Home Sweet Home... bringing home some hardware!!!

Celebrate!!!

Nevada Team.

Congratulations players!

You were fantastic! 4-2 overall, 3rd place out of 12!

Hoist the cup Walt! You deserve it!

We are home and we have some hardware! We finished 4-2 overall and won the Shield bracket (consolation bracket) of the U14G Donosti Cup Tournament. That places us third overall out of twelve teams! In total, 258 teams from around the world competed this year and we saw and met teams from many different countries. And when it was all said and done, we beat a team from Nevada for "The Shield"!

A huge "thank you" goes out to Walt Howard!!! Without Walt, this trip would have never happened. Walt planted the seed many months ago for this trip and cared for it and watered it and fertilized it. We reaped the benefits of Walts effort and we all had a fantastic experience!!! Many others... too many to mention, I'd hate to leave anyone out, put in a lot of time and effort over the months and they deserve a big thank you, also!

Thank you Walt!

Another win for USA Futbol!!!

Disco night last night...

Prep for game 5 against a Spainish team. Won 5-1! Now 3-2 overall!!

Our wonderful guide Unai!!!

Spainish coast.

The girls played another fantastic game last evening!!! We beat a good Spain team 5-1, controling the pitch from the opening kickoff to the final whistle. Scoring goals were Liana, Hannah, Jamie, Jenna, and either Kaili or Jessi... those two are going to have to share that one. Great, great teamwork!!! We can already see how our girls are learning from our competition. It's fun to watch happen! Our record now runs to 3-2, with our final playoff game tonight. If we win, we may need to pick-up more luggage to carry all the hardware home... let's hope so!!! GO WISCONSIN!

We had a lovely trip up the Spanish coast today. We went to our bus driver's home town. A gorgeous coastal village with the best beach in Spain. What a great time the girls and all of us are having. We hope you liked the pictures, but they don't do justice to all we're seeing and experiencing. You will have to see the pictures we all bring back... have your daughter bring you here some day. Fantastico!!!

After our game tonight, I will make a quick update on the results. That will be the final blog entry from here... unless I have time in the Madrid airport.

(Sorry about all the typos and spelling problems... I think I'll have to keep my day job.)

Cheers!

A parent's perspective........

This place is amazing and this experience has been incredible. Everybody is doing well, eating different foods (some more than others) and sleeping with 16 girls in the bottom of a school next to the U13 Venzuelen boys has been interesting as well. In addition to our during the day meeting spot, "Cafe Isabel", our night time meeting spot is "Ventura de Curro" which also happens to be a bar. This has been a nice spot for the parents to meet each night to recap day and plan for the next. Two more days and we are on our way home....off to the 2nd to last game and then to the disco with the girls........until next time..........

Meredith S.

Greetings from Cafe Isabel

It's mid afternoon and we've settled down into our favorite spot at the Isabel. It has become the unofficial meeting place for all the parents - Kathy and I left the Pension Aneota wondering where other groups might be and sure enough, everyone's at the Isabel!

Games have gone well. We met two evenly matched local teams early on, which I think helped get our feet underneath us (we were still a little weary after the plane ride). Our last two matches have been against some quality opposition. Teams that you can tell have spent a lot of time on the training pitch. Their ball movement and sense ofthe game was impecable. We played well, but competing against quality team after four games in four days, trips to the beach, sightseeing... you can tell our legs are a bit heavy. Hopefully we can find a bit of our spark back for tonights game. Not sure who we are playing, when, or where, but the second round begins and anything is possible.


More later!
Sean

P.S.
All's well Mom!!!!

Game 4 vs. Spain Team

Dinner with the Venezualans! Mmmmmmmmmmm...

Walking in for opening ceremony.

Crossing stage in opening ceremony.


Opening ceremony - stadium photo.

Opening ceremony - band and dancers.

Room needs cleaning...

Biarritz, France! Breathtaking, and the scenery is nice too!!!

Dani and the flags! GO WISCONSIN!!!

Belgium Team

Spain 3 Team

We played another team from Spain today and we lost 0-3. We are now 2-2 overall. We are really getting to see and play against good European futbol! These are some very experienced all-star teams we are running into now. The passing and game management is amazing!! We are having a great time and learning alot!

We took a road trip to southern France yesterday. B-E-A-UTIFUL!!! If we kept a team record for fun, we would be 1000-0!!! We are resting a bit this afternoon and starting our clean-up. The girls toughest challenge on this trip may be the clean-up! :-)

Playoff game tonight and another tomorrow. We have a bus trip through the country side scheduled for tomorrow. And... it is DISCO NIGHT TONIGHT!!! Can't wait to boogie with the Venezuelan boys!!

More to come...

Game 3 vs Belgium

Quick update... we took one on the chin today. We played an outstanding Belgium team and lost 0-4. We played fantastic... our best game so far, but the Belgium team was more experienced.

We have two games tomorrow. One against a Spain team that statitics tell us we are evenly matched with and if we win... the finals in Anoeta Stadium - same place as opening ceremonies. Pics and more later...

Thanks for all the calls and for following us here on our blog. Write more to us!

Team prep for game 2 against another Spain team.

Megan's PK Goooooooooooal!!!

Post game photo with Spain team.

Opening ceremony - FANTASTIC!!! You need to see the video!

Opening ceremony fireworks!!!

Another victory for Team Wisconsin 2-0!!! A much more difficult team today. Megan Paulick scored both goals, one on a PK, and Rachael Bennett had another shutout! Awesome team effort across the board!!!

Opening ceremony last evening was amazing!!! Everyteam marched into the stadium. There were speeches, gymnasts, marching bands, fireworks,... fantastic!!! You need to see the video! Going shopping this afternoonn... what could be more exciting?!? More later...

Official Team Photo!

Start of first game!

Erika Spanbauer's Goooooooooooal !!!

Megan Paulick's Goooooooooal!!!

Celebrating Megan's Goal!!!

* * * NEWS FLASH * * *
The Wisconsin, USA U14 team wins against Spain 2-0. Both teams played well, but Wisconsin was able to get several more shots on goal. Erika Spanbauer and Megan Paulick scored the goals and goal-keeper Rachael Bennett stopped every shot attempt by Spain. Pictures and more later...

Arrival in San Sebastian, Spain

We made it!!! We arrived in San Sabastiain, Spain on Satruday July 4th. After 26 hours without sleep, we had our first training session in Spain. Not our best effort. :-( We were much more effective at the beach after training. :-) We also took a walking tour of Old Town. It is beautiful!!!

We are staying in a small gym in a small local school across the street from the huge Anoeta Stadium - check google maps and look at the sattelite view. There is a boys team from Venezuela staying in another part of the school.

On Sunday we did another walking tour. This time we when up a small mountain. We have a fun boat ride in the Bay of Biscay. We rode a train up another mountain - beautiful views everywhere!!! We had a much, much better training session on Sunday too. There were two boys teams there from Ireland training next to us.

We have met teams from France, Venezula, Ireland, Sweden, Spain, Italy, England,... amazing!

Our first game is 3:30p (8:30a Oshkosh) today. We hear the teams are going to be very, very good. Opening ceremony is at 9:30p (2:30p Oshkosh) tonight. We will add pics and more blog after that!!!

Hitting the Road

We are on our way! July has been an awesome start to the final preparations of getting the team to Spain.