Friday, June 18th

Friday was the day of the big US-Slovenia match. Understandably, the players wanted to watch the game, but after a light day on Thursday, I wanted them to get a bit of workout in before the weekend. We met at the high school and then ran (about 1.8 miles) to the Pierces, who had invited us to come watch the game.

And what a game it was. It was a great game, made even better by watching it as a group. I doubt any of us present will ever forget the moment when the US capped its comeback with its 3rd goal, only to see it disallowed. The emotions in the room ran the gamut: elation, disbelief, disappointment, anger. Still, in the end, a good result for the US and more importantly, a good time for the boys.

After the game, we, of course, ran back to the high school (and talked about the game the whole way).

Thanks to the Pierces for hosting the group.

Thursday, June 17th

We had a fairly easy day as many of the boys were banged up a bit from 7 v 7 and a hard week of workouts.

We played some Hoover ball, which involves a medicine ball and a volleyball net. Players catch the ball and through it back over the net as seen in this video:

As the boys quickly learned, it is a total body workout as you can't just use your arms to catch the ball. You have to get your whole body behind/underneath the ball.

We then used the volleyball net to play a little soccer tennis. It is a fun way to work on ball control.

We finished up with some futsal.