Friday, March 30, 2012
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.
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...
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.
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