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The Lakeland soccer program is spending its spring break on a 10-day European Soccer Tour in the United Kingdom.

During the visit, members of the men's and women's soccer teams will compete against local soccer teams, visit tourist attractions and attend professional soccer games in and around London and Chester.

Student-athletes from both teams will be blogging regularly throughout the trip. See below for their thoughts and observations from England.

March 14

After sitting on a plane for 10 hours, due to a 2.5 hour delay, we had an awesome experience in our first destination in the city of Chester. We started off the morning with a training session at the Kings Junior School, followed by a day of sightseeing in downtown Chester. We saw the Chester Cathedral with many stained glass windows and sections of the church were decorated differently and extensively. The city of Chester is lined with a wall that goes straight through the middle. We walked along different sections, seeing the different sites and parts of the city. After sightseeing, we went into some local fashion stores, for some shopping and had a bit of an adventurous time finding the correct bus to make it back in time for dinner at the hotel. 

P.S. Today was Mum's day! So happy Mother's Day to all our "Mums" back home from England! 

- junior Maria Santelli and senior Jessica Hopfinger

We were able to arrive to O'Hare and get through customs and security with little problem and some time to spare. Excitement was pulsating through everyone's veins as we boarded the British Airways flight to Heathrow Airport in London, England. As we settled into our seats we got some depressing news from our captain informing us that there would be a 15 minute delay … three hours later, we finally took off. The 7.5 hour flight was riddled with sub-par meals, short-lived naps and a wide variety of movies. We landed at Heathrow and started our next day. 

We woke at 8 a.m. and had a breakfast of bacon, black pudding and white scrambled eggs. We went to soccer training at King's Junior School. The facilities were excellent, namely the locker room near the field with full plumbing! Playing outdoors in England definitely tops the inside of the Wehr Field House after such a long winter. We were dropped off in the city of Chester and found out later that we had left our soccer balls on the bus seats, and when our bus driver made his first stop after letting us off, they all bombarded him at the front of the bus.

The city of Chester is a beautiful one, circled completely by a stone wall. We had the joy of hiking around the weathered stone wall, compared to a smaller version of the Great Wall of China, and there we saw Chester at its finest: The Oldest Pub in England, the Chester Cathedral (largest in England) and a renowned Clock Tower. Most of us were affected similarly by Chester, so we decided to take alternate transportation back to our hotel. We had a three-course meal at the hotel restaurant by a waitress who resembled Emma Watson from the Harry Potter novels. Our bus driver's general (and eating) habits border on eccentric … however, we are enjoying the trip with extra time spent in the sauna, swimming pool, and watching soccer live in the hotel lounge.

- sophomores Danny Spatchek and Adam Benson

We travelled to Liverpool where we played the Tranmere Rovers Academy, the development squad of the Tranmere Rovers, a second division professional team. We lost 3-0 to a very skilled and technical side. Following the match, we toured Liverpool mostly on an open top bus. We saw sites such as the birthplace of the Beatles, the River Mersey, and the biggest Cathedral in England. It was a culturally enlightening experience. There was so much to do in Liverpool that we couldn't possibly fit it all in, but we did have a good opportunity to mingle with some of the local people in a tavern. Then our bus came and took us back to our hotel as a very tired group of 20 people. That night, we headed to the Chester City Centre and at first thought that the city would be dead, but were very surprised to find that it was going slightly mad as it was deemed "smurf night" by a local and all of the local students were dressed in blue paint and white hats. It was a very interesting evening.
 
The following day we traveled to Manchester to shop and tour Manchester United's Stadium, Old Trafford, and play a match. Our tour guide informed us on over 100 years of the club's history. The tour guide was knowledgeable and passionate about his beloved team. We finished the day by a semi-professional team Woodley Sports FC to a 9-2 loss. Their conditioning, match savvy and technical skills outdistanced our own tremendously. Despite the manner of the result, Woodley defined the spirit of the friendly match as the offered our team equipment before the match, displayed sportsmanship during it, and gave us a standing ovation after the match. It was emotionally uplifting. We're planning on staying in contact with Woodley which really witnesses for the idea that soccer can be a focus for good in the world. 

 - sophomores Danny Spatchek and Adam Benson (Monday and Tuesday)

It was a four-hour trip from Chester to London. We toured Windsor Castle, the retreat and home for the Royal Family. England's flag was raised on one of the castle's towers meaning the Queen was there. Everyone walked through the castle at their own pace as audio devices served as the tour guides instructing people about buildings, rooms, individual works of art, armory, etc. The castle held the work of incredibly famous artists and authors. We saw drawings by Da Vinci, a painting by Pieter Brueghel, the royal library even had original Chaucer manuscripts. The immensity of the castle's history was impossible to grasp. After Windsor we practiced at a field near our hotel. One of the features of our hotel is a 5 v. 5 soccer field near the fitness center.

We took a bus through central London to get a tour of Chelsea Football Club's stadium, Stamford Bridge. Our tour guide, David, arranged for a scenic route to be taken despite it being a farther journey than necessary, but more worthwhile. Such improvisation has been sort of a trademark for Dave, who has made a constant effort to make this trip an enjoyable one for us. An anecdote will help you better understand.  At our arrival in our hotel in London, some of the rooms had one bed between two people. Our assistant, Sam Schroeder, was not too keen on sharing a bed , and before another bed was added to the room, Sam had informed David of this.

So we were able to see the Eye of London, Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, due to David's anticipation of our groups needs. The tour of Chelsea was shorter and less satisfying than the Old Trafford one and everyone in the group seemed to think so. But the tour guide for the stadium explained about the strategic construction put into the visitors locker rooms at Stamford Bridge and around the Premier League. At Chelsea, they aim to comfort and over-relax their opponents, where Liverpool had an intentionally "slick as ice" floor aimed to injure opponents before the game. People unfamiliar with soccer might call it dirty, but such a tactic evidences the extent of soccer mania in Europe. We drove to our last match against an adult club team Woodley Saints FC. The start time was 6 p.m., so we were to play under the lights. When we arrived we learned that the surface under the lighted field required flat shoes. Unfortunately, we were only able to play 45 minutes. Ryan Malo scored the game's only goal and we held on to win 1-0.

- sophomore Danny Spatchek

3/19/10

We went to London for six hours of free time. Dave, our tour guide, suggested we watch the changing of the guard near Buckingham Palace. After a half hour of taking pictures of guards on horses and wondering about the significance of the unfolding event, we went off to see if we could see anything in foggy London town. Worthy site-seeing destinations are seemingly unlimited in London. Had we closed our eyes, pointed to a map of London, and visited wherever our index fingers landed, we would have likely been more than satisfied with the day's result. We headed for the Eye of London, the largest Ferris wheel in Europe that moves incredibly slowly (it takes thirty minutes to make it around), and therefore essentially serves as an observation tower. Before we reached the Eye, we snapped some pictures of Big Ben (which is actually the name of the bell inside of the clock, not the entire clock), Westminster Abbey, and Parliament. The Eye of London allowed us to see a telling portrait of London, and gave us an opportunity to take pictures with remarkable backgrounds. People split up from there, but not before a number of us were selected to take part in a street show that had us making a human table (Sam Schroeder, Troy Eichenberger, Jeremy Hardy, and Alex Piekarski being the framework) which was eventually capable of holding a small girl. From there, the groups split up, some taking a bus tour all the way to London Bridge, and others just mulling around the streets in search of the nearest Pizza Hut. I can say confidently that everyone would have loved to spend another day in London. Then again, if this were possible, I'd be saying that confidently for a while.

3/20/10

We traveled to Portsmouth to watch their Premier League team, Portsmouth FC, take on Hull City. It wasn't pouring, but the freezing temperature made it feel so. Before the game, we saw the famous Admiral Nelson's ships, the HMS Victory and HMS Warrior. The game was an experience that must have affected the entire group as the home and away crowds sang most of the game—some songs adhering to the Northern Athletics Conference's "Be Loud, Be Proud, Be Positive" slogan and others failing, only slightly, to do so. The game was played at the highest of levels. Hull City was winning 2-1 before Portsmouth leveled with a pinpoint free kick in the 88th minute and notched the go-ahead goal a minute later after an eye-opening solo run down the wing that set up a Portsmouth player, Nwankwo Kanu, on the six-yard box. Tour guide Dave said he believed that the support of the Portsmouth fans on that side of the stadium actually "sucked the ball into the net." Back at our hotel, Dave called a meeting where he put into words the close friendship that he saw developing between the group while we were in England. He urged us to work for our coach, Dave Madsen, a man whose persistence, before and during the trip, our team came to appreciate more than ever. He went on about what we've meant to him, saying that he would go to war with the players on our team. He was emotional, and so were we as team captain Adam Benson gave him a Lakeland banner after voicing similar sentiments on behalf of the team. This trip gave the entire team a soccer fever and, more importantly, a sense of how blessed we are to play the game.

- sophomore Danny Spatchek