Wrexham first-team coach David Jones believes the club's participation in The Soccer Tournament is a brilliant chance to showcase the history of the Red Dragons to a new audience.
Jones, who also manages the club's reserves, has been appointed Wrexham Red Dragons player/head coach for the unique seven-a-side tournament which begins on June 1 in Cary, North Carolina. The tournament will see 32 teams including Premier League sides West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund and US Women's Soccer, compete for a chance to win $1m.
Fixtures will be completed in a traditional World Cup style but matches will be played over two, 20-minute halves. A winner is determined by what the organisers call 'target score time'. This period is untimed and will see both teams having to reach a certain number of goals to win the match.
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The target score will be one goal more than what the winning team has after 40 minutes. For instance, if after 40 minutes the score is 3-1, then the winner will be the first to reach four goals.
The four-day competition is brand new for 2023 and Jones is excited to be involved and flying the flag for Wrexham stateside. "I first heard about the tournament through Shaun Harvey [an advisor to the Wrexham board] who mentioned it to me when we had been invited and asked if it was something I would want to lead, manage the team and participate in as a player," the 38-year-old told MEN Sport.
"It was something that seemed exciting and an opportunity also to bring some of the recent history of Wrexham, in terms of players, together. I think it is a good thing for the club to be invited and for me it was an opportunity to get these legends who have played a big part in Wrexham's history in the team as well."
The Red Dragons' 14-man team includes a mixture of players who have represented the club in the past like; Paul Rutherford, Lee Trundle, Andrew Morrell and Dan Jarvis with current members of the Wrexham side such as Mark Howard and Louis Lloyd. With a varied squad to choose from, Jones found it difficult to make a prediction on his team's chances.
"It's difficult to tell [what our chances are]," he admitted. "It's new, the rules are new, it's not your typical 11-a-side tournament.
"That will play a big part as well as the personnel. We have a mixture of legends, current players and recently retired ones and it is also difficult to really know the level of each team out there.
"For us it is about trying to find that balance. Teams such as Wolves and West Ham on paper have some very good players from the past but teams that are used to playing in the United States, especially the seven-a-side concept, will be very difficult.
"We are just hoping to prepare the best we can and we're looking to be competitive." Wrexham have been drawn in Group E alongside Cesc Fabregas' Como 1907, US Women and Say Word FC who are made up of US university stars.
Fans in the UK will be able to watch all the action on Goal.com's YouTube channel between Thursday, June 1 and Sunday, June 4.
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