Rush to the top: Making the President’s Cup

(ABC 6 News) — It’s going to be the biggest tournament of their young lives. Unprecedented territory and history for the 2022 Minnesota Rush soccer team.

"It shows us that like — how far we’ve come throughout the season… and now our chemistry is built up and we showed it by making it to this tournament," Rush center back Tziyon Morris said.

The U-15 club qualified for the U.S. youth soccer national presidents cup for the first time in program history.

"I don’t think we were looking that far yet, but as soon as that came into perspective with the regional tournament, I definitely think that was like something," Morris said.

"Just lots of feelings, I guess, and joy to play there," striker Parker Nelson said.

The Rush players pride themselves on their defense which gave up only one goal in both the state and regional title games combined.

"We started off really strong and then we just played defensively for the rest of the game, just made sure to hold them out," goalie Bode Jacobson said.

"Being able to take the player away from the ball, get there first, be smart about the plays that we make," Morris said.

To have this much pressure on a group of young stars might seem intimidating, but the Rush has come too far to lose faith in each other especially after getting rid of internal strife on the pitch.

"During the games, we would make a mistake, everyone get on each other when we’d blame our mistakes on other people," Nelson said. "We have a group chat and we talked about it and we came together. it’s just improved us a lot and our whole team I think."

They have the eyes of the state and the Midwest but the thrill of playing on a national stage will surely bring out the best in these teens and demonstrate why they’ve proven to live up to their team name.

The President’s Cup takes place from July 6th through 7th and if you want to support the Rush on their trip, there’s a GoFundMe account available for donation.