Saturday, march 31 Day 9

     We slept in and boarded our bus today at 10 am.  Only a 40 minute trek to Liverpool.....and of course the BEATLES MUSEUM!  It was a self guided tour with so much interesting information about their humble beginnings and their amicable parting.  They completely skipped the "Yoko" years, which was a mystery, because the generally accepted understanding/myth is that she was responsible for the demise of the Beatles.  I know the parents enjoyed the tour, so much so that Steve bought a DVD to watch on the bus.  I think the kids tolerated the tour, as it was light and fun, and a nice outing.
      After 2 hours, we re boarded the bus, and headed to the stadium to watch Everton FC v.  West Bromwich Albion.  Tim Howard the goalkeeper for the US National Team, just happens to be the goalie for Everton.  We arrived 40 minutes early, and 30 of us chanted "USA, USA"  and Tim Howard turned around and gave us a wave! Needless to say the boys were ecstatic!!!  The stadium was packed, with a much more mellow crowd than we experienced at the Arsenal game.  Everton prevailed 2-0 and we headed straight for....wait for it....THE MEGA STORE. We knew this would be the last mega store, so we emptied our wallets as the boys handled, begged for and admired all it had to offer.  We arrived at the hotel at 6:30 and had dinner and cake to celebrate Mick's 39th birthday. Some stayed in hotel pub to watch another football game, and some retired earlier.  Tomorrow we have a game at 2 against Lakeside, a local football club. The boys don't know it, but they are going to have a party for us afterward, with a bounce house, band, food and drink. Should be a really great way to end our trip.... We'll head back to London tomorrow after the party, to spend the night near the airport to fly home on Monday.                                                  
      I can honestly say that traveling with this group of people has been easy and fun. Although, we see each other 10 months out of the year, and spend most of our weekends together watching our boys play soccer, we still enjoy each other's company...Tomorrow night we'll have a pint and toast to this fantastic trip, and start thinking about the journey home.  If I can post tomorrow, I will. If not, we'll see you all soon...Cheers!

March 30, Fri Day 8

      We got a little British weather today. Cold and gray with a light, but bone-chilling breeze. The boys didn’t seem to notice as they ran around the Manchester City FC training grounds with coach Gavin. They lined up with their balls and worked on passing drills and finished with a small-sided game. The parents walked around the track surrounding the field or watched from the stadium chairs.
      After the training Gavin gave us a tour of the stadium. It was slightly more posh than other stadiums, probably due to the wealth of the club’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The boys seemed to particularly enjoy the Press Conference room where they sat in the big chairs in front of the press and pretended to be the top players while the tour guide asked them questions. We didn’t get to see the players’ dressing room since the kit manager was preparing it for tomorrow’s game. We moved on to the inevitable stop at the megastore and then to the Old Trafford Mall.

     The Old Trafford Mall isn’t old and resembles a typical American mall except for having mostly different store names, a wading pool in the middle and dim lighting—which I thought was strange given the gray weather. Both parents and children played an exciting game of lazer tag. You had to choose a game name to play. The green team, which included Billy (aka “Iron Man”), Megan Flood (aka “Snow White”) beat the red team, which included top-scorer Mick Luckhurst (aka “Viper”) and low- scorer Matt Carlson who managed to get negative 250 points. We also played miniature golf and shopped.

     On the way home we stopped for dinner at a traditional English pub and had meat pies, bangers and mash, fish and chips, among other things (beer).

     It was a relaxed day and everyone was glad to get a break in the action.

Friday, March 30, 2012

   Owen is not feeling 100% today, so we have stayed at the hotel. We are missing the Manchester City Professional training and the visit to Trafford Center. Trafford Center is the largest European Mall, complete with bowling and Laser tag.  I will ask someone else to blog about the day, as I too will be wondering about the day's events.

The view from our hotel room...

Thursday, March 29, 2012 Day 7

    On March 29 we got up early, had a full breakfast and departed for Everton for a two hour professional training.  Everton Football Club are an English Pro club from Liverpool.  This club has a large fanbase and regularly attracts high attendances, averaging over 36,000, which is 90% of stadium capacity.  The boys thoroughly enjoyed this training, and eagerly asked many questions during the Q & A that followed.  A recurring question was, "Can we meet Tim Howard?"   "Where is Tim Howard?"  Unfortunately Tim Howard was unavailable for our twelve year olds; however perhaps we'll catch him on our next tour of the UK... An interesting fact that the Everton coach told us was that their focus is on finding/developing that one player who will move on to the first team. (Pro team) He said they do not develop 'teams' per se..their goal is to find that one player who will continue up the ranks.
     After the training, we had lunch...at SUBWAY.  In case you were wondering, they don't have regular yellow mustard. They use honey mustard, and it sweetens up the sandwich a bit. Tastes different, and pretty good. The choices of "Crisps" (potato chips) were notable.   (  Prawn Cocktail, and Salt n Vinegar)   Next door to Subway was a traditional Fish n Chips place and some of the adults chose to head over there for lunch.
      I watched with Sonya, the Mom of the U12 captain, and she told me about their club.  For instance, after each match their "kits" (uniforms) are sent out to be laundered, pressed and folded and are waiting for the boys, prior to their next match.  She also told me that they pulled their boys out of school an hour early to come to the match against us. Their boys were not upset to be pulled out of school early.    Their club is part of a league, and although they keep score at the games,  they do NOT keep league standings.  She said this is in an effort to stress development at this age, as opposed to competition. (She did say that although no formal standings are kept, the boys know who has won and lost against who, and how many times.  That sounds vaguely familiar....)  They even have a Physio, (sp?) at every match in case players are injured.  She asked many questions about our soccer  club, American football, how far we traveled for games and was genuinely interested in our experience here so far.  All in all, my observation is that soccer moms in any country are virtually the same. 
      Before the game, our boys gave each of the opponents a Santa Barbara tshirt, that they promptly put on after the match.  We also presented them with an American Football, signed and dated.  The game was tough. Our boys played hard, and ended up losing.  Billy stressed that he was very proud of them as they definitely battled and had tremendous heart.

     We returned to the hotel for an 8pm meal, of chili con carne and hamburgers. We were in bed by 9:30 and sleeping by 9:35.  Maybe even sleeping by 9:32...

Tues/Wed 3-27 & 3-28

This is gonna be a quick and dirty run down of the last two days, as everyone is asleep and I am exhausted.  Tuesday morning we split up. The parents traveled via coach to Windsor Castle while the boys had a Pro Training from the Tottenham coaches and then played Tottenham's U12s. Parents were not allowed to watch, so we enjoyed a day of sightseeing at the castle.  One of my favorite rooms in the castle was the doll house and doll exhibit. (Craig Carlson skipped this section, and I will be hassling him for months to come.) I loved the castle and the history, as much as I loved spending time with my fellow soccer parents.  An interesting story:  Teenagers are teenagers in any country...a school group of French teenagers were "teasing" one of the guards, and one kid went so far as to step on the guards shoe. The guard gave him a push and a belly bump, and the bystanders could tell he was angry. A member of the military quickly came to his aid, berated the French boy and proceeded to throw the entire school group from the tour.  Again, doesn't matter where you're from, there is always one who wants to show off for his friends. this time he was caught and reduced to tears. 
      We wandered for 5 hours and then boarded the coach to pick up our boys from the Tottenham game.  The boys boarded the bus and happily announced they had tied 3-3. They were on an adrenaline high, laughing and talking as we headed for our next stop.  Bolton is about 4 hours away, and 5 and a half by coach.  We started our journey at about 7:30 and arrived in Bolton at 1 am.  The idea was that the boys would sleep on the bus, so they wouldn't have to travel the same day as their game against Manchester United.  Sounded great on paper, however the boys were too amped from the Hotspurs game.  There was a movie on the bus (the title of which will be disclosed at a later date)  and the boys DID NOT SLEEP!  I resorted to trying the Quaker Game....  You know, a contest who could be quiet the longest....They weren't having it.  Our hotel is connected to Bolton's Stadium.  All the families got views of the car park, while one family was mistakenly put in some kind of suite, with a beautiful 3 picture window view of the pitch. (soccer field) Let me just say, I am enjoying the view! It is like a box seat with glass windows to a sporting event. If only there was a game while we were here.

Wednesday, we slept in and left at 11 for a Stadium tour of Old Trafford. This is the stadium of MANCHESTER UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB.  Since the late 1990s, the club has been one of the richest and most valuable clubs in any sport, with an estimated value of 897 million pounds or 1.8 billion dollars. This tour was a highlight for our boys, especially bc the boys were scheduled to play the Man United Academy team at 7 pm that night.  After the tour,  guess where we ended up? The Mega store....where again, the boys handled, admired and begged for various Manchester United paraphernalia.  After emptying our wallets we boarded the bus back to the hotel to prepare for the game.  We had an early pasta lunch at 4:30 (lotta carbs over here)and then headed for the Man U Academy.  We were told that although we were allowed to watch, there would be no photos taken. We arrived, sent the boys to the changing room and then went upstairs to the second floor "parent's lounge."  They have a concession stand, and serve tea, coffee and biscuits while the parents wait for the players to finish practice.  All of it was free of charge and is a perk of the club.  When the game started I stood next to my new BFF Debbie, who is the mom of Jacob, the goalie on the Man U team. She was so warm and friendly, but better yet hilarious!  She told me they get 2 to 3 new kits (uniforms) a year. Their kit includes complete uniforms, warm up, soccer duffel bag, and cleats. All of this, like the tea and biscuits are free of charge.  I asked her, what happens if the kid's foot grows and they need new cleats in 3 months...? You just put your order in, and new cleats magically appear! The only downside may be that you don't get to pick your cleats. While our boys wear bright pink, orange, or neon yellow...their boys all wear a uniform traditional cleat.

The game in a nutshell: our boys put in a 100% effort and it showed. While we were often on the defensive, our defense was so strong and solid that we only conceded one goal.  One of our players made a beautiful penalty kick and tied it up 1-1.  Debbie, the Man U mom, told me that this was the best competition she had seen. She said that usually they "smash" the other teams they play.  At the start of the second half, the ref told Owen that he had been refing here for 7 years, and had NEVER seen them lose on this field. Well, they didn't lose they tied and our boys were so proud of themselves. Debbie, looked at me at the end of the game, and said, "That was a good result! " I agreed, a tie was fun for all. Manchester, were stellar hosts both on and off the field. The parents and coaches were complementary and the mood on the bus for the ride home was that of pure joy! (Incidentally the Manchester Moms want to come to Santa Barbara, and I think we can make that happen)  The boys represented SBSC, Santa Barbara, and the USA and did so with sportsmanship and pride.  Tomorrow the boys have a Pro training at Everton, and then a game against Sheffield.  Again, apologies for the sterile blog--I can only say that I'm just so tired.  Tired, but happy.....

Day 3 and 4

Played our match against Reading FC yesterday, and lost 1-2. We were ahead, and had control of the ball the entire time, when the other lads scored a beauty and then a penalty kick.  Our boys played well, and and the match was fun (that's from the Mom's point of view ha!) as well as competitive.    We immediately  packed up, got on the bus and traveled to London for a day of sightseeing. May I just say....Thank God for Stephanie Hanson!
 Stephani planned an open-top bus tour for 30 people.   Guess where we stopped first? If you guessed Buckingham Palace or Westminster Abbey you are dead wrong! We headed straight to Picadilly Circus to check out the largest 5 story sports store, Lilywhite's,  any of us had ever seen. Um, the whole second floor was devoted to soccer only. Every cleat,  every jersey, every ball....EVERYTHING. We spent more then our fair share in that store...but since this is a soccer immersion trip (coined phrase courtesy of Meagan Flood!) we the parents patiently waited while the players touched, handled and begged for soccer gear.  We did take a ferry ride on the Thames river and saw Big Ben (Charlotte, we got your photo--of Big Ben in front of Big Ben), Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. (Of special note: the security guards at the abbey don't allow 16 boys to scrimmage with their new soccer balls in front of the cathedral...oops!)  Also, we swung by the Tower of London and caught a quick glimpse of the crown jewels... LOVED THE CROWN JEWELS.  We left the hotel at 8 in the morning and after a gourmet meal from KFC at 8pm, we arrived "home" at 10 at night exhausted, but happy....

     Day 3: Today we left the hotel at 8 am to arrive at the Fulham training center for the boys professional training by the Fulham coaches. The boys performed well, and enjoyed the work out thoroughly. Immediately after the training, we packed up and headed for the Chelsea stadium for a private tour.  Again, guess where we stopped first?  THE CHELSEA MEGA STORE!  If your dog's favorite team is Chelsea, you can even buy him a Chelsea dog dish....We waited patiently while the players touched, handled and begged for more soccer gear. (see the reoccurring theme here? ha!) We saw the players' changing rooms, the press rooms, as well as the Chelsea museum. While the Arsenal stadium seats 60,000 fans Chelsea's stadium seats a mere 42,000.  Whether I want to or not, my head is filling fast with these important soccer tid bits!  We arrived back at the hotel had a bite and then walked to the local Family Centre to watch the Manchester United v Fulham game on a big screen TV...  Another side note: It just wouldn't be a proper hotel stay if the front desk staff didn't have to tell our boys several times, to refrain from playing soccer in the halls. After the boys, calmed down from laughing so hard, everyone finally retired to their room. 

     I am actually up typing while Steve and Owen are sleeping. Each night I go to Ben/John Henry's room as well as Kevin and Luis' room, and close their drapes, remind them to lock and latch the door when I leave, and explain what the schedule is the next day. The four of them are well behaved and having the time of their lives. Tomorrow, we get to sleep in, but it will be a long long long day. The players will have a  professional training Tottenham Hotspurs coaches, and then play their academy team.  The parents are not allowed to watch, so we will be going to tour Windsor.  Billy will be hanging with the boys for 4 hours, as we leave at 10:30 and the boys leave at 2:00. After we meet up again at 5:30, we will board the bus for a nightime travel of 5 hours. This journey will be to Bolton, where the boys will prepare to play the Manchester United Academy team. I am going to end here, as I just reread this post and I'm so disappointed at just how dull it is.  I don't have the energy to massage it and make it a bit more palatable! I realize now that blogging is hard.  Really hard. Apparently I am neither as witty or charming as I think I am...~sigh....

After arriving Saturday, March 24 at 10:45 am our group of 16 boys hit the ground running...almost literally! 400 passengers in line and only 4 border lines, slowed our timeline down just a tad. Traveling en masse of 25, is an art form for sure.  By the time we made it out into the bright sunlight, the boys were on an adrenaline high and ready for action. We traveled  by coach to our hotel, stopped for a 10 minute break and headed for the Arsenal v. Aston Villa at the Arsenal's home stadium. Just our group of 30, plus 60,000 of our closest friends! We sat separated by family, and Steve, Owen, Kevin and I were in the thick of the home fans. Like American football fans these fans are passionate! Unlike American football fans, they have cheers, chants and taunts for everything! (The pimply-faced teenager behind us, was thrown out with 10 minutes left in the game for making an obscene gesture. I didn't see the gesture, but of course, Owen who doesn't miss a thing did. I played dumb, when asked what it meant and am hoping he won't be educating the rest of the team anytime soon.) The game was a blow out, 3-0-and thank goodness we were sitting in the winners section..."We see you sneaking out, we see you sneaking out.." after the last goal was scored, was chanted in unison as the Villa fans skulked out of the stadium. Hilarious, and fun and soooo entertaining. Owen announced that Arsenal is now his fave EPL team....Wondering how long that will last...

   Today, the boys have their first match against Reading FC at 10 am. After the game, we'll be dropped in the middle of London to find our way around,  eat a local meal, and squeeze in all of London's highlights in a quick 6 hours...