and 74th to earn just their third win of the season – FC Wisconsin is now 8-8-3 and in seventh place in the 13-team Central Conference Mid-America Division. And the Nationals' Under-17/18 side is 5-11-3 and in 11th place in the division after a 4-0 setback. The two older FC Wisconsin teams return home to Germantown this weekend for matches against the Minnesota Thunder Academy on Saturday and Minnesota's Shattuck-St. Mary's – those clubs aren't fielding Under-13/14 sides in the Academy. Games are set for 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. both days; the teams will meet against next weekend in Minnesota. FC Wisconsin Nationals USSDA schedules, results and rosters
• FC Wisconsin Eclipse's spring teams went 2-0-2 at the Eclipse Spring Classic in matches against the Michigan Hawks and Illinois club Eclipse Select last weekend in Oak Brook, Ill. – two other scheduled games were canceled due to inclement weather Sunday. The team will play three-time defending Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion UW-Whitewater on Saturday.
• The FC Wisconsin Eclipse Under-14 girls team lost a pair of matches in Michigan, losing to the Michigan Hawks and Vardar by matching 7-0 decisions in Elite Clubs National League play.