Manchester City club's soccer clinic tour passes through Adelphi

For Alex Williams, it's all a part of the process, which has brought him 3,334 miles from Manchester, England, to a rooftop alongside Lexington Avenue in East Harlem covered by an AstroTurf soccer field.

The former Manchester City goalkeeper is spreading English Premier League-learned soccer technique through the Manchester club's "City Soccer Initiative" youth program in the United States. On Monday at Adelphi University in Garden City, Williams and the City Soccer Initiative reached 84 of the best club soccer players from Long Island in a full-day free clinic.

The clinic came less than a week after the City Soccer Initiative announced the reopening of a renovated P.S. 72 on Lexington Avenue in East Harlem to be renamed Lexington Academy, which Williams said would be open to local Harlem youth. The school will cater toward soccer, which Williams said was funded by Manchester City's ownership from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, in conjunction with City Soccer Initiative and New York's Downtown United Soccer Club.

"In the local communities, we want to leave a legacy," Williams said." "[In East Harlem] we are setting up an initiative throughout the school day where kids will go and play football at that facility."

Monday's stop at Adelphi was the third session during Williams' and Manchester City's inaugural U.S. clinic tour. The tour started this past week in the New York area and will continue for three days in Atlanta and two days in Baltimore.

Manchester City - a European soccer power from the English Premier League - would like to establish a footprint in New York for its City Soccer Initiative, in cooperation with the MLS and United States Soccer, Williams said.

Four days after announcing a permanent home for the City Soccer Initiative in East Harlem, Williams and Manchester City provided a clinic for Long Island's best 15- to 17-year-olds Monday afternoon. During the session, Williams said he was impressed with the talent level in Long Island, in particular the goalkeepers.

Williams said high school senior Chris Herrera, 17, of Queens Village, who has committed to Adelphi, was the most impressive of those keepers. And with those plaudits from a former Premier League keeper, Herrera said he hopes he can live up to the standard Williams and Manchester City are hoping to breed in New York.

"Here we are training like the pros," Herrera said. "They brought in the best players from Long Island, and for [Williams] telling me that I did good, I mean, it's great. I want to play English soccer."