Virginia Legacy European Tour 2008

U13 Wizards & Phoenix Teams to Visit Germany and Holland April 2nd,2008 

European Tour Blog - Day 10- Final Blog
Hey Everyone,  We have completed our Euro 2008 Trip and it has been a tremendous experience to say the least.  We really lucked out with the weather as it only rained one morning for the entire trip.  The games were a success as we went undefeated on the girls and boys side.   The pro games were a great experience for everyone with Bielefeld winning 1-0 in injury time and FC Saint Pauli getting a historic 5-0 win at their home field.  We also had the privilege of watching Werder Bremen train one morning, being so close that the ball even sailed into our group.  We toured the Bremen stadium as well as Ajax in Amsterdam.  Truly a memorable experience.  Our bus driver was first class (Clause) and our tour guide was a gem.  Roland served as our tour guide and translator and made the experience all the more memorable.  We really can’t thank Eurotech enough for their efforts.  The kids and parents seemed to enjoy themselves and the kids now have memories that will last a lifetime.  On another note, any time you have 46 people traveling there are bound to be some bumps in the road.  We had a few injuries that turned out to be not as bad as we thought, Skylar with her bruised knee and Ashley with her bruised arm that we got an x-ray of just to be sure.  Our last night in Amsterdam we got stiffed on the buffet, had to reshuffle all the room assignments and lost a room key down the elevator shaft, but hey these things happen.  Finally, I want to take an opportunity to thank everyone for making the trip with us.  All the parents and kids were great.  We had a great group and I will always remember this trip and what a great time it was.  Many thanks to Eurotech for putting such a great tour together, Marinda Popp for writing our daily blogs, Roland Crump who was our amazing guide, Clause who got us safely to each destination, Chad and Ryan for keeping the kids in line, and lastly to our official photographer, Mike Segala, for documenting our entire trip.  I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and hope you will help pass the torch on to next year’s group.  Thanks again and see you on the field.     

European Tour Blog - Day 8- Thursday, April 10th
Moin Moin,Today it was another nice and sunny day. We had breakfast at 8 a.m. and left at 9 a.m. for Oldenburg. It is the main town in the Weser Ems Region. It has a population of 150,000. Oldenburg is one of the few German cities not destroyed in the bombing raids of World War II. It was also the first German city to have a pedestrian zone. There we were free to roam for about two and a half hours. We go to see the town, go shopping, and view the town church. At around 12 p.m. we left to go back to the Sports Schule for lunch. On our way home we made an unexpected stop at the hospital for Ashley Pierce to have her arm x-rayed. We dropped her Mom, Coach Chad and our “linguistic expert”, Roland off at the Cloppenburg Hospital. The rest of us returned for lunch and then the players changed and we headed off to a friendly. On the way we made another fast stop to pick our x-ray group. The x-ray didn’t reveal anything to prevent her from playing. Oesede was the team they played against. There was only one pitch so the girls played first, the boys second. The girls won 3-0!!! The boys won 4-1!!!  Both boys and girls leave Germany undefeated, each being 4-0! The boys played three “halves” due to the large size of the Oesede team. We gave the Oesede teams VA Legacy t-shirts, the girls especially liked them and had all of our girls, the coaches and some of the boys sign them. We even got the Oesede coaches name and his contact information, in the hopes of them coming to a VLSC camp for a week, details to follow. This was our last friendly here and we played great!!! Word-substitute Translation- ersatzpieler
Marinda Popp

European Tour Blog - Day 6- Tuesday, April 8th
Guten Tag, - We started off the day at 8 a.m. for breakfast. we then left at 9 a.m. for Munster (not the home of Munster cheese). In any given day some 100 thousand Leeze (bicycles) wheel through the city streets, (Mr Michael manage not to get struck by one while photographing our day). There we broke off into groups of our choice. Some of us went into the Cathedral, Dom St Paul. We were all able to wander around the city, go shopping, eat German cuisine, and walk through the market place. While there Jordan Chapman got to meet up with two of her relatives, her mothers cousin, Doris, and her Great Uncle. We left at around 3:10 p.m. to go back to the Sports Schule. After we got back the boys and girls team scrimmaged each other and both coaches. We had two guest players, an English man by the name of Roland, aka our linguistic expert, Mr. David Trott, and Chris aka Scro. The boys won 5-2! Everyone was working hard and having fun! It was great to watch the game. Addittional joy was realized that our package form St. Pauli FC arrived!!!!!  Word- win Translation- gewinn  - Marinda and Michael

European Tour Blog - Day 5- Monday, April 7th
Moin Moin (hello),
We started off the day with breakfast at 8 a.m. We left at 9 a.m. to go to Cloppenburg. The population there is 35-36 thousand. We took the scenic route there and got the privilege to stop for a quick break at Clauses’ (the bus drivers) home village, Selvelten, which has a population of 1,400. We also got to see his house. After our stop there we finished our drive to Museumdorf in Cloppenburg. There we split into two groups and learned about life in the 1800s, similar to Jamestown. Both groups had tour guides that spoke fluent English! After the tour we had lunch at the museum restaurant. We had a traditional German meal of potatoes sautéed in onions, pomme frites, snitzle, sauerkraut, and vegetables. We also had dessert, ice cream, with berries and whipped cream. It was great!  Everyone ate well! We then took the coach back to the Sports Schule for a few hours of free time. Some people were wondering if there were any stables that they could visit. And our trusty driver Clause knew just who to phone. Twenty minutes later a small group was off to Gestut Sprehe, a "keeping stallions, breeding and sport marketing, training", facility, some of the horses there sell for 65-75 thousand dollars. Once the horse fans returned to the school, and we were told about what we had missed we all wished we had gone too. We left the Sports Schule at around 4:30 p.m. to go to a friendly against Tgshusbäke. The boys were dropped off first, and then Clause made his way to the girl’s venue. We think that the girl’s team played against 14 & 15 year olds. The game was tough because the field was full of divots. The score was 2-0. GO U13’s!!!! The boys played 13 &14 year olds. Their magic number was also 2-0. Rumor has it their goalie was 16, at least by the size of him! After that we headed back to the Sports Schule and had dinner waiting for us! auf Wiedersehen! To help you get a better feel for what we experience everyday, I am starting a Word of the Day!  Word = score Translation = Spielstand

European Tour Blog - Day 3 - Saturday,  April 5th
This was the best day so far, there was sun!!! This morning though there was frost everywhere. Today, breakfast was at 8 a.m., everyone got up and trickled in whenever they pleased. The girls and boys had a special training session with Jorg Roth, Head of Lastrup Sports Schule (DBF qualified coach). The girls had training first and then the boys followed. at 12 p.m. We had a traditional German lunch, a two course meal, salad, and soup and then meat and potatoes. After lunch we all got on the bus for a day in Bremen!! There we split-up into groups and went shopping, ate food and did some self sight seeing. We all had a great time! We left at around 5:10 p.m. to get back to the Sports Schule for dinner. At 7:30 p.m. we had a light dinner, of sandwiches. Talk to you later.

European Tour Blog - Day 2 - Friday,  April 4th
We all had breakfast at 8 a.m. and then hopped onto the bus to Bremen. After a one and a half hour drive, we arrived. Once in Bremen we watched the pro soccer players during their training session. we watched Deigo and a couple other high profile players. A member of the press came up and talked to Tarjee and David. Then we got to tour the stadium. We broke off into our teams. The girls tour guide was Silke Nucklaus. The boys tour guide was Herr "L". We saw the field, the "pitch", we were told not to stand on it otherwise the grounds keepers would get mad. The stadium has 47,100 seats and standing spots. It sells out every game! There is the "'fools" section, the "old peoples", section, the "soccer school" section, and " visitors" section. KAPPA is their uniform sponsor. It is changing to Nike this summer. Their main sponsor now is Citibank. We also got to have a history lesson of the Werder Bremen soccer team. We found out that it costs 15-30,000 Euros to have your company get a box in the stadium for a season, and 40-80,000 to get a box that comes with drinks and food for a season. Everyone went through the museum at the stadium. We then ate a quick packed lunch. After that we went into the center of Bremen. We all met at the Statue of Roland. Some saw the statue of Grimms, from the Grimms Fairytales. Then we all headed off on our seperate ways; some went to some shops, Subway and or Starbucks. That evening both teams played a "friendly"against BTS Neustadt. The boys played a 13 and under team and the girls played against a team of 14 & 15 year olds. The girls won 2-0, the boys won 5-1!

European Tour Blog - Day 1 - Thursday, April 3rd
After a two and a half hour drive to Washington, D.C., we got on a plane and headed to Amsterdam. We left D.C. an hour late and arrived half and hour early. The flight was about six hours long and included a snack, dinner and breakfast. By the end of it we were all sleep deprived. Thankfully all of our bags arrived at the airport. After the flight, we all boarded a bus that took us to the Sports Schule. After an hour and a half of being on the bus, we took a break and had a snack at a local restaurant. We then hopped back on the bus and arrived at the Sports Schule, after about three and a half hours. Once there we all got our rooms and settled in. We had lunch of pasta and meat sauce and then the teams headed out to practice on a wet and muddy field. Coach Scro successfully lodged a soccer ball in the tree while attempting to dislodge it with another ball he got that one stuck too! Coach Chad’s team had some fun with mud slinging. We are lucky they have laundry service here! We are very hopeful that everyone will go to sleep soon! We have to be on a bus to Bermen at nine a.m. We will keep you posted.

Marinda Popp