A visiting team from the Northern Mariana Islands hopes to gain some valuable match experience during a training camp in Guam this weekend in preparation for international tournaments later this year.

The visiting team – made up mostly of NMI’s U14 Girls national team training squad with some moving up to the U16 age bracket – will play one match each day with local teams before departing Monday evening. The squad also includes a few players with experience playing at the senior level.

“The NMI Football Association put together this training camp to allow our training squad to gain experience in preparation for upcoming AFC and EAFF girls’ and women’s tournaments this year,” said Ross Zapanta, General Secretary of the NMI FA. “Women’s competition in Saipan is limited, and in order to do well in tournaments, they need to experience different playing styles than what they’re used to in Saipan. Of course, they also enjoy training and playing at the world-class facility here in Guam."

“This training camp is a great opportunity for our players and we thank Guam Football Association executives and staff for hosting us here, coordinating matches, and allowing us to train. We also thank GFA Executive Committee member George Lai who helped us by loaning vehicles for our delegation while here in Guam,” Zapanta added.

The 25-player squad, along with six coaches and officials – including NMI FA President Jerry Tan – arrived in Guam Friday morning. Hours after arriving in Guam, the team played against Bud Light Women’s Soccer League 2015 Fall season champions Quality Distributors in a close 2-1 match. April Talledo scored both goals for Quality and Jeralyn Castillo scored NMI’s lone goal.

Saturday evening, the Personal Finance Center Lady Crushers edged the NMI team 3-2 with goals from Kimberly Sherman, Koharu Minato, and April Talledo. Angelina Villagomez scored both goals for NMI.

Sunday evening, the Lady Rovers defeated the visiting team 3-1 with goals from Anjelica Perez, Courtney Salgado, and Kelly Hogan Morphy. Sarah Allen scored NMI's lone goal.

In the visiting team's final training match, NMI and the Guam U14/U16 Girls training squad battled to a 1-1 draw. NMI led 1-0 at the half thanks to a goal from Jerlyn Castillo from the right side that slipped inside the opposite post.

Guam's Jinae Teria leveled the match in the second half after taking advantage of a weak pass back to the goalkeeper and beating other defenders to the goal....

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