Cant sleep post

Well we got home safely tonight. Problem is the 9 hr time difference. So I am awake and I know today will be hectic, so I figured I would do a couple summary posts. I do not see any negatives that came out of this trip. Even the little bits of home sickness we had are a positive. These girls grew in som many ways from this journey. Everything from navigating the Metro sysytem of a big city to being forced to spend an unusual amount of time together with a teammate to trying new food and new languages as well. A few of the parents said they were shocked how well the entire experience all transpired. The girls handled everything so maturely and I really enjoyed watching them handle the things inside as well as outside of the sport of it all. I think the trip there knocked some of the girls back quit a bit and some fought exhaustion and some fought sickness. But that first monday morning training session, I saw most of the girls getting back to their usual self. We toured some that day and then took the bus ride to our first match. Club Europa was a physical and fast team. They were a couple years older and a combination of their best 2 teams according to their coach. The reason we played all older teams is because girls our kids age are still playing football 7's (7v7). I have never seen organized pressure like that from any AZ, let alone a CalSouth team for that matter. They were organized and skillful. We assisted them on a handful of goals. Jordi changed up our possesions on defense that morning and we did our best to work it out in the match. Jordi expressed how impressed he was that we implemented it that quickly and we stuck with it, even in the face of opposition. I walked away from that match with nothing but positive feelings. We can't find talent and teams like that to play in the states. It was real football. Tuesday was even better from settling in to the time difference. We trained that morning and had a good offensive session with Jordi. After that we changed and toured the Museum and Camp Nou. This was apparently Savannah's highlight of the trip. This took awhile and then back on the bus back up to Valvidrerra, in the hills overlooking Barcelona. This field is nice turf but is comparable to Westside complex for field size. Espanyol is the other major club from Barcelona. Their men are in 5th place in La Liga. Their Futbol Feminino program is one of the best in Spain, so we were anxious to play them. Come to find out from some of the parents they are having some issues, and this team is close to falling apart. This allegedgly is why they no showed us at Valvidrerra. It was ok though, We made lemonade out of the situation. They also had goals set up for futbol 7's so we played ourselves for an hour. We had been learning as coaches the transitions from 7's to 11's and how they compliment each other, so I set them up and let them play. They loved it! They played so hard and were so skillful. They used all their energy and hopped on the bus to head to the Champions League game. The atmosphere was electric just driving up to Camp Nou. The girls were singing barca songs the whole way. They enjoyed the match and chanted along with the crowd the whole time. It was cool for them to see 6 goals scored. After the match we hung out at the stadium and took pics. As we left the girls all had their arms around each other and were skipping down the ramps singing "Cant del Barca". People were recording them and taking pictures, they were a sight. After that we took a quick pic in front of our barca crest on the camp nou exterior. Wednesday was similar with training and sightseeing. This day was different because we knew we played Barca's girls that night. When we arrived at CD Almeda's complex there were boys teams training everywhere. We just watched and took it in for the first 30 minutes. Facility was top notch and a full size pitch. I don't think we have ever played on a pitch this big before. They gave us our locker rooms to change into prior to the match and while the girls were changing, they began to wet down the fields and pump in some American hip hop music. It is a tradition in Spain to wet the fields before and at half time of the matches to keep the fields slick and the ball moving quicky. Taylor and a couple girls were so pumped by the evironment they asked if I could request them to leave the music playing. They Barca girls came and got us prior to gametime and took pictures with us and exchanged banners and we all clapped for the supporters. They scored in 50 seconds on us as they picked off a pass in our backfield. The girls settled after this and held them scoreless for a half hour. We played 45 min halves since we didn't want the experience to end. 90 minutes on a full size pitch and our girls were awesome. I have never walked away from a game with such pride of this team. These girls were doing things with the ball that we dont see 16-17 year old boys do in the States. We applauded some of their goals. We just really enjoyed every moment of the experience. That match was by far the highlight of my trip. Everything seemed to come together in that game and I saw girls do things they didn't think they could do and it was inspiring to see what the Barca girls are capable of as well. Anyway, I'll give you another blog tomorrow with the remainder of the trip. Thanks again for the sacrifices from the parents to make this trip for our girls possible. I thank each and everyone of you.