Blog 2 From England

This blog comes courtesy of Lindsay Cogburn.

Today we got our first true taste of English soccer. We had a training session with one of the coaches of the Tottenham Hotspurs academy. My first thoughts were skeptical; thinking that it was going to be a three hour long session with no water breaks and continuous running, but to my surprise the fitness was done by skillwork. It really was a true taste of the game over here because I learned more about skills in the 2 hours we practiced than I have in a long time.

We started out practicing moves to ourselves, but one of the main differences I saw working with the Tottenham coach was he actually applied the move to a gamelike situation. Showing us when it was appropriate to use it, where on the field it should work, and the exact movement needed to beat the opponent. There were also two South African boys around the age of 13 that were practicing with us. We all noticed how good they were and we later found out that they were here for a tryout for the Tottenham team. It was really amazing to get the opportunity to learn and play with people that love the game of soccer, and have practically made it their life.

After the training session we got a chance to go into London for the first time together and ride the famous London Eye. After a long and involved train ride, almost losing our great goalkeeper Z for missing the train, and running through the train station we finally arrived in the city that we came here to see. The London Eye was really amazing and I'm so glad we got the chance to ride it. We got to see the whole city for what it's worth before actually getting to go in it. After that we walked around downtown, seeing the sights that many have only seen in pictures. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, a double decker bus, China town, and we still have tomorrow when we get a whole day to do anything we want in the huge city.

Hopefully everyone will get to see everything they want to in the time we have this week. With a day off tomorrow from soccer, I'm really looking forward to our first game on Sunday. I can't wait to find out how great we will play against the women teams over here. So far...this has been a trip I will always remember.