Football in Aland...

After the 48 hours were over...we were off on Wednesday and went to the gym; we go to the gym whenever you want during the day.

Thursday I was picked up at 7:30am...we had training indoors, I just wore my running shoes.  We did warms up, possession (5 v 5) with two people standing on the outside for wall passes.  Coach was on the side further away from the goal.  He picked a defender to stand on the other side for wall passes.  Whenever a team hits up to 5 consecutive passes, whoever has the ball after the 5th pass goes attack on the goal, another player on the same team goes.  So it was 2v1.  After that we added on to 3v2 and so on.  For you all footballers back in the US get this; those who do not, it is always the attacker (forward, my position) number is always first, and the number of defenders is always second.  So 3v2 means 3 forwards and 2 defenders.  We did that majority of the hour.  The last 15-20 minutes we did 6 v 6 with smaller goals (i think they were a little bigger than lacrosse goals but not an actual football goal.)

Later that night, I had my first professional football experience.  We had a scrimmage against the 2nd best team here in Aland, (remember I am on an island so when I say around here, that means just on the island). We won 4-0.  I was impressed by the team because we have a lot of young players.  Youngest is 16.  Here in Europe you are done with high school by the age of 16 and you have the option of pursuing a football career, going to college for two years then to an university.  Schooling over here is a lot different than I thought.  I am not going to lie, I really envy the younger girls in a good way though.  I am so glad they have the option that I did not have at 16.  In America, it is so important to go to college if you want a real stable job (paying wise) to be able to live on your own.  Here, you can get a job anywhere and be able to live on your own.  The oldest here is 30, she is the fastest on our team, from England.  You wouldn't believe how fast she is...in track in the 100 she runs probably a little over 11 flat.

During our game, we played two halves of 30 minutes.  Usually in a full soccer game there are two 45 minute halves.   The first goal was by the left outside mid who is 18 years old and a lefty...it was a beautiful goal right inside the 18 by the left side.  The second goal the left mid was on a break away to the goal then passed me the ball right inside the 18..about 10-12 yards out and took a shot to the right corner....then the 3rd and 4th goals were penalty kicks... The 4th PK I was on a break away down the sideline and no one was on me because they thought it was gonna end up out but I made it and crossed it and it hit a defenders hand.

Overall, it was a good performance but our season opener isn't til April 10th so we have a lot of work to do and a lot of improvement along the way.  Two americans are coming on Tuesday and I am so excited to get our final roster finalized and get started with pre-season.

Things are looking good as far as the players go.  There are players from Norway, Sweden, the US, England and a few others that I am not sure of yet.  We had a girl from England playing with us the last couple days but she left today to go back to England.  She was trying out to get a taste of the island to see if it was something she wanted to do.  She wasn't sure if she wanted to leave England to play, but dear lord, I hope she ends up coming, she would play a critical role on our team.  She is amazing, she plays for the U23 England national team.  So hopefully next week I will hear some good news from her :)

After the game we did 4 sets of running,...sprint for 2 minutes rest for 25 seconds, sprint for a minute and half rest for 25 seconds,  sprint for a minute rest for 25 seconds, sprint for 30 secs then rest for 3 minutes and repeat 3 more times.  It actually wasn't too bad but with me playing a real soccer game for the first ttime in a couple years, with the jetlag, only less than 72 hours later, the girls told me to stop after the first one.  I said no I'm fine, they were like NO sit down you have to be soooo tired just relax and you will catch up with us in a week or so, no worries.  I can't emphasize how awesome these girls are so far :)

Last night we had training at 5 and we trained for about 2 hours, we worked mainly on the midfield then did some 7v7 then more running! Ugh, we had to run 8 laps around the full soccer field in 12 minutes and again my body is exhausted but I refused to let myself stop, I ended up only doing 7.  I will be able to do it in a week after I recover from the jetlag :)  I usually wouldn't say jetlag is an excuse because it's my first time in Europe, IT REALLY does affect you!!  You'd be surprised!

That is all so far :)

ps. since I will be blogging a lot and such I barely go back and edit it.  After I post the first blog I realized there were a LOT of grammar and spelling mistakes but people kept saying you need a blog up NOW haha so I wrote that one really fast!!  Hope you all are enjoying reading this!! Miss you all!