Our triumphant return

The last of our updates from Germany, be on the lookout for pics and videos as soon as we can process them...

In spite of the late night, everyone was pretty pumped up for the tournament today. _Most_ of the crew was on time for the bus to take us to Erfurt, which is about a 35 minute ride from camp.

We arrived at a big hall just south of downtown (old town) Erfurt. The hall is sometimes used for concerts. Today it was all about the football. A local organization, “Spirit of Football” hosted the event for what looked to be about 150 or so kids ranging in age from grade school (8, 9, 10ish) to college age on 5 temporary courts set up for the day. The courts were dasherboards with recessed goals and netting, approximately 10 by 15 meters. Some of the others referred to them as “cages.” (I thought it was nice that I could just put the kids in a cage for the day and that they would entertain themselves … but seriously… the Miami kids hadn’t really played on an “indoor” type of field, so it took some adjusting for them.)

During our preparations, we were filmed by the Todo Aleman camera person and Eddy’s mom was pretty excited to be interviewed for the video. I must admit that it was a challenge to move the kids around for pictures and get our heads into playing at the same time. I do hope that Michel Hofig and the crew were able to get the media shots that they needed. We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for their support and we really appreciate the opportunity. Hopefully we’ll get to do this again next year.

One interesting thing to note was the format for the tournament and that there was a possible 6 points given for each game. Based upon the result of the game, you would be given 3 points for a win, 2 for a tie and 1 for a loss. The other three points came from “Fair Play” assessments. Prior to each game, the teams would decide on any special fair play rules for that particularly game (i.e. no checking, goals cannot be scored from further than half field, no tickling, one must help a player up after a spill, etc.) The remaining three points would be awarded based upon how well a team abided by the fair play rules. Additionally, the teams had to come up with a post-game celebration that would be done with the other team. I saw the “crawling train” and another one that was actually pretty funny – one team ran up to the other team and the other team fell backwards in a exaggerated way. I wish that I had caught that on video.

The age groups were divided into Under 14 or 14 and up. Given that our team was comprised of 13, 14, 14, 16, 16 and 18, we had to go with the 14 & up, even though we were dwarfed by some of the guys on the other teams. (Especially Eddy.) Our first schedule game was actually a forfeit by the other team (not quite sure of the reason) so we took advantage of the time on the court to get a little 3v3 among ourselves. It was a good opportunity to see how the courts played. They were quite a tight space and the wood floors were very slippery. No amount of spitting on the sole of your shoes was really going to help either.

The first team we played muscled the heck out of us and we fell behind quickly by 2 or 3 goals. We ran in our two subs at about 4 minutes and they changed the game quickly and soon we were tied and pressuring. The other team then got frustrated and started roughing us up a bit more, but we survived with a 3-3 draw. After the match, it was determined that the other team did not deserve any fair play points and we received all of ours, making the final point total our 5 to their 2. When they became quite upset and protested, it only served to prove that the decision was the correct one. Duh! At least they were able to get their composure back by having a smoke after the game. Uh, can you say “DUH!” again?

The second team we played were much better at passing and shooting on goal. While they still played pretty hard, they were a lot cleaner and beat us quite fairly. We did give them quite a run though, but fell short after a brief rally late in the game. Once they got up by 3 goals to our none, we had a difficult time making up ground. We got within one goal when the score was 3-2, but they slipped in another one before the final score ended up being 5-3. Our guys did well, in spite of the intimidation factor and Andrea’s bum ankle.

We came in second place on our group and advanced into the second round, where we faced some grown men! The first team we played just barely beat us and the second team we faced were local university students and they had some fun and took US to school. I am glad to say that our guys never backed down or gave up. And they didn’t whine about the odds being against them when they were clearly outmatched. Yes, they wanted to win. They are each very competitive and hard players. They live for this. But they showed that they have class, too. I was really proud with how they represented themselves, their team and their country. Apparently they impressed the organizers as well. We maxed out of Fair Play points and received the Fair Play team trophy – the biggest trophy given out today! Then, as icing on the cake, Alyse won the best player award. She flat out kicked butt as a defender – since she had to be a goalie without hands today. Our friends from Poland won their division (U14) and one of their players, Max, won the Fairest Player award.

After the tournament, we walked into downtown Erfurt and got a look around. The kids shopped, I ate a doner (yes! And I plan to eat at least one more before I leave on Sunday) and rested my feet while the kids explored. Thanks to Thomas for being a great tour guide, along with the Erfurt kids who also showed us around.

By the way, did you hear that sound? That was the sound of the CRASH that has hit, as everyone is completely finished for the day.

(Just a quick sidenote: for those of you who are familiar with our membership in the streetfootballworld network, I was pleasantly surprised to look up today and see my dear friend, Johannes Axter, visiting from Berlin. Johannes was the first person to meet me, along with Vladimir, when I first visited Germany. We spent a few moments catching up and anticipating another visit in Alexandra, Johannesburg, South Africa next summer for the streetfootballworld festival ’10 during the FIFA World Cup.)