Sunday, September 26, 2010

Two Days of Football

Day 3 started the same as day two and once again the breakfast at the Keio plaza where Grant and I and a few other families had the good fortune to find ourselves staying in (as the Hachioji Plaza was all booked out) was an amazing feast of western, and Japanese delights. This time though the families staying there and the coaches were ushered into a private room for breakfast, having either done something very right, or very wrong the morning before.

After checking out it was once again a short bus trip to the Hachioji Coerver park to play a tournament with teams from different schools round the district. The boys/girls were much more relaxed today and had finally found their feet after being a bit shell shocked, drained and surprised by the heat of the day before.

Grant played his first game of the day in goals (which they lost 2-0) and the next two as
sweeper. They lost the second in the last couple of minutes of the game when the opposition scored two quick goals. They had the next stolen from them in the last 8 seconds of the match after dominating for the whole game. They won the third and the fourth was a draw. By the last match to play off for a 5th and 6th position, they had settled in and were finally playing as a team and played some beautiful football. They won 2-0 and had the large crowd on tender hooks oo-ing and ah-ing. Grant was very happy to finally play up front for the first time today and watching them work the ball up the field was beautiful to watch.

It's been very difficult for our kids, playing on teams with players that they've never played with before and in positions they may not usually play in. The teams they're versing play together all the time and work so well together. (Similar I guess to when the Socceroos come together for big tournaments). Having said that as the day went on, we were starting to put plays together and some of boys skills were there for everyone to see.



We were lucky enough to have one u9/10 team make it into the grand final and one u11/12 team. Both teams finished second, but were very happy to have made it so far against such formidable opponents. The u11/12 final was a great moment in Australia/Japan relations with many of the Japanese getting into the Aussie spirit and cheering loudly along with the Aussie boys and girls watching to Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie, Oy oy oy, the cookie monster chant, turn up the radio what do you hear and finally the aussie national anthem. The game was played in great spirit and I'll try post some of the video to give you an idea of this great occasion.

Between their last match and their play-off it was a joy to see an impromptu game between some of the Japanese coaches and Grant out on the field. After watching for a while, a few more of the Aussie boys joined in and by the time Grant's team had to get ready for their final match, the pitch was covered in Aussie boys and Japanese coaches having the time of their lives. Again, a defining moment for the trip and what this tour is all about. Again, I'll try post some video footage later if I can.


I had the opportunity to talk to many coaches and directors of Coerver schools in and around this district as well as around the surrounding districts. They were all extremely approachable and obviously love what they do. Unfortunately I was called upon to do a bit of translating during the opening ceremony and let me tell you rusty just doesn't quite cut in when describing my fluency of Japanese, luckily there were very few people in attendance that knew how much I left out or mis-translated. ;-) On the other hand, being able to communicate with them in Japanese was a bonus as Grant was invited to play at several schools while we're here which made his day when I told him.


The games were all played on futsal size fields and five a side games and 6 min games no halftime.

I'm writing this as we're travelling by bus from the Hachioji park to the Shinjuku Washington hotel. We'd only been travelling about 15 minutes when one of the boys said to his dad that he had to go to the toilet. Although Dad said, just suck it up or 'gaman shite', I was pretty sure dad didn't really understand just how far we had to travel. We'd been used to the 15 min ride to Hachioji Plaza Hotel and considering that the boys had been sipping water all day, I had an inkling that he wasn't the only one who needed to go. Anyway on checking with the driver, he said it would be about 1 and a half to two hours before we got there and there were no rest stops in between. I explained that there was at least one boy about to burst, he said if he saw a slightly wider shoulder on the freeway he'd stop. I just turned round to tell the boys and saw a father and son hiding behind a chair about to fill an empty bottle. Luckily the bus driver said he found a spot and it was such a funny sight to see all the boys and one girl rush off the bus and line up along the bushes to relieve themselves. Many of the parents took photos and others restrained themselves very well. I fit into the last category and just lived in the moment with the others, again another bonding moment for the families.

One thing I omitted to mention earlier was the Chickenpox breakout! Yes, as Spike said, we were greeted at the 2nd hotel at 8.30 am by many parents and children swapping buses to ours with the news that one of the boys had come down with the Chickenpox and was going to be quarantined. There was at least one boy who hadn't had or been immunised for chickenpox and after getting the ok from a team of Japanese and Aussie doctors, our trainer gave the ok for the boys to continue playing. The Japanese are routinely immunised, and the tournament was given the all clear to go ahead, unfortunately minus one of the boys. We all felt very sorry for him and his parents and hope the spots will heal over soon so that he'll be given the all-clear to play during the tour.

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