Leaving Brazil

Author's note:  This post covers the day of July 6th.  I wrote it on the plane to Dusseldorf on July 8th.

Our last day in Brazil had an insanely early start.  I woke up at 3:15 AM to wake up the guys at 3:30.  We groggily made it to the bus, saying goodbye to many of the players we had competed with for the past week.  Fabio and Gabriel stayed behind in Brazil, as did the 6 Brazilian players of course.  And Gary stayed behind to catch his flight to Ecuador later in the day.  So with only 11 players and Neyda, we flew to Sao Paulo, where we bid goodbye to Anderson after mistakenly leaving the terminal.  He was staying with family in Sao Paulo.  After going back through security we caught our flight to Miami, but not before the trip had its one big stressful event.

Once we made it to our gate at 9:30 AM, I told the guys they could go get something to eat or look around the duty free shops, but they needed to be back by 10 for our 10:30 flight.  Well, 10 o’clock came and the plane started boarding but we were missing half of our 11 players.  We tracked most of them down quickly, but could not find Diego and Andres.  I was freaking out, storming through the terminal and in and out of duty free shops and airport news stands looking for them.  I had all but given up and was racing back to the gate to tell the gate agent that they needed to make a PA announcement, when I saw Diego walking my way.  They had returned to the gate and Martin sent him to go  find me.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget that guilty look on his face.  I didn’t need to yell at him.  I just asked him if Andres was at the gate too.  He said, “Yes”.  Then, after a long pause, “Sorry”. 

So, we all managed to make it on the plane in time for takeoff.  But the trip had one last surprise for us.  The plane hit some nasty turbulence.  Not the hard knocking shaking your tray table violently kind of turbulence, but the up and down rollercoaster kind.  It was definitely the most free fall moments I’ve had in  one flight.  Girls on the plane were screaming everytime our stomachs tried to lurch out our throats.  A few people around the guys threw up.  Thank God I wasn’t sitting near them.  I was in an aisle seat, next to an older man who was sitting by the window.  His wife and daughter were in the 2 seats in front of us.  Each time we went into free fall the wife and daughter looked back terrified.  One time they did that and he and I looked at each other and smiled.  I kept on watching my Harry Potter movie and ignored it pretty well.  I know that there’s an army of people like me standing behind each part of that airplane; designing it, testing it, maintaining it.  Planes are designed to handle those kinds of motions.  So I see it as: we paid for a flight, and got a carnival ride thrown in for free.

We got back to Miami around 7 in the evening.  I’ve never seen a plane full of people so desperate to get off the plane.  Most of them got out of their seats as soon as we landed.  The stewardesses had to get everyone to sit back down before they could taxi to the gate.  Customs was a breeze.  Our bags had already been offloaded and were waiting for us.  We walked out the secure area and found ourselves on American soil again.  Some of the families had driven to Miami to meet us.  Most of the guys were riding back with Joe Branch in a passenger van they had rented.  But Ruben and Neyda were picked up by their family, as was Alex Fethiere and MJ.

Joe drove me to my hotel, the same La Quinta I left my car at more than a week earlier.  I then accompanied them to 2 meals.  First at McDonald’s next to my hotel (I didn’t eat) and then to Panda Express.  I said my final goodbyes to players I had coached for the past 2 years and drove back to my hotel, while they began their drive to Gainesville.

I got back to my hotel and settled in to my awesome suite.  That’s right, I got a suite.  I guess by using my La Quinta points to pay for my room, they saw how many points I had and decided to upgrade me.  It was awesome.  I mean, it’s still La Quinta.  It’s not the Ritz.  But I did have a huge bedroom, and a huge living room, each with a tv.  And the best part was its location away from the other rooms with it’s own private entrance making for a much quieter stay.  Which was perfect, because I needed to SLEEP.

So, I think now would be a good time to list some final thoughts on Brazil that I hadn’t included before:

I’m not sure I like the language.  Too many different ways of pronunciation.  Too many letters with symbols that change the pronunciation.  Just when you think you can speak Spanish and they will understand you because of the similarity, some word is completely different.

They don’t like L’s.  ‘Peligro’ becomes ‘Perigo’.  ‘Playa’ becomes ‘Praia’.  And so on.

In Spanish, a ‘carniceria’ is a place you go to get ‘carne’, which is meat.  A ‘pasteleria’ is a place you go to get ‘pasteles’, which are desserts.  So, when I see signs in Brazil for a ‘borracharia’, given the similarities between Spanish and Portuguese, can I safely assume that this is a place I go to get ‘borracho’, which is drunk.  Apparently not, because a ‘borracharia’ is a place to get tires fixed, which seems to be a booming business in Brazil because they appear every few miles, whether you’re in the city or on the highway.  Maybe its because the roads are terrible.  Maybe noone can afford quality tires, so they’re forced to repair the old worn ones.  Probably a combination of the two.

The main lesson I want the guys to take from this trip to Brazil is how hard the players in the professional youth systems are working, but that there is nothing the Brazilians do that they can’t replicate here in the US.  If the guys take advantage of all the opportunities available to them, they can match those Brazilians in skill and athleticism.  They can lift weights with better equipment, train on nicer fields, run on better tracks, eat meals that are just as nutritious.  The difference is that without that system in place in the US, the kids have to take the initiative to plan all those activities themselves.  Noone here will demand when and what they eat, when they train, when they rest.  Instead, the kids have to have the discipline to do it themselves.  All the opportunities are here, you just have to be willing to work at it EVERY day, and not let any excuse prevent you from reaching your best.

If I think of anything else I’ll add it later.  For now, I’m tired.  I’ve written about three days in the past few hours.  I need to get some sleep before we arrive in Germany.  I’ll write about Miami tomorrow.

Last Chance Goes Begging

Author's note:  This post covers the day of July 5th.  I wrote the post on July 8th on the plane to Dusseldorf.

Our last full day in Brazil got off to an early, sputtering start.  I woke up at 5:30 AM with the intention of going down to the beach to watch the sunrise, but it was cloudy.  The first few mornings in Brazil were all gorgeous, but the last couple days started off cloudy, ruining any chance I had of getting some cool sunrise photos of the beach.  And every evening we watched the sun set from our bus, so I didn’t get any cool sunset photos either.  But whatever.  I went back to sleep and woke up again at 7.  I then went and woke up the team.  They could either choose to wake up then and grab breakfast before heading to tour the grounds of the Brazilian first division club Vitoria, or they could stay at the hotel until noon when it would be time to leave for our last game.

I ate breakfast and then found Anderson.  Unfortunately, our intended transportation, Anderson’s friend Ronald, had not arrived and we couldn’t contact him.  So, after waiting around for an hour we were finally able to get 3 taxis to take the 8 players, 3 adults, and Ruben’s sister Neyda to the club Vitoria. 

I rode with Diego, Andres, and our Brazilian goalkeeper Marcello.  The car ride was enjoyable because we got to see a little more of Brazilian city life.  The highlight was when our taxi driver slowed down to laugh at what appeared to be an incredibly drunk and destitute man stumbling down the street.  No shirt, ripped shorts, shoes so decomposed that the soles and upper flapped apart like Pacman eating dots as he weaved a path with a Frankenstein-like gait.  We then discussed whether he was likely drunk or mentally handicapped, in which case we should feel terrible about the way that we found amusement in his stupor.

To get to the grounds of Vitoria, we climbed a hill of a few hundred feet before entering a gate emblazoned with their emblem.  Once we progressed a couple hundred feet beyond the gate the stadium was laid before us.  The field is located in a valley surrounded by higher ground on three sides.  The hillsides had been carved out and filled with concrete bleachers, save for the seats near midfield that were individual seats and separated from the bleachers by a locked fence.  The two endlines had bleachers rising beyond them.  One sideline had the seats in the center and the concessions and club store at the top.  Along the opposite sideline sat a building that housed the locker rooms, club offices, and press areas. 

We drove down a steep hill with the stadium on our left and a concrete wall on the right with spray painted caricatures of famous past players, managers, and club presidents.  I am struggling to remember names of some of these venerated club members. I do remember David Luiz was there (current player for Chelsea).  Maybe some of my players or Martin can remember and add them below in the comments?

We descended the hill and curved behind the building on the far side of the stadium.  The practice fields sit behind this building.  There are three full-sized practice fields, but only one of them looked like it was in as good of shape as the Jonesville fields.  The others were muddy and torn up.

Anderson’s friend and current club Director of Football, Flavio, met us there and began the tour.  Flavio was a star for the club back in his playing days.  Apparently he has played more games for the club than any other player in the clubs 113 year history and has his caricature included on the wall of club legends.  He explained to us that one of the practice fields was being repaired and maintained.  We met the club B team coaches leaving the fields.  We walked onto the stadium field and through the locker room.  The locker room had the first team “caixa” rules posted.  These rules stipulate the amount of money that must be deposited into a box for every infraction made.  At the end of the year, the money is donated to a charity.  Rules included penalties for infractions from being late to practices or games to urinating on the field.  We toured the press conference room, where we had fun doing a mock interview with players and taking “contract signing pictures”.  We saw the club offices and came upon a player signing his contract.  He was a native Bahian, but had been playing in Bulgaria or Hungary, I can’t remember which.  We saw the club weight room, which measured all of about 200 square feet, with just some free weights, one barbell, some weight machines, and a treadmill.  We saw the medical offices and then rode in a van back up the hill but to the opposite side, where the youth training dormitories are located.  The youth players live on site, eating in the cafeteria, and sleeping in small dorm rooms.  One really interesting feature near the dorms was a sand soccer field.  This field is left in poor shape on purpose to train their touch to be great even when the ball takes an unexpected bounce.

We also saw the “relaxation house” that is separated from the other residential buildings by a wall.  The day before a match the first team players leave their apartments and homes in the city and spend the night in what basically amount to small hotel rooms similar to the hotel we were at.  The rooms were larger, but not by much.  They included bathroom, a tv, and three beds.  In the day the players eat at together and have a pool, garden, ping pong, and billiards for relaxation.  There was also a room for pregame film sessions and a separate eating table for coaches.  After that we went to the club store before the taxis picked us up to go back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel way too late.  We rushed eating lunch and packing for the last game.  I was worried we would be late.  But traffic was no problem and we arrived an hour and 20 minutes before game time against the hometown team Madre de Deus.

Once again, this was a team we should have beaten.  They had not given up a goal against either Ypiranga or Conquista, so I expected a stout defense.  But they had only scored a combined one goal against those teams, so I wasn’t worried about us being able to stifle their attack.  I am proud to say that for the first time, we really did control the play for long stretches, especially in the first half.  We carved out a few half chances and one great chance, but Richard was unable to put his shot far enough from the keeper, and he made a diving save.  The second half was roughly even, but unfortunately they found the back of the net and we didn’t.

On leaving the stadium we went straight to downtown Salvador for the first time.  We got out at the port, walked past the Mercado Modelo and took a public transportation elevator that scaled the cliff overhanging the port.  The cathedral and wonderful views of the city awaited us at the top.  We walked through parts of the old city and went to a touristy shop for the guys to be able to buy some souvenirs and gifts.  While we were in the shop the street outside suddenly became crowded.  Then music could be heard and suddenly there was a full on parade going through this narrow one way street.  I couldn’t see much because we were so packed inside the store, and the street was so narrow that I was still 10 feet inside the store as the parade went by.  I heard the music and saw the massive statues Catholic statues that were being carried.  After the parade passed we walked back to the bus, via the elevator, as it began to rain.

From there we drove past the new stadium that is being built for the World Cup (still a LONG way to go to get that ready for the Confederations Cup next June) and to the boardwalk that we had walked to on our free day before being told it was too dangerous.  I don’t what had changed by then to make it safer, but we sat at tables on the street and bought food from the street vendors and drinks from the establishment whose tables we were using.  Some of us tried the local specialty acarajé, but most found it not to their liking.  The shrimp still had their shells on, and the flavors didn’t seem to really be as big as I was hoping.  Acarajé seems to be a type of sandwich made by layering cooked shrimp onto a kind of sweet potato mixture that is spread onto a fried roll that has been sliced open.  A spicy pepper relish can be added, as can chopped onions and other vegetables.  Most of the guys preferred the pasteles.   Pasteles are essentially hot pockets.  Dough filled with your choice of meat, cheese, sauce, or even dessert ingredients like bananas and chocolate.  The final food place there was my favorite, the tapiocaria.  They specialize in desserts using tapioca.  The tapioca is placed on a soft, sweet bread, then topped with whatever ingredients you would like, eg. coconut, chocolate, condensed milk.  Then the bread is folded into a taco-like shape.  They were delicious!  The guys had been getting quite cranky before we ate because it had been many hours and a soccer game since they had last eaten.  Finally, with filled stomachs, empty pockets, and Brazilian souvenirs, we returned to the hotel.

But the day wasn’t over.  We still had to pack.  So, starting at 11PM we packed up.  The guys were getting rowdy and we had a noise complaint from the hotel staff.  After being quiet for a while, the guys were just starting to get loud again.  I stepped out to tell them to be quiet.  Immediately upon doing this, one of the Cruzeiro players walked down our hall and indicated using a couple words and some sign language that he was trying to sleep and needed quiet to do so, but that the kids weren’t the problem.  The problem was that I was stomping around.  Well, I felt bad but somehow confused.  I wasn’t trying to stomp, but I do walk heavy, and how did he know it was me anyways?  But whatever, after finally packing up, I got to bed sometime around 12:30.  I think some of the guys just chose to stay up all night, because the next day was going to start even earlier…

Missed Opportunities

Author’s note:  This blog post covers the day of July 4th.  I began writing this blog post on July 5^th on the way to the stadium in Madre de Deus.  Finished on the plane flight to Atlanta on July 8^th.

Missed opportunities must be the bane of man’s existence.  I can think of few feelings worse than realizing that you had a chance to succeed, to accomplish, to realize something unique and amazing, and that you let it get away.  It has elements of guilt, loss, and shame all brewed together into one depressing concoction.  It could be a relationship with an amazing girl that you screwed up by letting your neuroses get the best of you.  It could be that job interview that you know you blew the second you walked out the door.  For us, it was the chance to get a victory over a Brazilian squad.

We arrived in Madre de Deus yesterday (July 4th) at 2 PM, so it was still plenty bright enough for us to see the industry of this town.  It’s oil, gas, more oil, and more gas.  Pipelines and tanker refilling stations start appearing kilometers out of town, while gas tanker trucks and trucks carrying hundreds of large blue propane tanks fill the roads.  The Petrobras “BR” logo is scattered everywhere like mouse ears at Disney.

The stadium in Madre de Deus lies just a playground away from the ocean.  The stands run the length of one sideline and are slightly larger than in Sao Francisco, and the press box is larger and enclosed in glass.  The press box looks a lot like an airport air traffic control tower.  The grass on the field is of the same kind, but a little less thick.  The field is enclosed on three sides by a concrete wall that makes the field seem smaller, but it’s the same size as Sao Francisco’s.  The locker rooms and team benches are located under the overhang of the stands.  Behind one endline sits a row of two story houses giving its occupants free viewing of any game at the stadium.  Behind the other endline, workers busy themselves building (or what looks more like renovating)  a gymnasium.  From the field you can see the blustering pilot flame of an oil or gas refinery in the distance.

We got to the field with an hour remaining before kickoff despite hitting some nasty traffic leaving Salvador.  Our opponents, Ypiranga, got it even worse because their team didn’t arrive until exactly at the kickoff time of 3PM.  They were given 5 minutes to warmup, so I asked the team to press hard from the beginning before Ypiranga could get their feet under them.  It worked well and we dominated the opening exchanges.  The Ypiranga defenders almost seemed to be sleepwalking as they gave the ball away repeatedly and failed to track runners.  Our pressure was rewarded with our first goal of the tournament.  Fabio got into the box, and after one blocked shot, fed the ball to Richard, who blasted it past the goalkeeper.  The guys were excited, but we didn’t have the killer instinct we needed as we stopped pressuring as effectively and let them get more time on the ball, rather than doubling down on the pressure as we should have.  Ypiranga got a goal back on some confusion between Ty and the backline as to how to deal with a ball played into the box.

The remainder of the half was fairly even.  Neither side getting great opportunities.  But then Fabio drew a red card on an Ypiranga player by pressuring him.  The player became frustrated and hit Fabio with hand to the face as he was trying to escape the pressure.  Our advantage grew when in first half stoppage time, Ruben cut in from the left and played a perfectly weighted through ball to Fabio, who placed it past the keeper.

Up 2-1 at halftime and playing against 10 men.  That HAS to be a win.  Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.  The 2^nd half saw us fail to pressure or possess the ball effectively, meaning their man disadvantage didn’t bother them.  After getting the tying goal when Andres had to come off for a minute due to an injury, a bad pass by Grant at the back gave Ypiranga a 1v1 with Ty.  That goal hurt.  We tried to press for the tying goal, and created lots of opportunities.  Fabio and Guilherme had 1v1’s on the goalkeeper but both made a poor touch to push the ball too far out in front of them, allowing the keeper to clean them out.  Luis had a couple shots from the right hand side, but neither one found the target.

It was incredibly depressing.  But we move on and look forward to the last game.

The final of the Copa Libertadores was that night.  Corinthians (the Real Madrid of Brazilian soccer) was playing Boca Juniors (the Real Madrid of Argentinean soccer).  This was a really big deal because Corinthians, despite their Brazilian league success had never won the Libertadores.   But they finally succeeded, winning 2-0.  Their second goal looked remarkably similar to the goal that defeated us against Ypiranga.  Even professional fullbacks give the ball away at the back sometimes.

Well, that’s all I can remember at the moment about that day.  If I remember more I’ll add it later.