Friday

So today we woke up late and went to the training grounds next to Camp Nou. Jordi and Arnau took us thru tactical movements and drills the whole afternoon. Worked us thru movements and how to coach them thru the defensive, middle and attacking thirds. From there we went downtown and went to lunch and a futbol store. After that we had a scheduled friendly for the boys in Valldoreix. Spanish futbol in general is amazing to watch. FC Barcelona is the peak of that sport in this world, but to watch these smaller clubs that feed into the top clubs is equally impressive. We watched San Cugat and Club Esportiu Valldoreix tonight and it was flawless Spanish futbol. Skills and movement are all consistent with 99% of Spanish futbol. Inspiring and impressive to watch. I can only hope to bring back as much of this as possible to implement.

Ciutat Esportiva

Tonight we made it back out to the training facility to watch our LA acadmey 11 year old boys who are the current Surf Cup champs play Barca's same age boys. LA academy pressured them for the first 10 minutes and Barca sat back and knocked the ball around. Finally they turned it up on LA. The final result wasn't pretty. I lost count. These world class Barca boys were a treat to watch. They truly are a machine. We also watched futsal and their basketball operations as we waited for the friendly to begin. After the match we hung out and watched a few other training sessions. I know one of the goal keeper trainers and I spoke with him and watched his keeper sessions. They were awesome. Also watched Oscar (our coach 08) and his team train. So many teams to watch and so little time.

morning session

We just wrapped up our morning coaches session and stadium and museum tour. Stadium and museum shockingly haven't gotten old yet. Coaches session was great. Jordi and Arnau ran it. Got some really good points to stress and new drills to develop. Miguel is an assistant coach at Sabadell (suburb of Barcelona and a 2nd div. team.) has asked if I would like to come watch their training tomorrow and thursday for their coaches session. Trying to work that it. Greg and I will now grab a late lunch and then head over the ciutat for the rest of the eve to watch all of Barca academy train. Ciao

1st day of 2012 trip

So we flew over here and got off the plane and it was Sunday morning. Greg and I made it to the hotel and checked in and then took the tram to the ciutat esportiva (Barca's training facility) and watched a few academy games. From there we came back to hotel and took a power nap. Arnau has a good friend that trains for Espanyol (another La Liga 1st division team from Barcelona) and he got Greg , Arnau and I into the VIP level to watch their match against Malaga ( a newly purchased team by a middle eastern billionaire that is trying to buy/build a powerhouse team). Espanyol fans are younger and full of energy. Stadium was singing and chanting the entire match. Ton of fun. From there we drove straight over to the miniestadi (wilipedia it if you want more info). Barca played Alcoryon (sp?) and won 2-1 and recently fired Chelsea boss, AVB, was sitting down in front of us. Jordi, Arnau and Miguel (goalkeeper coach) sat with us and enjoyed ourselves. Going to get some sleep now. Waking up and heading off to first day of training at same complex as last year. After that is lunch and heading back out to the ciutat to film some of Barca's academy teams. Bon nit!

Still cant sleep so here are more pics

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.

Friday and Saturday

Sorry I missed yesterday. Last two days were spent watching professional Futbol and being a tourist. From a Futbol perspective we were able to watch 2 professional matches and see what we have learned over the past week and apply it to what we have been working on for the past years and see it executed to perfection. The beauty of the Barca system from the Escola to the Academy and all the way to the first team, it all is the same. It was refreshing to see the girls coach we played against, to Luis Enrique (Barca B's coach) to Pep Guardiola correct and encourage the same shapes and movements. It has been an amazing experience and I am curious to see the girls application of all this information they have been exposed to. They are a great group of young ladies and I am lucky to get to work with this group and am blessed for my daughter to count them as friends.