Day 3!!

Tuesday August 18th

Rangers day! An opportunity of a life time! Our great friend, Martin, was able to cash in more then a few personal favors to arrange a match against the Glasgow Rangers under nineteen squad. Not only was he able to arrange the match, but he was able to arrange the match at the Rangers professional football training grounds at Murray Park.

(Courtesy of wikipedia)

Murray Park: The site covers a size of thirty-eight acres (over fifteen hectares). It is divided into three areas: the administration wing, the professional wing for the first team and the youth development wing. The professional and youth wings have their own separate receptions, dining areas, changing rooms, kit stores and lecture rooms. Both share facilities including the gym, medical suite and the indoor synthetic pitch.
Outside there are six full size pitches along with two half sized ones and a practice area. Two of the full-sized and one half-sized pitch are used just by the first team, these have undersoil heating, the others are used by the youth sides.
The state-of-the-art gym equipment, costing £150,000, are all linked to a computer system which can activate a personalised fitness programme for individual players. The gym also houses an isokinetic machine, which allows players to work out despite being injured by testing muscle strength and reactions. There is a hydrotherapy pool that has an angled, moveable floor and a series of massage jets and currents that allows a range of rehabilitation exercises to take place.
There is also a media editing suite costing £50,000 which is where a video analyst will video each training session. The footage will be used to conduct tactical lessons in the lecture room afterwards.
From a coach's perspective Murray park is one of the most amazing soccer-only facilities I've ever seen. It is where the Glasgow Rangers players - one of the most storied soccer teams in the World! - (as well as the youth and reserves players) train, eat, rest, and rehab in preparation for their Scottish premier league matches. It was truly an eye opening experience for the Bantams. We all were able to get a behind the scenes look of the day-to-day life of a professional footballer.

We pulled up to the facility and we were shown our locker-room and began getting ready for the game. After about twenty minutes or so we noticed someone in our locker room that we all instantly recognized as Maurice Edu. Maurice is an American playing for the Rangers first team and an amazing talent. Once many of the boys got over the initial shock (the star struck individuals will remain unnamed) Maurice just settled in and chatted with the boys. He answered every question they had for him…including: "When you play FIFA 2009…do you ever play yourself?"; true comedy ensued when Maurice questioned exactly what he was being asked.

The thing that really stuck a chord with me was the absolute class Maurice showed. This is a guy that plays in front of tens of thousands of players (sometimes three times a week), plays against some of the best players in the world, he'll participate in the 09/10 Champions League, and will represent the US in the next world cup. He is a real celebrity in Glasgow...we found him humble and truly appreciative of the opportunity he's been given in Scotland. I know that we all we were proud of him for representing American soccer so well. Maurice gained a lot of fans this day.

Check out his wiki page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Edu

Ok on to the game…the stroll out to the field was amazing. The care put into the practice fields was the same as (if not better than) what is put into the Yankee stadium infield. After a good warm up both squads were ready to play…in more fine Scottish weather (light rain). The Rangers lined up in a 4-4-2 formation and we started the game in a 4-5-1 with two of our midfielders holding defensively. We expected them to be extremely organized and come at us and we felt a defensive formation would allow us to get our feet under us and ease into the pace of the game.

The Rangers had much of the play for the first 5-10 minutes (quality chances to goal were few) until we got used to our surroundings and their direct style of play. They didn’t spend too much time moving the ball through the mid-field and opted to play quickly over the top of our backs. Once the game settled down for us we were able to get forward and have a few real chances at goal. Just when it seemed that we were making a real match of it Mike and I began to notice that substitutions were needed badly as jet lag was taking a strong hold of the boys. We tried to keep fresh legs in through the end of the first half but the boys found that their constant defense coupled with attempting quick counter attacks pushed them further into exhaustion (this is what coaches call getting stretched out!). The Rangers finally scored with less the five minutes left, and then again just seconds before the referee blew the halftime whistle.

The second half was more of the same from us; defense and counter, and the boys couldn't make the adjustment to deal with the Rangers fitness and organization. Everyone fought hard but found that their legs would not respond given everyone's level of jet-lag. We allowed two more goals before Jeff Stuart drove a left footed cross into the eighteen yard box and Sam Wisner was able to control the ball and tuck it neatly into the Rangers net. We could not keep up the joy and momentum this goal created. Further (fatigue related) organizational breakdowns all over the field allowed the Rangers their two final goals.

After a quick cool down and stretching session we headed back toward the locker-room to shower up before having lunch and taking a tour of the facility. We were invited to have lunch in the lunch room of the U-19 squad. As we were enjoying our lunches were greeted again by Maurice but this time he brought along fellow teammate, fellow American, fellow National team pool player, Champions League Semi-Final participant (with PSV Eindhoven)…DeMarcus Beasley. It was another thrill for everyone, and another photo-op, to chat with two fantastic American players that have made great names for themselves in Europe. Again, both guys were class acts and casually mingled with us during lunch.

So this has been a pretty long post as far as blogging goes….but the day was truly special. Martin was able to arrange a magnificent experience for the Bantams, one I don't suspect anyone will forget…For one of the Old Firm teams to open their doors, treat us with absolute respect, provide lunch, an all-access tour of the facility…essentially rolling out the red carpet for us, and create memories that will last a life time…I've run out of words to express how wonderful this day truly was. Thank you Rangers and thank you Maurice Edu!!

The day ended with a few hours of leisure in Glasgow. We made sure to leave Glasgow prior to the Champions League match of Celtic v. Arsenal coupled with a U2 concert later that evening….the city was certainly buzzing, and the related traffic was something we wanted no part of. The team got together later in the evening to watch Arsenal beat Celtic 2-0