In our final week of training, things really started to become real. It had become only a matter of days before all the work that had been put in over the last 4 months would finally be going towards something. We continued to work on tactical aspects of our game and the way we would play in order for us to compete against some top level competition. As you can imagine, the week flew by and soon enough we were on our way. It wasn’t before we cleaned up the apartment and took the van to get cleaned. We also attempted to finish as much of the food we had bought so it wouldn’t go to waste. This made for some great meals!

For all of those who have not been following along as closely, for the next 24 days, I will be playing with a team (Bridges FC) of players some of whom are pursuing professional contracts. We will play 9 games during this period of time where we will have many scouts from around Scandinavia come and watch. For most of the guys, the hope is to perform well enough to gain interest from teams we play against, or these scouts that come to watch. At any stage during the trip, players could leave the group to go on trial or sign with a team here. Our games will be in Denmark and Sweden. There are a number of players on the team who are still eligible for College Soccer in the USA so they are here for the experience and exposure for future opportunity. Our first game is on Tuesday July 4th against Sønderjyske. This will be followed by a game on Wednesday July 5th against our hosts,  HB Køge. Hopefully for regular game updates, you can follow our teams twitter,

Saturday was the day, as we all arrived at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport for our 10pm flight to Copenhagen. A comparatively short flight compared to usual for me being only 7hrs, however it really messed with timing as we had dinner at 12am and then the lights were only off for 3hrs before we were up again for breakfast, and then landed just before 1pm. Once we landed our group grew by an additional 5 members as we met other guys who would be joining us on the trip. As everyone waited, I was one of the dedicated van drivers and so we headed off to get the rental vans. Of course my one would be manual, and having only ever driven a manual on the other side of the road, I was worried about the unnatural gear changing with the right hand. It didn’t turn out to be a problem, but figuring out how to get it into reverse was. I got there eventually, and we piled up the vans and off we went through the countryside of Denmark to HB Køge, our accommodation for the next 24 days. Thankfully it wasn’t a long drive and we arrived safely and got ourselves situated in he gymnasium. Our mattresses are big gym mats which aren’t bad at all to be fair. The key now was stay awake until it was time for sleep so that I could get my body clock sorted, so I headed out with a couple others to do a massive grocery shop for dinner and food for a couple days. Feeding 30 isn’t easy, but we won’t go starving, thats for sure. Once we returned, we went for a nice light jog and stretch on some of the practice fields behind the stadium. The facilities are brilliant with lots of fields, and all grass. It was great to get the legs going thats for sure. A nice big team dinner before a tactics session where most of the lads were battling to stay awake before it was time to hit the hay. Daylight hours are from 4am till about 11pm, so that will certainly take some getting used to.

For all updates, this is where you’ll want to come. Depending on how things go, I may increase the amount of posts I do just to fit in everything that is going on! And don’t worry, by next post I will have taken many photos!