Day 3, First Game in England

(click on pictures to enlarge) Our game vs. Crdinal Heenan, next 2 watching the U-18s shooting drill, Liverpool Reserve team practicing

The day started off with an 8:30 English Breakfast of Eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and beans, with fruit and cereals also available. Following breakfast we got 'kitted-up' and headed over to the academy for our first training session. We were led by Karl Robinson and Stuart Gelling, Youth Team Trainers at the Academy. The session was held in the academies indoor facility. We started off with some light warm-up exercises to get our legs moving and the blood flowing, and then went into some small 7 v 7 sided games, with Karl and Stuart along with coaches Parry and Douglass joining in on the fun. The guys asked us how long the training session went, which was an hour- they couldn’t believe how quickly it went! Don’t worry, we took copious notes and look forward to implementing some new things for the fall.

After a bag lunch, which included mozzarella sandwiches- which were topic of conversation all afternoon, along with turkey and ham, we walked to the other end of the complex to watch the Liverpool Reserve team practice. Many of the members of the back-to-back Youth Cup championship teams, as well as two goal scorers with the main first team a few days ago were scrimmaging yards in front of us- their touch and pace of play made an impression on the guys.

We came back at 12:30 to the Academy turf field to take on Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School, from the West Derby area of Liverpool. It was a competitive game between two evenly matched teams, with Cardinal Heenan scoring two goals in quick succession, late in the game to win. All the field players received plenty of action as the sun and rain rotated throughout the game. We were able to tape the second half and we’re looking forward to breaking down the game tomorrow after our morning training session. Tonight we had a very production time talking through the positives and points to build on from the game which is certainly one of the bonuses of taking our team on a trip like this- we get to win and lose together after each game.

Right after the game we went down to see the U-18’s practice and walked up as they were working on crosses and finishing. It was clinical. The guys were oohing and aahing. The consistency and technique of their finishing was incredible, especially as our guys knew these guys were their same age.

After returning to the University we made a team trip to our local grocery store, Tesco, to pick up some necessities for the guys to supplement their new diet. Coach Parry was invaluable helping everyone pick out the choice English specialties. The chocolate is living up to its top billing (see NY times article below) hopefully some of it will make it back on the flight.

We were able to take the guys to the computer lab tonight, so hopefully they emailed you, if not, that’s why we have our lovely blog- I’m starting to think English now! We finished up the night with a session on leadership which challenged the guys to think about how they are naturally gifted leaders. It was very productive time as guys thought through how their teammates demonstrated their newly identified traits on the field this afternoon.

We will have a training session tomorrow morning and then have some special plans in the making for the next couple days… we have to meet with Frank, but we’re pretty excited about the rest of the trip.

Coach Douglass and Coach Parry