Day 5: Monday, August 14th

The quote of the day came from Ashley, " I thought England was rainy?" She is right, and I did too. This is my second summer on this trip. Last year, it was cloudy and drizzle rain and I didn't pack enough cold weather clothes. This year, we have had mostly sun with a few clouds and multiple days in the 70s, and I didn't pack enough shorts! But we were up for our 8:15am breakfast and walked outside to a wet ground from overnight rain but more blue skies.

After breakfast it was down to the fields for a light morning training session. The girls did some stretching and dynamic movements to get their legs moving after a few days of excursions without training.

The boys broke up into groups and played some possession games to gel as a team looking forward to this afternoons first games.

Both goalies got some more one on one coaching working on fast feet, getting set for the shot and reaction time for the saves.

Everyone went up for an early lunch and then to to the dorm relax and stretch before heading back down to the fields to warm up for the games. All of the teams, girls and boys, played squads representing Brighton & Hove Albion.
Coach Martyn Keen took the older boys up on the Showcase Field. The boys battled hard and it was a good introduction to the toughness and speed of play in English football.

Coach Joey took the younger boys on the lower fields. Though his squad is made up primarily of 2006 boys, they played a squad of primarily 2005 boys. The size and power in the age difference was difficult to handle, but the boys were organized well and played a good game of football.
The girls are a mixed group originating from multiple teams but have really bonded over the past few days. They came together and scored the first goal of the game against a Brighton team that was down a keeper so Leah, the Brighton & Hove Albion Women's team keeper, was in goal for them. As the week goes on, the girls will only gel better and start being able to read each other's play. This was a hard fought game in warm temperatures with no subs for either team after some minor injuries. We all look forward to great results as the games continue.

After showers and dinner, the Players headed into the gym and our on site physio for the week Martha ran the kids through some dynamic stretching as they had a session and games today as well as two sessions of training tomorrow with another session and game the following day.

There is a lot of soccer this week so stretching is really important to keep everyone healthy and ready to play.
Back at the dorm, everyone settled in with X Box FIFA and a movie, Jumanji, for a low key night with many stretching and icing before bed.

Tomorrow we look forward to more great weather and two training sessions with our Brighton Community coaches.