Sunday, March 15, 2009
England
Stephen and I are off to England in the morning...I won't be updating this blog, but we're keeping one for the WC athletic department. You can get to it here. I'll continue on in 2 weeks...
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Recap of the 2 days in Portland
I'll try and write this in a way so it's not just a long rant. But no promises. For starters, training in Portland wasn't what I had hoped for or expected. I was under the impression that I and perhaps a few others would be training with the actual Timbers during their 1st week of preseason. Not really. turns out, it was kind of like a final tryout. There were 20-25 guys there trying out during the optional week of training for the Timbers, so a few of them were there as well. And since it was a tryout, everyone was playing like such. By that I mean the mids and forward were dribbling to no end and blasting shots at goal from close range like there was no tomorrow (we played small sided games). Hold on, let me back up.
Monday started with me showing up a half hour before everyone else. I was told 8:30 was the start time, got there at 8. It was really supposed to start at 9, but didn't start until 9:15. More than an hour of pretty much just sitting around in the locker room, waiting. That didn't make me too happy. We did a group jog and stretch led by one of the returning players. Then, it was like we were little kids again. Everyone was told to get in the square and dribble around, doing moves and changing pace. Fine. Then, we were told to juggle, and then to juggle with every touch being above our head. I played the part of typical high school keeper perfectly and couldn't do this for shit. In the last several weeks of trying to become a functioning keeper again, I failed to practice my juggling. How foolish of me. The suffering ended after 20 minutes when the head coach (Gavin) told the keeper to warm-up on their own, while the field players played a small-sided game on little goals. This lasted another 20 minutes. So, more than an hour of sitting around and more time doing pretty much nothing, doing things that could have been done while we were all sitting in the locker room waiting for Gavin or Amos (the assistant coach) or a returning player to say "Ok Let's go".
Finally, we started playing, 9v9 at first, but then for most of the time it was 6v6 with a 3rd 6-man team on the outside of the field as 1-touch neutral players. During this, I got lit up to no end. I can't count the number of goals that were scored on me by an opposing player passing to the man standing on the end line, him 1-timing it back into the middle, and an opposing player one timing it from 6 yards out. I really think the whole day I only got scored on once by a shot from distance that was well placed. The other 2 keepers weren't doing great either, but being paranoid, I felt like I looked awful on this day.
Sidenote: There were two other keepers there. I was far from full form but still being competitive. If I'm at full form, it's not even a competition (I have mentioned previously that I DO think very highly of myself, but I am also very critical of myself). One keeper was a 6'2 190 kid who had just been released after a 3 week training stint with New England. The other was a 5'11 190 kid who had previously been training with San Jose.
Day 2. Jim Brazeau was there on Tuesday, the Pacific U coach, so I felt a bit more comfortable at least having a familiar face around. A couple more of the returners for the Timber's showed up also. This day started with a different group warm-up, better than Monday's. A warm-up and stretch took about half an hour. No complaints here (how about that??) The field guys did some more small-sided and keep away over at the other end of the field while the keepers did some keeper work with Jim. We did a variety of drills where one keep was in goal and the others were shooting to score on him from various ranges and locations. I was doing well, holding my own in this, until the one drill. Everything we shot was supposed to be a moving ball. so this drill was to take a corner and square up for a direct shot. Well, I took a corner, and all four times, the guy shooting didn't roll the ball before hitting, and basically curved the ball into the upper corner of the goal. Thanks a lot, ass hole. After a good 45 minutes of this, we played some more small-sided. I ended up on the team of mostly returners, and don't take that as a sign of things to come. Didn't give up a goal this time, probably had something to do with the better team in front of me. Then we opened it up to a large field, and again I was in goal for the team of mostly returners. And, funny enough, during both of these games, I played absolutely fine. Played the ball quick when I had it, had 1-2 semi-difficult saves to make and made them clean, had one cross to come out on, took it cleanly. Great. Story time...
Midway through the large game, one of the returners went in hard on a tryout kid. He didn;t take to kindly to this and then next time the returner had the ball, straight took him out from behind. This, too, the returner didn't take kindly. They got in each others faces, exchanged shoves, AND THEN THE TRYOUT KID HEAD BUTTED THE RETURNED RIGHT IN THE FACE. I've never actually seen somebody do that in person before. Its a good thing there were 20 other kids trying out to keep the 6 standing Timber players from tearing the one kid to pieces. Needless to say, he was promptly dismissed for good. This was after a good minute of chaos that incuded a headlock and three kids needing to hold back one returning player because he was going so wild.
So, the day ended soon after. Gavin apparently didn't know that I had to go back to SCHOOL, because he was surprised when I thanked him for having me out for these couple of days. Apparently the one new signee from Oregon St. is missing 3 weeks of classes for training and such. HAHAHAHAH oh man I don't even know how to respond to that. Well, I do, but I'm sure it will offend some people somewhere (perhaps in Corvalis). I had to get back to Whitman, where I've got to prep for a big paper and a mid-term for next week, and continue work on my thesis, which will precede my orals. Maybe missing 3 weeks of classes would fly here? Maybe? Anyway, Gavin thanked me for coming and said they would be in touch. But, I already know that they'le be looking for another keeper who can be with them starting next week probably, and sure as hell is not going to be missing any of the season.
So, overall, it was a good two days of training in the sense that the level of play is just so much higher than I'm used to (sorry Whitman team), but on the other, I wish it was more of a practice atmosphere instead of a tryout atmosphere, for the reasons that I mentioned before.
I'd also like to say that the drive to and from Portland is so, so, so much nicer than the drive to and from Seattle. Until next time, Cheers from Walla Walla. (and PS, that was really long, I'm NOT going to go back and proof it)
Monday started with me showing up a half hour before everyone else. I was told 8:30 was the start time, got there at 8. It was really supposed to start at 9, but didn't start until 9:15. More than an hour of pretty much just sitting around in the locker room, waiting. That didn't make me too happy. We did a group jog and stretch led by one of the returning players. Then, it was like we were little kids again. Everyone was told to get in the square and dribble around, doing moves and changing pace. Fine. Then, we were told to juggle, and then to juggle with every touch being above our head. I played the part of typical high school keeper perfectly and couldn't do this for shit. In the last several weeks of trying to become a functioning keeper again, I failed to practice my juggling. How foolish of me. The suffering ended after 20 minutes when the head coach (Gavin) told the keeper to warm-up on their own, while the field players played a small-sided game on little goals. This lasted another 20 minutes. So, more than an hour of sitting around and more time doing pretty much nothing, doing things that could have been done while we were all sitting in the locker room waiting for Gavin or Amos (the assistant coach) or a returning player to say "Ok Let's go".
Finally, we started playing, 9v9 at first, but then for most of the time it was 6v6 with a 3rd 6-man team on the outside of the field as 1-touch neutral players. During this, I got lit up to no end. I can't count the number of goals that were scored on me by an opposing player passing to the man standing on the end line, him 1-timing it back into the middle, and an opposing player one timing it from 6 yards out. I really think the whole day I only got scored on once by a shot from distance that was well placed. The other 2 keepers weren't doing great either, but being paranoid, I felt like I looked awful on this day.
Sidenote: There were two other keepers there. I was far from full form but still being competitive. If I'm at full form, it's not even a competition (I have mentioned previously that I DO think very highly of myself, but I am also very critical of myself). One keeper was a 6'2 190 kid who had just been released after a 3 week training stint with New England. The other was a 5'11 190 kid who had previously been training with San Jose.
Day 2. Jim Brazeau was there on Tuesday, the Pacific U coach, so I felt a bit more comfortable at least having a familiar face around. A couple more of the returners for the Timber's showed up also. This day started with a different group warm-up, better than Monday's. A warm-up and stretch took about half an hour. No complaints here (how about that??) The field guys did some more small-sided and keep away over at the other end of the field while the keepers did some keeper work with Jim. We did a variety of drills where one keep was in goal and the others were shooting to score on him from various ranges and locations. I was doing well, holding my own in this, until the one drill. Everything we shot was supposed to be a moving ball. so this drill was to take a corner and square up for a direct shot. Well, I took a corner, and all four times, the guy shooting didn't roll the ball before hitting, and basically curved the ball into the upper corner of the goal. Thanks a lot, ass hole. After a good 45 minutes of this, we played some more small-sided. I ended up on the team of mostly returners, and don't take that as a sign of things to come. Didn't give up a goal this time, probably had something to do with the better team in front of me. Then we opened it up to a large field, and again I was in goal for the team of mostly returners. And, funny enough, during both of these games, I played absolutely fine. Played the ball quick when I had it, had 1-2 semi-difficult saves to make and made them clean, had one cross to come out on, took it cleanly. Great. Story time...
Midway through the large game, one of the returners went in hard on a tryout kid. He didn;t take to kindly to this and then next time the returner had the ball, straight took him out from behind. This, too, the returner didn't take kindly. They got in each others faces, exchanged shoves, AND THEN THE TRYOUT KID HEAD BUTTED THE RETURNED RIGHT IN THE FACE. I've never actually seen somebody do that in person before. Its a good thing there were 20 other kids trying out to keep the 6 standing Timber players from tearing the one kid to pieces. Needless to say, he was promptly dismissed for good. This was after a good minute of chaos that incuded a headlock and three kids needing to hold back one returning player because he was going so wild.
So, the day ended soon after. Gavin apparently didn't know that I had to go back to SCHOOL, because he was surprised when I thanked him for having me out for these couple of days. Apparently the one new signee from Oregon St. is missing 3 weeks of classes for training and such. HAHAHAHAH oh man I don't even know how to respond to that. Well, I do, but I'm sure it will offend some people somewhere (perhaps in Corvalis). I had to get back to Whitman, where I've got to prep for a big paper and a mid-term for next week, and continue work on my thesis, which will precede my orals. Maybe missing 3 weeks of classes would fly here? Maybe? Anyway, Gavin thanked me for coming and said they would be in touch. But, I already know that they'le be looking for another keeper who can be with them starting next week probably, and sure as hell is not going to be missing any of the season.
So, overall, it was a good two days of training in the sense that the level of play is just so much higher than I'm used to (sorry Whitman team), but on the other, I wish it was more of a practice atmosphere instead of a tryout atmosphere, for the reasons that I mentioned before.
I'd also like to say that the drive to and from Portland is so, so, so much nicer than the drive to and from Seattle. Until next time, Cheers from Walla Walla. (and PS, that was really long, I'm NOT going to go back and proof it)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
