The Sonoma State men's soccer team is kicking off the 2006 season with a two week trip to Europe. The Seawolves leave on July 26th and return on August 7th with stops in Holland, Germany, and Belgium. The team will play eight games on the trip and they'll also get a chance to see world class European soccer close up.
All-Region defender Brett Cook, a senior on this year's squad, has been kind enough to share some of his experiences and adventures from the trip on this page. Be sure to check back often for updates!
Aug. 6th
SSU sweeps through Holland demolishing every team in its path.
Today we played Quick Den Haag and O.D.B., neither of them put up
much of a fight. The first team played Quick, and ran them into the
ground with a 6-1 victory. Goals came from Medina (3), Wiedeman
(1), Mike Travis (1) and me with 1 from a penalty kick.
Unfortunately we gave up a goal in the second half, which made the
game 3 to 1 at the time, we were so disappointed in our poor defense
we decided to score 3 more goals to make sure Quick remembers who
Sonoma State University is.
The second team played O.D.B and dominated their way to a 3 to 1
victory with goals coming from Dusty Good with 2 and Stewart Gallant
with 1. They too unfortunately gave up a goal but given our goal
differential for the trip, 45-2, we won't beat ourselves up to much.
So that's it, two weeks invading Europe come and gone. It went by
faster then I expected but the experiences and the memories that I
gained and the team gained will last forever. The games we played
and the experiences we shared are invaluable to our up coming
season. Not only do we have a two week start on every other team in
the country, and a roster full of talent but we also have bonded as
a team. Ask any coach of any sport, if a team is not unified then
they will not be successful. Our team has this unity and on our
road to the national championship this unity will be the deciding
factor in every one of our matches.
Cookie
August 5th
Just when I think this trip cannot get any better, we have an even more
amazing day. Today we woke up early and took a three-hour drive to the
beautiful city of Dortmund, Germany in order to catch the first match on our
three-match marathon day. We arrived in Dortmund about 2 hours before the
game started which gave us just enough time to explore some of the city.
And by „explore the city,‰ I mean buy up world cup gear on sale! After
getting enough 2006 world cup apparel and perhaps a few Bratwurst, we headed
over to Westfalenstadion to watch Borussia Dortmund play Tottenham
Hotspurs. Westfalenstadion is one of the most incredible stadiums I have
ever seen. It can hold close to 100,000 people and the section we had
tickets for (called the „Sut Tribune‰) is the place where all the crazy
Dortmund fans stand and cheer their hearts out for the yellow and black.
The Sut Tribune is located directly behind one of the goals, is standing
room only, and is packed from the edge of the field to the top of the
stadium with screaming BVB fans. I have never seen this type of energy from
a crowed in a game, not to mention this game meant nothing-it was just a
friendly match. From the first whistle to the last these people lived and
died from every movement of the ball. They sang songs, banged drums, waved
flags and most importantly, drank massive amounts of beer. It was an
unbelievable experience. The game ended up tied 1-1, but due to the
atmosphere of the crowd, every touch of the ball was exciting.
After that game finished we rushed to our vans and drove another three hours
back to Amsterdam to catch the end of the Amsterdam Tournament.
We arrived in time to watch the second half of the Inter Milan vs. FC Porto
match. Inter was up 3 to 0 by the time we got there, but in the second half
Porto struck goal twice to make the match very exciting. Plus their last
goal was a bicycle kick!
The match everyone in the stadium came to watch though was Manchester United
vs. Ajax. The stadium was packed, yet somehow could not match the
atmosphere of the Dortmund stadium. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed ourselves
and the game was very good. Man U hit the post twice during the run of play
and Ajax missed a penalty kick. We were on the edge of our seats the entire
time. Late in the second half, Ryan Giggs of Man U, drilled a free kick
around the wall off the crossbar and into the goal. That was all Man U
needed and ended up winning the game 1 to 0. The Ajax fans, hearts broken,
walked slowly out of the stadium and although I was sad Ajax lost, I could
not help but smile because I had just lived a soccer fan‚s dream: three
games in one day!
Cookie
August 4
What a day! It was pouring down buckets when we woke up this morning, which
cancelled any hopes of practice. Luckily there is an indoor basketball
court in our hotel, so to get the kinks out of our system we played a little
b-ball. I have been looking forward to this day for the entire trip-the
Amsterdam tournament started today! We drove to the stadium around 2
o'clock and parked so we could take the train to downtown. The games didn't
start until 6, so we had some time to go tour the city one more time. Some
of us took a tour of the Van Gough museum, which was incredible. To see his
paintings up close and to read more about his life was amazing. We enjoyed
it so much we spent the entire afternoon there. Then it was on to the
games!
First up: Manchester United vs. FC Porto. Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, and
Ryan Giggs were just some of the players on the pitch below us. We sat
behind one of the goals, which allowed us a great view of the game as well
as gave us the opportunity to sit with more crazy fans. The crazier ones
tend to sit behind the goals in order to taunt the opposition. The first
game was amazing. From kick-off to final whistle the Man U fans sang and
cheered for the Reds. The game ended up 3 to 1 in favor of Manchester, with
goals from Scholes, Rooney, and Ole Gunner of Man U. Pepe scored a bomb for
Porto. Also in typical Rooney fashion, for anyone who watched the World
Cup, he was red carded for a reckless tackle. Scholes was also red carded,
but despite being two men down, Man U held on for the win.
Next up was Ajax vs. Internationale Milan. These are my two favorite club
teams in the world. I was in soccer heaven. I went as an Ajax supporter,
in order to keep riots from breaking out, but I support both teams. This
game was a blast. The atmosphere for the match was crazy. All the Ajax
fans entered the arena, and when Ajax took the field the crowed erupted. We
were going crazy as well-we even started a few chants and the entire stadium
joined in with us, it was great! The game was very tight. It is fun to
watch Ajax because we try to emulate how they play. Inter scored early off
of a rebound, and for the majority of the match they held the lead. Just
when they thought the game was over, in the 87th minute Dutch superstar
Wesley Schneider hit a laser beam of a shot that found the top corner of the
net. The fans went nuts; coming back from the grips of defeat to tie that
game, especially in that manner, was incredible. The last few minutes were
frantic, but in the end the teams tied 1 to 1. I was happy with the result.
It was an unbelievable day and we have an even busier day tomorrow with
three professional matches lined up. It will be a long day, but well worth
it. I can‚t wait.
Cookie
Aug 3
NOMA is victorious yet again. Today was a day dedicated to playing soccer!
We had a light training in the morning, followed by a relaxing day and games
at night. CVV Berkel was the next opponent to be crushed by our team. We
divided into two teams and both teams ended up victourious 4-0 and 8-0. We
were absolutely on fire. We came out like gangbusters and flattened the
opposition. Out team speed is out of this world, the Dutchies can not run
with us. It should make of an exciting experience. Goals from the first
team came from me (that‚s right I scored on a free kick!), Wiedeman, Dayton,
and Vinny. From the second team, Sidel had two, Ross had two, Lafon had
two, Jamie had one and Mike Travis had one. So far we have out-scored
Holland teams 33-0 and we will not be letting down any time soon.
Aug 2nd
SSU is on the road again! After a night of victory, we woke up early to
take a day trip to the wonderful city of Brugge, in Belgium. It took about
3 hours to get to our destination but the wait was well worth it. The city
is surrounded by water and some parts of it date back to the 1100's. It is
incredible to see cobblestone roads and ancient churches filled with people
and cars from the 21st century. We parked and walked to The Belfry and the
Cloth Hall, which is in the center of the city. There is a huge ancient
tower there and an open market in which most of us ate at and it was great.
We had sausage kabobs covered with bacon, which I dubbed the Heart Attack
Kabob. After stuffing our faces, some of us rented bikes so we could better
see all the sights the city had to offer. After seeing all the ancient
churches and buildings we decided to go taste the world famous Belgium
chocolate. Best chocolate I've ever had. By the looks of the bags a lot of
the guys had, it seems that a lot of the chocolate is going home as gifts.
Brugge is an awesome city and was definitely worth the trip. It was nice to
have a day to relax, see the sights, and not have to worry about playing
soccer.
Tomorrow we have a couple of games so we are going to rest up and dream
about beating those Dutchies yet again.
Cookie
Aug. 1st
Even though the rain did its best to ruin our spirits today, we did not let
it stop us from enjoying our trip. This morning we went back to Amsterdam
to watch Ajax train, which was awesome. Ajax has become one of my favorite
teams not only because their players are incredible, but also because of how
the organization treats its fans. They have open practice right next to the
stadium where anyone can watch for free, and after practice every player
takes his time meeting with fans, signing autographs, and taking pictures.
Ajax is truly in touch with what a professional sports team is all about.
Ajax understands that they are there for the fans, not for themselves and
that, I feel, is one of the most important things that is often left out of
most professional teams.
After watching the training and getting some more pictures and autographs,
we ate lunch at the Ajax youth club house. The youth facilities at Ajax
have better grass then some golf courses I've played on. It is amazing how
much more effort the Dutch put into making their fields. After a hardy meal
we headed back to rest up for our games!
We had two games at two separate places, so we split up into a first team
and a second team. The first played Gravezande and the second team played a
club called VCS. Both are armature teams here in Holland. The Dutch teams
apparently didn't get the memo that us 'Noma boys can play. The first team
only played one half due to rain and lightning, but we scored three times
and allowed zero shots on goal. Medina had two goals and Browne had one. We
were on fire; no one on the other team could stay with our pace, and if we
had played a second half, things could have gotten ugly!
The second team overwhelmed an older and slower VCS team. Despite a
torrential downpour, they played a full 90 minutes and spanked VCS 6-0.
Goal scorers were: Vinny with 2, Grant with 2, Dayton with one and one own
goal caused by Dusty Good.
Overall our team has played well. We are scoring a lot of goals and we are
playing very strong defense. It is gearing up to be an exciting season.
Cookie
July 31st
Hello friends, another wonderful day has gone by in our invasion of Europe.
We were all a little sore from our games when we woke up this morning, but
lucky for us we had an opportunity to go watch Ajax train in Amsterdam
today. After a light training and lunch, we packed into our vans and made
the one hour trek to the beautiful city of Amsterdam. We parked at the Ajax
youth training fields (which are unbelievable) and walked about a mile to
Amsterdam Arena. Just outside of the Arena were Ajax's practice fields,
which made Stanford‚s facility look like a local park. The pitch looked
like a golf fairway, it was unbelievable. The best part was that was the
entire Ajax first team was just a stone‚s throw away. I was face to face
with some of the biggest soccer superstars in the world; we literally could
have reached out and touched Jaap Stam, Wesley Sneijder, Johnny Heitinga and
Klaas Jan Huntelaar. It was a light practice for them and it probably gave
Marcus some ideas for some of our training. The thing that impressed me the
most was that everyone, from the old players to the new, helped out with
moving the goals and collecting the equipment. Can you imagine an American
professional team doing that? It was cool because it shows that they care
about the game and not about how good they are. After the practice we got
autographs from a lot of the players and took pictures with them. I had my
arm around Jaap Stam! They were all very nice and willing to put up with
all the fans that swarmed them after practice.
After that was all over and we had spent adequate time in the fan shop, we
headed to downtown Amsterdam. Our first stop: Abdula the juggler. Marcus
met Abdula many years ago- he is a street performer who juggles a soccer
ball. Hands down one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The man
can juggle a soccer ball like you wouldn't believe. It is hard do describe
the moves that he pulled, but I was mesmerized by the things he could do.
No joke- he climbed a light post, while juggling, and continued to juggle
while dangling from the light post. He then proceeded to climb a tree and do
the same thing.
After that we went on a walking tour through Amsterdam. The history and the
sights are amazing. We even walked through the world famous red-light
district. It was during the day which is apparently not as bad as it is at
night, but it was interesting to see the huge differences between our
culture and theirs. The red-light district however is just a small portion
of this beautiful city, even though that‚s all people think when they hear
"Amsterdam".
It was an amazing day and tomorrow we get to go see Ajax train again and go
eat at the Ajax youth club house, I can't wait.
Cookie
July 30th
SSU is victorious!!!! Hey everyone we had our first games today against
Sparta Rotterdam! We divided into two teams and played two games. The
first team won 9 to nothing and the second team won 6 to nothing to achieve
a combined score of 15-0!!!!! Apparently they didn't get the memo that us
Noma boys can play. Bailey had 5 goals, Vinny had 2, and Asaro had 2 for
the first team. On the second team, Lafon had 2 goals, Vinny had 1, Mike
Travis had 1 and Stewart had 2. We didn't come away unscratched though;
Brook Johnson took a knee to the forehead on a play and had to go to the
hospital to get some stitches. Not to worry-he is a tough kid, and now when
we go to more professional matches he will look even more like a hooligan
then he already does! It was a great day. The trip is set up so the teams
will get progressively harder, and I'm sure the word will be spread that we
are a serious team. The next games will be more of a challenge and I can't
wait.
Cookie
July 29th
Hey everyone, we are now three days into our invasion of Europe and to say
this trip has been exciting would be an understatement.
Friday we had training early in the day, but the rest of the day we spent
playing at the beach. We had a great time running up and down the beach and
playing beach soccer, even though the local restaurants made us stop after a
deflected shot crashed into one of their tables. At night we wondered around
the boardwalk absorbing the culture, and when it got dark, which is about at
11pm here, they had a fireworks show. Not as good as the 4th of July
fireworks at Sonoma State, but it was entertaining anyway.
On Saturday we got up early so we could start the three hour drive into
Germany to watch Borrusia Dortmund play against Ajax, two of the biggest
clubs in Europe. About half way there we stopped and trained near the club
Benjamin Ziemer played back in his heyday. To give some perspective on what
we were going to go watch, you need to know that the diehard fans of the two
teams, Dortmund and Ajax, are absolute soccer hooligans. They love their
teams to death, but what they love even more is fighting the opposing team‚s
fans. When we tried to get tickets through Ajax for the game they told us
that they weren't selling tickets to Ajax fans, (most likely to prevent
fighting at a friendly game) so we bought tickets as Dortmund fans, which
was fine. But when we arrived in the small city of Lüdenscheid with 4 vans
with Dutch plates, the police immediately pulled our entire caravan over.
After some smooth talking on Benjamin's part, the police realized we were
not Ajax soccer hooligans and let us pass safely into the city. They really
take their soccer seriously over here. After walking around the town square
and filling up on bratwurst (German food is much better then Dutch food), we
headed down to the local stadium. Nattenberg Stadium has a capacity of
around 4,000 people, but on Saturday over 10,000 people had crowded into
this tiny stadium with about 9,000 of the fans for Dortmund and the rest
cheering for Ajax. The atmosphere was incredible. The fans on either side
made the Raider Nation look like a high school pep-squad. They proudly
cheered on their teams with their songs and chants and, most importantly,
their beer. It was truly an incredible sight. The Ajax fans had their own
section of the stadium sectioned off and guarded by riot police on both
sides - something that would be unheard of at a football or baseball game in
the U.S. And lets not forget to mention that this game was a friendly one
with nothing at stake, and yet these fans came to cheer their hearts out for
their beloved squads. We sat in the Dortmund section, a large majority of
us bought scarves, hats and shirts so could fit in with these crazy fans.
For 90 minutes we cheered and boo-ed and had a great time really
experiencing the passion that these fans have for the game. After the final
whistle blew it was Dortmund 2 Ajax 1. The Ajax fans were not to happy about
their teams loss and they threw cups and crates down onto the pitch, which
seem to be an accepted custom because there were people waiting down on the
field ready to collect their trash when it was thrown.
We filed out of the stadium with all the Dortmund fans, tired from the long
day and the hot sun. Little did we know, our experience was far from over.
When we got to the parking lot of the stadium, we proceeded across the
street and back to our vans. After walking about 50 yards we heard a
commotion behind us and turned to see that a fight had broken out between
the Ajax fans and the Dortmund fans. The Ajax fans were throwing rocks down
a hill onto the Dortmund fans who were in the parking lot. Then the Ajax
fans rushed down the hill to go toe to toe with the hooligans. It was a
melee of drunken soccer fans, something that you could only see on Worlds
Most Shocking Videos. On cue, the riot police came down and began to break
up the fight. My words will not do this experience justice but it was one
of the most incredible things I had ever witnessed. We kept looking around
at each other and saying, "did that really just happen?"
We eventually made it to our vans and made the three-hour drive back to Den
Hague. It was a memorable day, but we need to rest up. We have our first
game tomorrow against Rotterdam and we are excited to see how our skills
match up. Wish us luck!
Cookie
July 28th
Hello friends and family of the Sonoma State soccer team! Well after 10 long
hours of team bonding on two cramped flights we have finally arrived at our
destination. It has begun: the Sonoma State Men's soccer team has officially
invaded Europe. The entire team was tired when we exited the plane in
Amsterdam but we all could not help but smile-we had made it. After a short
bus ride we finally arrived at our main hub for the trip, the lovely little
beach town of Scheveningen. Here are some pictures of Scheveningen
http://community.webshots.com/album/147049360VqsRnj just to give you a
little taste of what we have to wake up to every morning. Needless to say we
are very excited. Shortly after reaching our rooms and getting settled in,
we set out in search of our first taste of Dutch culture before our first
training of the trip.Our team Dutchie, Ross, who lived here in Scheveningen
for a year, was our tour guide for the afternoon. He lead us first to a
farmers market where we ate stroopwaffel, which is basically a flat waffle
ice cream cone with caramel on the inside, and a Dutch fried sausage called
a Frykiluk. The Stroopwaffel was excellent and I plan on buying many of them
on this trip. The deep fried sausage, on the other hand, left something to
be desired. We then headed over to the beach to experience some more Dutch
culture. The beach was interesting, there was something a little different
about this beach that we are not quite accustomed to in the good old USA:
the fact that bathing suits were optional.
After having experienced enough culture, we had to go do the thing we like
best: play some soccer. We trained about 15 minutes from the hotel at a
local amateur club's field. Training was a little slow due to the fatigue
and the swollen ankles from the long plane ride. It was good though because
it gave us an opportunity to loosen up all of our sore muscles.
Now we are back waiting to go to dinner. We are tired and hungry, but above
all ecstatic to be on this trip. We are looking forward to all the soccer
and fun we will be having. This is truly a once in a life time experience.
Stay tuned for more updates.
Cookie
PS. if anyone wants to contact me please do so at bmcscr10@hotmail.com.
