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Andrew's Blog
Saturday, Sept 8th 4:30am, Lisbon , Portugal
Game day!!
It is now 4:30am and I am waiting for the taxi to take me to the
airport. I
am flying back through Madrid and then on to Frankfurt. We will have
2 more
days of training and then Tuesday continue on to Helsinki , Finland.
I wanted to write a bit about the game day.
I woke up Saturday morning at about 10:30 am (the week had finally
caught up
to me) and made contact with Frans to see what time we could meet.
On game
day , we normally work for several hours together, because the games
are at night and the players are resting much of the day. We made an
appointment
for 3:00pm.
Having missed breakfast, I jumped on Metro and headed downtown to
exchange
some gifts and have a nice lunch. I walked from the underground to
the
street and as my head came above ground, everywhere I looked I saw
Polish
fans.
Friday night I had dinner with a Polish journalist that I met at the
Portugal press conference. He had several friends with him. They
explained
that with a blood alcohol level of 3.2 or higher you die, unless you
are
Polish or Russian. The 6 of them had about 8-10 big beers each and
informed
me that they were taking it easy to be able to really party for game
day.
It was now about 11:30am and every terrace, bar and open place in
the square
was filled with already drunk, drinking, singing, happy Poles.
I found a nice Portuguese restaurant ate the traditional appetizer
of bread,
olives and sardine pate followed by a salad and a whole grilled
fish. I do
not know the type, but it was incredible.
As I walked to exchange the gift, many Polish fans were yelling at
me. Some
of them recognized me from the training sessions. I returned by
Metro to my
hotel, got my computer and briefcase and headed to Hotel Solplay.
I arrived in the lobby and started to work and wait for Frans. The
other 3
coaches came down (Aram, Bobo and Andreyz) and asked me to see the
papers
(every country I go, I buy every soccer magazine and paper that
comes out
for the time I am there) to see if the line-ups for Portugal were in
the
paper.
Frans informed me that he was finishing something so the 4 of us
spoke about
football (mostly in Poland). Marta Alf the team manager came down
and was
super upset. Someone had leaked the Polish line-up to the press (it
was
not me). She used my computer and sure enough it had just been
posted not
30 minutes early. Trainer Leo had announced the line-up in the team
meeting
earlier that day and now the press had it.
Down came Don Leo (they nicknamed him Don Leo during his time
coaching Club
America and Chivas Guadalajara in Mexico). The players also arrived
for
light team snack at 5:00pm. Leo pointed to me and motioned for me to
leave.
I quickly started to clean up my work (I was surrounded by both team
managers and 3 assistant coaches) and then he started to laugh. ³Sit
back,
relax and enjoy the flight² he said, ³Are you always so serious².
The team went in to the meal and I decided it was time to get to the
stadium. I asked the front desk to order a taxi and asked the 2
younger guys if they were attending the game. One had to work and the other did
not have
a ticket. His name was Jose. I offered him my spare ticket. He got
off
work at 8pm and said he would be on time since he lived in the
Benefica area
(a neighborhood around the club Benefica) and knew his way very
well.
The taxi dropped me off in front of the stadium. All the Poles had
met to
continue their drinking and singing outside the stadium. I walked
with a
few in the crowd and spoke a bit, hung out with them for about 20
minutes and then left to meet Pepijn and his girlfriend Danielle. The fans
informed me that for the first time in years the public was
satisfied with
the National Team coach. The felt so confident in the fact that they
could
play structured and have a game plan against each opponent. The
Poles have
a lot of respect for the Dutch and say that between Don Leo and his
experience and Frans Hoek organizing the defense they know they will
qualify.
I met Pepijn who is now coaching at FC Porto in the north of
Portugal.
Frans had arranged tickets and since Pepijn was coaching all day, he
could
not make it to the hotel. We had a drink and discussed futebol in
Portugal.
Pepijn loves it a lot and say¹s the kids have a great mentality.
³They will
do anything to get better and to win² Pepijn said. ³Many times they
are
playing so hard they are killing each other, and I have to hold them
back a
bit so they do not get hurt².
FC Porto is a very rich club and their cross town rivals are
Boavista from
the poor neighborhood. FC Porto has Frans Hoek¹s top Goalkeeper
coach
(former Ajax gker coach) who is the 1st team gker coach and now 2
youth coaches, Pepijn Lijnders and Patrick Greveaars both who have come to
the
U.S. as part of the Hoek Club Concept Staff.
It is such small world, I ran into Francisco Marcos (very involved
in the
politics of US Soccer and former owner of all the leagues under the
MLS) and
his son. They were all decked out in Portugal uniforms and scarves.
He
asked how Benjamin (my brother) was. I told him that I was here with
the
Polish team and he seemed surprised.
As I approached my seat, I recognized several Polish people and 3
Dutch guys
(friends of Jan de Zeeuw). They had some famous Polish artists
singing and
then one from Poland who got whistled.
The atmosphere was incredible. 10,000 Polish fans had made the trip
and
45-50,000 Portuguese.
I of course was taking notes (I analyzed Poland during the game) on
both
warm-ups for the technical report I am making and at 8:45pm I looked
up an
saw Jose. He is a very funny guy, a bit shorter with a wide smile
that is
constant. He sat down and started chatting. Within a few sentences,
I knew
I had invited a special guy and started writing them down.
Here are a few of the better Jose quotes
About the Portuguese selection Š..
³This is nice to see the selection and I like it, but for me you can
not
compare it to Benfica. It is 10,000 times better when Benfica play
because
they are closer to my heart².
³I would rather see Benfica win the National competition than to see
Portugal win the World Cup².
About the stadiumŠŠ
³This stadium is the best in Portugal, outside I must admit it is
not as
nice, because it is too modern, but inside it is without a doubt
#1².
About the Polish fansŠ..
³It is great to see Poland came in numbers, it is never good to see
a game
with only one colour².
About the matchŠŠ.
³The match will be difficult for both team today².
After the Polish goal to make it 1-0ŠŠ..
³Now the Polish better watch it, because they have made Portugal
mad. Now
they will wake up and come with power².
After the 1-1 from PortugalŠŠ
³Now it is difficult for Poland because Portugal is feeling the
power of the
goal²
After the 2-1 from PortugalŠ..
³It is impossible , because Portugal is a true World Class Power².
After the 2-2 from PolandŠŠ.
³The problem with the fans and team is they give up when it goes
wrong².
³The Polish fans never stopped singing even when they were down².
After the gameŠŠ.
³Portugal deserved to win, Ricardo (the goalkeeper) is a donkey².
At the end of the game , one of the Polish fans gifted me a Polska
scarf to
wear in Finland. I proudly put it on and exited the stadium to meet
Pepijn.
We walked with the crowd in pursuit of a free taxi. After walking 15
minutes, we found one and shared it. They were tired and went to
their
hotel and I continued on to Hotel Solplay to greet the team and
coaches.
My taxi arrived before the team bus so I waited outside with the
other 2
guys from the front desk and a security guard. The desk clerk was a
bigtime
Sporting fan and told me about their youth. I already knew that
Sporting FC
had the best youth development in Portugal and had produced talents
such as
Simao, Quarezma, Deco, C. Ronado and on and on.
Sporting is from the poor side of town and Benfica is from the rich
side.
Sporting must develop and sell players to survive , since they do
not have
the money to buy. I told him that in 2008 for the European Coaches
Education
Tour, we would come to Portugal and that I had contacts at FC Porto.
He
made sure that I knew that the best youth was Sporting , then 2nd FC
Porto
with Benfica improving and Boavista was 4th.
All of the sudden, we heard sirens (do not ask me why they need a
police
escort at 12:30am) and saw the flashing lights at the bottom of the
hill.
The bus arrived and the players and staff came off. The players went
quickly
to their rooms and the coaching staff sat a while the equipment guys
unloaded the bus.
I asked Leo, if I could celebrate the point with him and have a
cigar. He
laughed and said to Frans ³I have know the guy for a week and he is
has
asked for everything except my bank number², then he said , ³of
course my
friend , come sit , let¹s have a cigar ³. How great it was to be a
part as
we discussed how strong Portugal was and the different good and not
so good
moments in the game.
The players came down to have a bite to eat, the staff joined them
and I
worked on the Blog. After they finished Frans and I stayed in the
lobby
together for a bit.
As I left the hotel it was silent. I got into the taxi at 1am and
realized
that I had not eaten much. I arrived at the hotel , and ran up while
the
taxi driver waited and when downtown to eat.
Once again , thousands of drunk Poles. The beer company (Sagres) may
have
the best month of profits ever, and will truly miss the business
that the
Polish fans have brought to Lisbon.
I packed and at 4am I hit the sack. A taxi was picking me up at
5:30am to
bring me to the airport. My flight was at 7:05am to Madrid and then
onto
Franfurt.
I slept on the plane from Lisbon to Madrid , had a ³bocacillo con
jamon
sereno y queso y café con leche², and bought the AS, Marca y El
Mundo
Deportivo newspapers. I slept from Madrid to Frankfurt and arrived
at the
hotel at 2:30pm. I took another nap until 5:00pm and came into the
hotel
lobby to wait for the team.
The plane was delayed and would not land until 6:00pm. Many Polish
fans were
outside the hotel waiting. I walked and bought the new Kicker (german
magazine) and while working on this blog, the team arrived.
Training will be at 8:00pm and dinner afterward. It is now, 7:30pm.
The last 36 hours seemed like 72 hours. So many little events. The
first
hour seemed like 2 hours and the 2nd hour seemed like 2.5 hours and
ŠŠ. well
you know what I mean!! I have it written down in my top coach
notebook if
you want to read it later.
Bis morgen alles.
Andrew Ziemer
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