St. George's Park

While the players trained with Tottenham Spurs, the parents headed to Manchester. Breaking up the ride from London to Manchester was a stop at St. George's Park National Training Centre, the training and preparation ground for all 28 of England's national teams. The Centre has 12 world class training grounds, with both grass and artificial surfaces, once of which is an exact replica of the surface used at Wembly Stadium, as well as a full sized indoor field and other state of the art facilities. While there were various individuals and coaches using the facilities while we were there, none of the national teams were in camp. It was quite incredible to see, such a rich history of soccer in England! 

As we were leaving, our players were arriving and I was able to grab this photo of Emily and her friends.

London

We had a single afternoon of free time in London and we made the most of it, seeing Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and then having lunch and shopping at Piccadilly Circus with Emily and her best friends.

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

06s in London

Buckingham Palace

Canada Gate

Lunch in Piccadilly Circus

Regent Street

Watford FC v Plymouth FC

The first part of our adventure in England was attending a game at Vicarage Road Stadium, watching the home team of Watford FC take on Plymouth. Our seats were at field level with just enough room between the seats and the actual grass - at eye level. I'm pretty certain that we will never get the chance to be so close to professional player again. Watford is currently in the Championship League, although with pro/rel, it was part of the Premier League only two years ago. The game was an exciting 0-0 draw and it was a great way to battle through jet lag. 

06s with Coach Goran

England Adventures!

In early August, Emily and Maureen, along with 100 of their closest club soccer friends, flew to England for a ten day trip to train, play and explore London and Manchester. Although Emily has been talking about this trip for months, Maureen had very low expectations - and boy, was she taken by surprise. They had a really great time on this trip - the training was very high end, the games were excellent and the time spent with our friends was priceless. Follow along for our UK adventures!!

On our way to Logan.

Arriving early + delayed flight = 5+ hours in Logan.

World traveler!

Dawn breaking

No sleep, but excited to have arrived.