Captain's Log:
Once again...an age has passed since a post stopped by this site. I have not finished my Holland trip yet...and if I remember correctly, I predicted that this would happen--just like it did when I got back from Germany and started writing about that trip.
I actually decided to post today, on Veteran's Day, to thank all of the men and women in our armed services for their contribution to the furtherance of our freedom and liberty. Against all odds (terrorists, communists, democrats, etc.), the United States military continues to be the best in the world and does a fine job of maintaining the safety of the American public. Thanks to all of those who have served or are currently serving our nation, and God Bless America!
Much has happened in two months. In my last post I talked about Bernard Cornwell's new book, Sword Song. It is very good. I finished the Shannara book I was reading as well as the Children of Hurin. Not much reading going on these days though, for I must finish my semester of school work before I can enjoy myself.
The Lady Crusader's did well this season. They won four or five games and came close on four others. The FCC Cup defending champs did not do as well as one might hope. They were unceremoniously booted from the playoffs by a stronger Land O' Lakes school. With 3-0 being the final score, it would appear that we did not even show up to the game...or we played with the same style that carried us to two wins, four ties, and two losses during the regular season. That stellar style that allowed the midfield to disappear in the middle of a game and the opponent's score to be rather high. Oh well, we do not lose anybody from this year to the next, so I am sure we will be much better.
The World of Soccer:
Today in Italy, a fan was shot and killed by a police officer in a riot. The policeman claimed the slaying was an accident which occurred while he was firing warning shots into an angry riot... Two games were postponed (Roma/Cagliari and Lazio/Inter Milan) because of the incident which took place outside the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan. AC Milan's game was cut short by the officials because the fans became belligerent and threatened to overcome the crowd barriers and charge the field. That game only made it 7 minutes before it was called. The victim of the shooting was a 26-year-old disc jockey from Rome.
Back to Holland:
Day Eight - 26 July 07
We had breakfast at the hotel again, which was equally as good as the days before, because the selection was exactly the same. The bus drove us to Haarlem again today, and we toured around the city for a few hours. After lunch in the city, we went to the fields for our two matches of the day. Both matches were against US teams and we tied both...I was very upset, because we could have beaten both easily.
The friendship village that night was a nightmare...again. We went their for dinner, because it was opening ceremony night. All of the athletes from all of the countries gathered on a practice field, and one by one all of the teams marched into the stadium for the big ceremony. We were standing in a massive crowd with the rest of the United States players. This was not just soccer night either. Every sport was represented by every athlete competing. Since we were supposed to keep our teams together, the whole time I was trying to keep my players from running off to talk to girls on the other teams and other countries. One of my players speaks flawless Spanish, so he had a huge edge over the rest of the guys when they met the girl's soccer teams from Spain. After an hour of constant vigilance on the practice field, we ran in and stood inside for an hour listening to people and music through a sound system that nearly deafened me permanently. I was only too happy for the event to end, so that we could pack up and go back to the hotel.
After room checks, I was up until 0130 doing player evaluations. The evaluations consisted of comments and measurements of the players skills and attitude during the entire trip (on and off field). Once I finally got to sleep, it was so nice.
***
That is all the time I have for tonight, though hopefully I will be back soon to finish the last three days of the journey to Holland.
Later,
Lorimer
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