Coach's Corner II - The Lead Up to the Games

My apologies to those who have been awaiting details of the trip from the team's perspective - I have simply been without internet access until now.
As much as I might expect to be used to it by now, after 4 previous trips, I am still amazed by the extaordinary hospitality with which we are greeted every time we come. The trip itself went extremely well. The boys were eager and accomodating, and we arrived without incident in Gothenburg early on Saturday. We arrived at the ISGR (International School of the Gothenburg Region), delighted at the courtesy our host Sven-Erik Jensen had shown us by moving us there. The room was spacious and directly across the hall from the very helpful tournament staff that is present 24 hours/day. We were the first team at the school, giving us a decided advantage in acclimating ourselves in comparison to trips past. We quickly arranged and assigned our cots, then took a much needed three hour nap in an effort to mitigate our jet lag. It seemed to work a charm, because no sooner had I awakened the slumbering masses than they begged to be shown the main tournament sight: the Heden Center. Final preparations were still being made there. The concession stands were being assembled, the flags of the participating nations were being raised, the grounds were being groomed ..... and the fields were open! So what better way to spend your first afternoon in Sweden than to have an 9v9 game with a mini-ball on an FieldTurf surface. It was only the need for food that caused the boys the reluctantly give up their session after an hour. We met the parents at their hotel, found a Pizza 'Butik', where the boys struggled with, but eventually enjoyed, deciphering the variety of toppings on offer.
Although it had reached nearly 9 pm by our return to the school, there was still plenty of daylight to have a light training session at a nearby park. We ran through about thirty minutes of individual ball skills before noticing two women watching us. They stayed for the remaining half hour before coming over to introduce themseves as two of the Swedish referees who would be working the tournament. They wanted to stay in order to tell the boys how impressed they were by the level of their skills, and how in all their time in Sweden they had never seen such skill in a team so young. Needless to say, the boys were beaming.
The first night in the school was predictable: between their excitement and their biological clocks telling them it was only early afternoon, sleep was hard to come by. But eventually it did come, and there was little difficulty in raising them the next morning, apart from the jitters that come with the inaugural trip to the common showers. That hurdle gratefully cleared, we met the parents for breakfast and a day at the Liseberg amusement park, before returning to Heden for a two-hour training session. With Malaysian, British, and Norwegian teams surrounding us, the boys were inspired to give a great effort as we rehearsed some of our attacking patterns learned over the past three weeks. The boys were making it clear: they were ready to play......