United We Stand

Once again it is up for an English breakfast then off to a busy day in both Liverpool and Manchester. The highlight of the day for many of the boys was the visit to the home of Manchester United.

Before the trip to Manchester; however, there was the business at hand of matches against the Transmere Football Club in the Liverpool area. The boys arrived at the fields in the shadows of the TFC stadium, ready and eager to play some football. The matches were good and we all enjoyed the hospitality and conversation with many of the TFC fans.

Then it was off the highlight of the day and even the trip for many of the boys, a visit to Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. Upon arrival, the sharp contrasts between Old Trafford and Anfield, where we had visited the day before, were clearly evident. While Anfield oozed hundreds of years of history and the simplicity of wood, Old Trafford was anything but old and gleamed with a modern look of steel. The stadium tour was fascinating and the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves; with many taking the opportunity to sit in the coaching chair of Sir Alex Ferguson, who we had just seen the evening before at the match, in the Home dugout.

Then taking merchandising to an extreme, we were treated to a real mega-store, where you could almost literally buy anything and everything (which a lot of boys tried to do) with Manchester United on it. There were many bags loaded onto the bus.

Then it was back to the dormitories for a quick rest before a dinner in downtown Liverpool. The group visited the restaurant owned by Jamie Carragher, of the Liverpool Football Club, and had an absolutely fabulous meal with much chatter, friendship, and camaraderie. A quick walk through downtown, including seeing the statue dedicated to Eleanor Rigby of Beatles fame, and it was back to the dorms to pack up and prepare for the trip back to Ireland.

That’s all for now.

U13 Boys Game Report - 07/30/08

This was a fast paced game with Wrexham applying a lot of pressure early in the game. Again it was a small team but fast and tough playing. After a couple of great saves by Ravon the team picked up their level of play after the 1st 15 minutes. A great pass from Grayson to Brennan almost scored a goal but was batted away at the last minute. Josh and Christopher continued with the pressure with another close ball putting their goalie to work.

Then a a ball intercepted by Connor D in defense was carried through 3 defenders for a picture perfect ball in front of the goal for tap in by Keaton to have us on the board. 1-0.

Ryan held up and almost had a break way but was robbed by the goalie. Then Grayson had a beautiful cross to Keaton to have the final goal leading to a 2-0 victory.

U14 Boys Game Report - 07/30/08

Suffice to say this game could be called “The Wreck at Wrexham.” It is unfortunate that ALL the boys happened to leave their games either in Ireland or on the bus from all the travel. They looked slow and tired against a very good team from Wrexham. Adding to their woes was the fact that the Wrexham team also had two guest players using this game as their tryout for entry into the Liverpool Academy program on a full-time basis. From our opinion, the will likely make the Academy. Our boys were dominated from start to finish and ended up on the wrong side of a 7-0 scoreline. The game was never really close as the Wrexham team came out fired up and aggressive versus our boys who came out flat and looking very tired. Give Wrexham their due, this was a very, very good football team. No additional details are really necessary and we hope the boys will pick it up again tomorrow and get back on track.