Kevin's Blog

Wifi

Posted: July 9, 2011 in Germany 2011, Tourists in Germany

Well, sitting here with 7 of the players and trying to get them to help write it. They suggested something about a fake jail story… rejected.

Today was ‘Zer Gute’ and very busy. We checked out of the Frankfurt Hostel and drove to Bacharach. We boarded a KD-Line boat and cruised to St. Goar. The Rhine river was awesome. Cheryl and I shared some incredible Reisling. After a lunch in St. Goar (schnitzel again which I like a lot), we toured Rheinfels castle. It was extremely cool. I mean really, really cool.

We had a long drive – 4 hours – and arrived in southern Germany. Augsburg is an old Roman town located in Bavaria. We watched Japan win their match with Germany in a little club in downtown Ausburg. Very interesting observing the young German crowd.

Oh, why the title wifi? The players spend a fair amount of time trying to find wifi. This hostel has free wifi. Check Facebook for a lot of posts..

Pics…

TSG 51 – Learning What Club Means

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.

We Made the Frankfurt Newspaper

Posted: July 8, 2011 in Football Team in Germany, Germany 2011, Tourists in Germany

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.

Dinner at Adolf Wagner

Posted: July 7, 2011 in Germany 2011, Tourists in Germany

It’s 12:24am Friday morning and I’m tired. Curfew was at 11pm for the players. Later this morning, my amazing wife Cheryl will go to the players’ rooms and wake them at 7:30. Breakfast is at 8 and we board the bus at 9.

We will train a short session in the morning and return to our hostel. We have a match against TSG 51 with a 5pm kickoff. We will have dinner afterwards at the TSG 51 clubhouse

This evening, we walked about 15 minutes through Frankfurt to Adolf Wagner’s restaurant. Nearly everyone has the schnitzel which was amazing. Phenomenal dinner tonight!

Walked back and found ourselves a nice ice cream vendor.

Girls are good. Very glad we have Udo with us – he is a great tour guide! And our bus driver is extremely talented – the man can drive a huge bus though tiny streets with amazing ease.

Walking home, there is this cool looking old place that is a wine cellar rathskellar. It was said that the building is from the 1200s..

Training at Eintracht Frankfurt

Posted: July 7, 2011 in Football Team in Germany, Germany 2011, Tourists in Germany

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.