Monday was not a usual day of practice for USA Football's Junior National Team. Instead of practicing with their fellow teammates, the players got to practice with Sweden who will play Mexico Saturday in the Junior World Championship.
Team Sweden arrived in Canton Thursday, June 18, and have had two-a-day practices ever since. The joint practice between the squads was from 2 to 4 p.m., and marked Team USA's first and only joint practice with another JWC team.
Though Team USA will first play France and not Sweden, tight end John Plasencia said the different competition is good for the team as it prepares for its first game.
For safety Chris Payne, the experience was about preparing himself mentally at his defensive position.
"What I have learned so far is basically getting the mental things down at my position, and I have to know everything and where everyone is at," Payne said. "So I'm just getting the mental stuff down right now."
Linebacker Chris Norman saw a different offense from Team Sweden than he was accustomed to with Team USA. He said Sweden played a typical football offense, but the style was not the same.
"They run a lot of misdirection, quick passes, they like to use the spread - we didn't see one formation with a tight end," Norman said."They like to throw it."
And that could be the case seeing as how Team Sweden has a 6-feet-11 wide receiver. Yet Team USA didn't feel overmatched at practice even though Sweden showed great effort.
"I'm not going to lie, they are more advanced than I thought," Plasencia said. "We think that in America, [football] is the best, but they definitely showed that football is a global game."
Payne said Team Sweden also ran different formations, but the defense was able to adjust.
"They run a lot of trick plays and they are going to get a lot of people with that, but we did alright."
Although Team USA benefited from the joint practice, Team Sweden had the chance to go up against top competition before Saturday as well. Norman said he thought Sweden would also benefit from practicing with the U.S. Junior National Team.
"A practice like this against us should help them against Mexico on Saturday," Norman said."I hear Mexico's a pretty good team - they're the No. 3 seed. Beating a North American team would be a very big deal for Sweden. These guys can play."
The talent these players have has been a theme throughout training camp. As the Opening Ceremony approaches, keeping up with that talent will be a motivator for Team USA's players to continue improving.
"We're going against some of the best players in the nation...everyday," Plasencia said. "That definitely can't hurt making you a better player. In high school sometimes, you can just get away with going through the motions and relying on God-given talent. But here if you do that, you're going to get embarrassed."
