Monday, March 31, 2008

Monday 3-31-08


Below is a website that has TV footage of our game vs De Bataven in Gendt, Holland (Daan and Tim's team).
Follow the links and when you get to the list of programs, click the top left program. The game footage starts @ 17 minutes into the program.

On this site (http://www.tvlingewaard.com) go to televisie—> bekijk uitzending—> medaiplayer. You can view the TV Lingewaard broadcasting of the match that the St. Louis team played against the Bataven (at the end of the movie).


Below is the recap of the game vs SKV of Wageningen (Tom Menting's old team)

Just a short match report for our guests from St. Louis. Thursday, 27th march 2008, the match between SKV C1 and the college team from St. Louis. SKV started the match very good. It pushes St. Louis far back on its own half. The St. Louis defenders have their hands full, but they are doing a great job. It is good to see that both the boys and girls of St. Louis really enjoy playing football (or should I say soccer) very enthusiastic. Lots of energy and lots duels. SKV also uses this friendly match to try out several younger players from another team, because the C1 has some players with injures and they need some more time to recover. In the first half SKV is quite dominant, but it can not create much scoring opportunities. After 4 minutes the first shot on goal, but it is nicely saved by the goalkeeper of st. Louis. Unfortunately after 15 minutes our centre forward player must leave the game with an injury. Later in the hospital it is diagnosed as a small broken bone in his hand. He has a plaster bandage and needs to take a few weeks rest.

The first half continues with regular attacks from SKV, which result in only a few real good changes. One change for our centre forward, but it takes to much time to position the ball for his right foot. Few minutes later a fantastic save by the St. Louis goalkeeper prevents a goal. Just before half time a shot from Daniel but it hits the crossbar.

The second half is totally different. St. Louis starts much better. The combinations are good and especially dangerous are their fast attacks. It takes only a few fast combinations and the forwards are in scoring positions. SKV does not know how to handle that, and our goalkeeper needs to do some saves. Some of them require the assistance of the defenders. These fast attacks from St. Louis are really dangerous. SKV is playing 1 on 1 in the defense, and that can be quite risky. After 15 minutes SKV recovers a bit from the attacks from St. Louis. A beautiful cross reaches our centre forward, and he does not hesitate and shoots immediately at the goal. Again the crossbar saves St. Louis. A few minutes later Daniel can score after a pass from Lars. Daniel passes his direct opponent and shoots hard and low, 1-0. Being 1-0 behind inspires St. Louis to go for it. It starts to play passionately. It feels that it can still go for the 1-1. It pushes SKV way back in the defense. The attacks from St. Louis keep getting closer to the SKV goal. The players of St. Louis are pushing forward. It is with good combination football and fast forward that they can do this, but luckily for SKV the final shot or combination can be defended.

Five minutes before the final whistle SKV can score the 2-0. After an attack of St. Louis the ball is immediately played far out on our forward Daniel, He goes solo onto the goalkeeper, but unfortunately Daniel can not control the ball and the goalkeeper can pick it up. Finally St. Louis gets the desired result. A combination through the middle is not handle correctly by SKV and Tom (former SKV player) can score for St. Louis, 1-1. Almost immediately after the 1-1 the referee ends the game. After the game all the players from St. Louis get a small memorabilia (key ring with wooden shoes) to remember this game.

For both teams I think this was a great experience. It is always nice to play against international teams. St. Louis thank you very much for this game.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Sat - 3-29-08
9:45 am local St. Louis ( 3:45 pm dutch)

thanks for the responses to the blog about our safe return.
the link to Bataven provides some great photos - need some help with the interviews and write-ups (dutchies ???)

A very special thanks to Tim who was huge in the preparation of this trip. He was a valuable partner from the beginning to the end. He did all that was asked of him and did it very well. Trips just don't happen to go smoothly without a lot of reasons. Thanks Tim !!!

Also thanks to the adults who were on the trip with us to help in so many ways --
Norm, Cathy, Charlie and Marc. It was a team effort and we all have great memories that will last forever. Thanks to all !!!

We will definitely plan to return over next Easter with more experience and with young players who will enjoy themselves in the same way as the players did on this trip.

Any of the dutchies with photos could please send them to Terry or Tim and we are going to compile everyone's photos on a memory stick and give to everyone.(like we did last summer)

Also, for the dutchies, I will send the sweatshirts to Jan and he is planning a meeting for you and he will give them to you at that time.

St Louis parents may also order a sweatshirt and I will send an email about that soon.

thanks to Rody's parents for taking on Nico for the entire trip and for seeing us off at Schiphol. Rody and Nico were the perfect pair --

Thanks to all the dutch parents for visiting at our Hotel on the Thursday night to say good-byes -- that was very special that you were there with us. We are vey lucky to have established this new friendship with people who live in different parts of the world. When any of you want to visit America, especially, St Louis we will have everything for you. Please take us up on this at some time.

all the best

Terry

Friday, March 28, 2008

Friday 3-28-08
9:00 pm St Louis local time (3 am Dutch time)

We have safely arrived home after a very smooth flight from Amsterdam to Chicago, and then a 30 minute delay in Chicago and then, the final touchdown in St Louis to complete the return trip of the CBC-dutch touch International Soccer Experience.

Wow !!!!! What a trip !!

Special thanks to the St Louis players and parents for making this happen --
it's a great idea, but it must have a following.

Special thanks to Jan Pruijn for his expertise in arranging this wonderful trip for our kids. We had everything possible for the best trip possible. Jan had 10 teams from outside of Holland over during this 2 week period and managed to pull it off very well.

Special thanks to the Dutch host families: The families of Jip, Daan, Tom Menting, Michelle and Jordie, Tim, Rody and Irene. The hospitality and friendship was tremendous and greatly appreciated. They became our cheering section for each of the games and spent time with us even after the boys left and came into the Hotel.
We have made new friends through this soccer experience and we are better for it.

Special thanks to the 'dutchies' - Jip, Jordie, Michelle, Rody, Tim, Daan, Tom Menting and Tom Stuve who trained and or played games with us. Your friendship, influence, laughter and style of play is important to us.

Special thanks to Harry and Theo, our Dutch trainers and friends. They trained the boys and coached them during the games and shared with all of us their passion and knowledge of the game.

We look forward to the July camp (20-25 July) with 12 Dutch players and 2 German players coming to St Louis. We also will plan a return trip next Easter back to the Netherlands with the St Louis players.

We are all home, but hwne asked at the airport about retunring to Holland, one of our group said - yes, tomorrow !! That says it all.

thanks again to everyone for all that you did to make this trip a lifelong experioence.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Wed - 3-26-08 8:45 am local (2:45 am StL)

yesterday was a busy day with training, shopping in Nijmegen, toured the NEC stadium, played a 'friendly'with a nearby team of Jordie and Michelle (L 1-4) and then finished the night watching a soccer blooper DVD back in the Hotel.

Today's schedule calls for training or morning game with visiting Canadian team, back to Nijmegen for the soccer shop, tour the War Museum of '44-45 in Groesbeek, then an evening game ve de Bataven (Daan and Tim's team).

Cold and dark clouds with a bit of snow to start the day.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Tuesday - 3-25-08 12 noon local time (6 am StL time)

we just finished the training session ahead of the first dose of snow for the day.
It seems that we get every form of weather in the same day, except warm temps.
Yesterday started with snow, cleared, sunny, rain, sleet and snow and some form of freezing sonw/rain/ hail. It certainly was a mess as some of us were trying to get out of Amsterdam and back toi the hotel.

the first night at the De Oude Molen was fine and the morning breakfast was plentiful and good. We are now back for lunch and then to Nijmegen for the day --
watch professional training, tour the stadium, walk the city along the river, and shop at the local soccer shop. this evening we will have a 'friendly' - although due to the weather and poor field conditions, it has been changed to a turf field in the city where we are staying.

more pictures will foolow as many have been taken.

yesterday was the day with the families and many activities took place --- a castle was visited and lazer tag was played, bowling, ice-skating, sightseeing, taking in as much Dutch culture as possible.

ok for now, more later.

all is well to date

Monday, March 24, 2008

Monday 3-24-08 10:30 am local time- 4:30 am St Louis time

a day off today to spend with the families, visiting sites in Holland.
The day started with snow and is a mixed sky with the sun peeking out occassionally.
The week's forecast is for much the same all week with temps rising from 5,6,7.8 celcius as the week goes on.

starting tonight we all gather in the De Oude Molen (Old Windmill) hotel for the rest of the trip. Tuesday is training and spending the day in Nijmegen watching NEC (por teasm_ train and then sightsee and visit a soccer shop. In the evening we have a friendlie vs the team from Michelle and Jordie.

we are off to see some youth games of the NEC pro system and then a driving tour of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and the north.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Vroluk Pasen - Happy Easter






I see Terry already posted information on the tournament, and it is now my turn to post a few pictures. I am keeping a daily log and have much to share about Nederland in general. Irene informed it is no longer Holland!

Regards,

Tim Tettambel
Easter Sunday (5:30 pm local time - 11:30 am St. Louis)

It was a nice day throughout today for the weather with the sun shining for all 3 games. The boys played very well in the first game of the day vs England, but had bad luck. We lost 0-2, in what very easily could/should have been a 1-1 draw. A penalty kick not given and a very questionable late, offside second goal was the story of the game. That English ended playing for the championship of our division. In the 2nd game, we lost 0-1 on late misplay goal that left all of us a bit disappointed. We had our fair share of chances throughout the first 2 games, but failed to capitalize. In the final game of the game, the position game, we prevailed in an exciting game that saw 5 goals. We took the lead twice only to have the Denmak team draw level with us - but in the end , in extra time, Jip Ukusare completed his hat trick for team St. Louis dutch-touch. So, we ended on the right note, with a much deserved victory, and on the day we played 2 very good games.

Monday, the players will take a day off from soccer and spend the day with the families. Easter Monday, in the Netherlands, is a holiday, so everyone, all the parents, will be involved in the day's activities. Then Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are busy days with 'friendlies'at night. The players will re-group Monday night and stay in the De Oude Molen Hotel for the remainder of the trip.

We have tons of pictures being taken and we were all given a team photo of our St Louis- Dutch team, very nice !!!

look for pictures and the girl's results to follow.
I apologize for not info on the girls but they are playing in a different location than we are. Look for comments to this post and the girl's result will be posted by the vd Laan family.

I was just informed that the English team that we played well against this morning, won the Championship 1-0 vs Scotland. That was our best game and as I said, it should have ended 1-1.

Hope everyone is enjoying a happy Easter - things are fine over here and the weather is till cooperating - dry and not so cold !!
Easter Sunday

The easter bunny has arrived and brought a stranger to town today -- the sun with clear skies !!!!! Hopefully, that will be an omen of good things for the day. The boys resume pool play today with games vs England and Denmark and then the position game, while the girls play for the championship of their division. There is a comment posted from yesterday's post from the vdLaan family with the good news that the girls finished first in the pool and today will have the chance to play for the championship.

This tournament consisit of 450 teams from 15 different countries = it is the European equivalent of the Dallas Cup !!

more later today with hopefully good results

we need to leave now in a hurry while the sun is still hanging around.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

SAT AFTERNOION 4:15 PM dutch time (10:15 am St Louis time)

another day of cold, wet weather -- and 3 shortened games.
adue to the weather and field conditions, the games were 20 minutes long.
first game vs Austria 0-0,
2nd game vs SC Venray (Holland, the host city's club) 0-3,
and the 3rd gaame vs Denmark, 0-3.

We are still looking for our first goal.
The boys were joined by the dutchies from the St Louis camp in July:
Tim, Dan, Rody, Jordie, Jip and Tom.
The dutchies rained with us on Friday as well.

The girls joined a local team as guest players and did very well in their games.
I do not have specific information om their results. Tomorrow, concludes the tournament with 3 more games.

frpm all indications, everyone is adjusting very well to their new ´digs´.
I have spoken with everyone, and all is well.
Having many of the dutchies around from last summer is really special and the interactions between the groups is fun to watch.

Tim will be posting photos and that will be nice to the activities of the group.

all the players are with their ´families´ until game/time tomorrow.

more tomorrow //





It is now Saturday morning and we are able to post pictures!!!

It was a long day with the children having two -1hour- training sessions and the premeirship game. All were extremely tired when we left the match at 11 pm. The children also experienced a seasons worth of weather in one day - rain, sunshine, and snow.

I will post more later today, for we are off to the matches.
sat - 3-22-08

a quick short note as we are off to the tournament -
the weather today should be dry -- dmp and cold, but dry.
yesterday was a good day of soccer and alousy day of weather, but we all made it ok.
the game last night was exciting as the home team - Vitesse - was losing 1-3 at halftime and scored 2 second half goals to earn a draw. There was a banner in the stadium, in our section that Jan had done -St Louis USA greets Vitesse - we had pictures taken = and oh yes, we have the banner !!

more later

Friday, March 21, 2008

3-21-08
9:00 am local time (3:00 am St. Louis time)

As we get ready for the first of many long, exciting days, we actually had a teaser of sunshine, followed quickly by the ominous dark clouds, suspicious of the possibility of rain.

we have 2 training sessions scheduled today on turf fields, so the weather will not affect that. Tonight, we go to Arhnem, nearby city, for the professional match, and that will be played as scheduled.

As I am sitting here right now, it has just started to rain and the sky looks very unforgiving -- more rain, for sure !!

I am hoping the players got caught up on their rest as theysettled nin with their 'new'best friends. The comments posted here regarding yesterday's report, indicate that all is well and we are off to a great start.

Hopefully, we will be able to post some photos. We took a group shot outside of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam as we were awaiting our bus. Pictures were also taken when the host families arrived for pickup.

In the time it took me to type this far, the weather has gone completely bonkers. As I just looked up and it is now a slanting, rain, sleet and snow combunation, The good news is that we are 2 hours from our scheduled training time, plenty of time for the sun to show it's most welcomed face again.

Oh well, I better stop while I'm ahead. Who knows if I stay on here any longer and the weather keeps changing, we could have that last St. Louis snow.

more later after the match tomight.
thanks for the comments. The kids have been great to date !!!

Thursday, March 20, 2008

3-20-08

yes we have arrived to the land of tulips, windmills, bicycles wooden shoes = and RAIN !!

Our flight from Amsterdam was smooth and arrived 50 minutes early !!
we were taken by bus to our meeting point, Hotel de Oude Molen, in Groesbeekn The Netherlands for a meeting with our host Jan Pruijn and the host families. After a short meeting with Jan, a Dutch lunch of soup, kroketten and sandwiches of ham or cheese, the host families started arrivingg for introductions and meeting the players. It was great to see some of our 'dutchies'from last summer - Daan, Tim, Rody, and Tom - their parents - plus the mother of Jip and Michelle and Jordie.
The players were then taken to their dutch 'homes'to settle in for the next 4 days.

Rest was in order after the long trip - with training in the morning and afternoon tomorrow, follwed by the Vitsse - NAC game in the Eredivisie, the Dutch 1st division.

we will try to update this post as often as the schedule will allow and post pictures as we can.

the anticipation has been realized and the reality is now - we are here and ready for the busy days ahead.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Off to Holland

March 10, 2008

CBC - Dutch Touch Off to Holland

Off to the land of tulips, windmills, wooden shoes, bicycles …… and oh yes, some very good soccer as well. The CBC – Dutch Touch International Soccer Program is sponsoring a soccer trip to Holland March 19 through March 28. The group will compete in an Easter Holiday Tournament, play a series of ‘friendlies’ with local Dutch teams, train with Dutch coaches and visit training sessions and attend matches of the professional and youth teams of Holland. In addition to the soccer, the players will stay in the homes of our new Dutch friends and experience the culture of Holland.
This is a continuation of the program that was initiated last summer when 12 young Dutch players and 3 fully licensed Dutch coaches attended a week long International Camp at CBC High School. Our players will stay in the homes of the players who came to St. Louis last summer -- a great way to strengthen new friendships.
The group of players going to Holland are: Austin Adams, Jimmy Bruenning, Nico Cruz, Greg Evens, Stephen Koeller, Clair Laufketter, Brian Murphy, Maxine Peat, Alex Severino, and Zac Vogt. Terry Michler and Tim Tettambel will accompany the group and Jan Pruijn will coordinate the activities in Holland.
The plans are in place for ’08 International Summer Camp to be held again at CBC High School from July 20 – 25. With enrollment limited and the interest in the camp very high, applications will fill quickly. If you are interested in attending, please see the advertisement on www.stlsoccer.net which also includes an application. Any questions, please contact Terry Michler at michlert@cbchs.org