Day 2!

Monday August 17th

The weary travelers arrive! Thanks to Continental for an extremely comfortable trip. Snacks, dinner, a selection of 44 movies made the 6 hour trip an enjoyable bit of travel. After breezing though customs/immigration, at Glasgow International Airport, we collected our luggage and met our Scottish connection; Martin Tierney.

Martin runs a first-class operation, www.soccerexperience.com, which focuses on creating soccer memories abroad. Mike and I befriended him three years ago when the 2006 Bantams traveled to Spain. He is passionate about the game and even more passionate to share his worldwide perspective on the game. You'll commonly here Martin admit "he's not a business man, he's a Soccer man."

After some quick introductions Martin escorted us towards our bus and noted that the weather couldn't be more beautiful and that we were experiencing a fine Scottish summer day (cloud cover and light rain). We loaded the bus and arrived in the town of Ayr. After checking into our rooms we were all afforded a much needed nap as we had a training session scheduled for later that day.

After a quick siesta we all arose, collected our gear, and headed towards a quaint little football club. Upon entering the facility we were lead past the social gathering area ( pool tables, flat screen & projector televisions for members to follow their favorite football club) and towards the football pitches (all field turf) where we divided ourselves, including Mike and I, up for some 7 a side action.

The first several games were played at a very high level with everyone moving the ball around very well; especially given that most the boys hadn't played together since the spring. As coaches, it was encouraging to see everyone with high energy levels and a desire play some quality footy. After about 100 minutes or so it was clear that jet lag was taking its toll on the quality of play and we opted to call the session to an end a few minutes early. We had an exciting match versus the Glasgow Rangers U-19 squad the next day and we wanted to keep bodies and minds fresh.