We are enjoying a rest period in the middle of our last day. Girls slept in today. Today’s agenda was shopping in Frankfurt in the morning and then later a match in the evening in Heidelberg. Cheryl and I took a group of ‘late sleepers’ shopping in Frankfurt.
Hopefully the girls will all wake up enough to play a decent match. I think the girls will rise to the occasion. We’ll see.
First, the morning paper standings for the 2011 WM. What does 2011 WM mean? World Meister!
USA! USA! USA! What a crazy day! I’m struggling to remember every thing we did
Started the day with a few of us attending Mass at St. Mary’s Dom (cathedral). Enjoyed this a lot- about 1/4 in Latin and 3/4 in German. Very traditional service in a massive gothic cathedral.
We headed off to the Augsburg Stadium and watched Australia vs Sweden. Nearly all of the team dressed in Australia colors to protest the Sweden win over the USA. Amazing seats, great conversations trying to speak German on the stands and at the concessions. Amazing afternoon. Sweden deserved to win – very few mistakes.
We got back to the Augsburg hostel, had an early dinner (it was very good), and went off to this bar that has good people and a nice big screen. Americans took over the place and it was wild. Chanting and screaming. And some how, the USA pulled it out! Amazing!
Took a walk through downtown Augsburg – kind of a small cosmopolitan area with a lot of diversity. Lots of people stopped us to congratulate us.
Did I mention we have tickets to the USA vs France game Wednesday?
And a quick summary schedule for our remaining trip subject to change and adjustment:
Mon: Tour Bavaria – Fussen and Munich
Tue: Romantic Road back to Frankfurt
Wed: World Cup Day
Thur: Harry Potter and play match against Villa Astoria.
Today, we sampled life. We had tears of joy, old familiar traditions in an entirely new setting and experiences that are life changing and will forever alter our view of the world for the better.
Finally, pics…
We played a match this evening with TSG 51, a small club just outside Frankfurt. We played well and came out of it with a strong win. Our girls played a nice possession game and moved the ball well. We finished very well too. This might have been the most fun activity for us so far. For the record, we got goals from: Mercedes, Amanda, Summer, Tara, Sarah and Lauren. Entire team made these goals possible.
Tonight, we learned what “club” really means. TSG 51 has their own fields, locker rooms and their own club house. Being a member of this club is not an annual decision. Members stay members for a long time. Supporting the club for generations keeps costs far, far lower than what we’re used to. How about $25 registration fees and $15/month training fees? And how about a club where you go and have dinner and socialize with your friends? Pictures below…
A competitive night of foosball. Michael our bus driver is a talented player.
Girls cleaned up in lockers before dinner. Picture here with their goalkeeper.
Session this morning with the third former professional coach. Coach Cesar (spelling is definitely wrong) is from Poland and ran the session in German, Polish and French. Girls did fine.
And we found out we made the paper! On the front of the sports section, an article on Eintracht Frankfurt’s session yesterday started by talking about us. One of our players was quoted as saying “Oh my God, what are they doing?”
The last picture is our hostel.
After leaving the stadium and rushing lunch back at the hostel, we have traveled to Eintracht Frankfurt’s youth facility where a week long camp is underway. I’ll post more pictures when I can, but wanted to get at a few up.
We got Layne (Lauren’s little sister) working out with a group her age and she rocked. I saw 1 goal for sure – she did very well.
The team worked out with Coach Norbert, a former player with Bayern-Munich. And let me add that we are being treated very well.
Oh, and the weather today is amazing. Sunny, cool and breezy.
We trained a second session later with coach Gary. Wish I had more details on Gary, buy I don’t. He played professionally somewhere… Gary is the director of the Eintracht Frankfurt Youth Program.
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