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Blog #5 – Traveling to
Portugal
Thursday, Sept 6th – 6:00pm, Lisbon , Portugal
Wednesday night, the players were free and myself and the
staff went to a very nice German restaurant. The atmosphere
was very good and it was nice to get out of the hotel. We
then came back and waited in the hotel lobby to make sure
the players all came home before the curfew.
Coach Leo is very much into giving the team the
responsibility to take care of themselves. He made it clear
if anyone was late they would go home, no matter who there
were. All but three of the players were home 2 hours before
curfew and 3 came home at 10:30pm. They are all very focused
and them getting in trouble was not even an issue.
I woke up at 5:15 am to catch a taxi to the Franfurt
airport. I took off for Madrid at 7:55 am and arrived a bit
after 10:00am in Madrid. My friend Juan Sanchez picked me up
and brought me for lunch in his hometown of Alcala. It is
one of the oldest cities in Spain. He took me around to some
of the sights and then we went to his house to relax and
meet his mother. At 2:15 he took me back to the airport so I
could catch the flight to Lisbon.
The flight to Lisbon was less than an hour. We landed and I
walked out and saw Jan the team manager. The Polish team had
a delay and was arriving at the same time as us. The press
was all over the place and now you could see the pressure
start to build.
Simao of Portugal has publicly asked for the support of the
fans in the stadium for the next two games. He admitted that
they dropped too many points and now have to get 6 points
from the Poland and Serbia matches in the next week.
Jan flew in a day early to arrange everything. Ronald Koeman,
the Dutch coach of PSV Eindhoeven and former Benefica coach
had suggested a nice hotel perched on a quiet hill the Hotel
Sol Playa Apartamentos. The Police escorted the team to the
hotel . They arrived checked in and prepared for the
training session at 7pm. The training was at the National
Stadium (where they play the Portuguese Cup Final). It was a
15 minute walk down the hill, so I headed out to meet the
team.
Before I knew it the bus was following the police down to
the training complex. Out of nowhere 100’s of Polish fans
appeared as well as the Polish and Portuguese press. No one
could enter the gate (except for myself and bus driver) and
there was a lot of security to protect the team.
The training was the first activity of the day since it was
primarily a travel day. Coach Leo had to change the training
plan since the press was there and he did not want to give
anything away. Tonight at 7pm , Poland will train in the
Estadio da Luz (Stadium of Light) to get used to the pitch
and the lights.
Information on Estadio da Luz -
The Estádio da Luz officially named the Estádio do Sport
Lisboa e Benfica and commonly mistranslated as Stadium of
Light, is a football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, the home
of SL Benfica. It is also called A Catedral ("The
Cathedral") by Benfica's supporters.
Luz is actually the area of Lisbon in which the Estádio da
Luz stands and the word 'luz' happens to also mean 'light'.
As the people of Lisbon often referred to the original
stadium, demolished beginning in 2002, as simply the light,
the common English name for the stadium became the stadium
of light. The Stadium of Light in Sunderland, England may
well have been inspired by this Lisbon example, though it
has other well established reasons for bearing the name.
It hosted several matches in the 2004 European Football
Championship, including the final. The previous Benfica
stadium (also called "Estádio da Luz" and one of the largest
stadiums in the world with 120,000 seats) was demolished and
the new one was built for the tournament with an official
capacity of 65,647. The architect, Damon Lavelle, designed
the stadium to use as much natural light as possible. It is
classified by UEFA as a 5 star stadium, allowing it to host
major European cup finals.
Once again , practice started with Rondo. The goalkeepers
went with Frans and Andreyz and Aran warmed up the team
without the ball for 10-15 minutes (coordination and dynamic
stretching). They then had two groups of possession of 4V4
plus 3 with the starters + one in one group and the reserves
in the other.
Saturday for the game, 18 players can suit up. This means
that 7 will not play. They will be allowed on the bench.
For the last part of the practice , Coach Leo changed and
did some scoring exercises so the press would not give his
line-up away. At the end they did some longer sprints at one
speed and then caught the bus back to the hotel.
I walked up the hill to the hotel said goodbye and then took
a taxi to my hotel in the Center of Lisbon. Since I am
paying my own costs, I could not afford the hotel in either
Lisbon and Helsinki.
I checked into my hotel, showered and went out into the city
to get bite to eat and explore a bit. After a nice meal and
wandering the city for over 3 hours, I quickly added Lisbon
to my top 10 city list (San Francisco, Amsterdam, Barcelona,
Guadalajara, Florence, Innsbruck, Lisbon are a few more). I
went to the Baixa (downtown area) and then to the Barrio
Alto (the oldest part of the city) which had dozen’s of
small bars in narrow streets. It reminded me of San
Francisco (only several 100 years older), in the sense that
there were all kinds of hills. Barrio Alto is perched way on
top of the city with magnificent views in every direction.
About Lisbon
Boasting springtime temperatures during the winter and cool
summers freshened by a breeze blowing in from the Atlantic,
Costa de Lisboa, on the southwestern coast, offers a rich
and impressively integrated diversity. The capital of
Portugal since its conquest from the Moors in 1147, Lisbon
is a legendary city with over 20 centuries of History. The
Alfama is one of the oldest quarters in Lisboa. Since it
largely survived the earthquake of 1755, the area still
retains much of its original layout. Adjacent to the Alfama
are the likewise old quarters of Castelo and Mouraria, on
the western and northern slopes of the hill that is crowned
by St. George's Castle. Every year in June, the streets of
all three quarters come alive with the feasts in honour of
the popular saints. The Graça quarter and the churches of
São Vicente de Fora and Santa Engrácia are within walking
distance of this area. Radiant skies brighten the monumental
city, with its typical tile covered building façades and
narrow Medieval streets, where one can hear the fado being
played and sung at night. But Lisbon is also the stage for
popular festivities, the place for exquisite, shopping ,
exciting nightlife, and interesting museums, a place from
where motorways branch off in different directions.
Well it is now Friday , morning and I just finished
breakfast. I am going to go and do some shopping and then
head to the Polish team hotel and work with Frans Hoek
before watching the training tonight.
Until next time. Ciao.
Andrew |
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