Only two days passed between getting back from our first tour and leaving for the second. After getting back late from Wimbledon on Tuesday night (really early Wednesday morning) we left around 10am on Wednesday morning, travelling first to Doncaster for a training session with the Esprit Academy. It was a typical session as far as the football was concerned, but the primary purpose was to continue to build a relationship between 90+ and the Esprit Academy and also for the coaches there to see the level of play 90+ has. Fortunately, the Esprit coaches were surprised by our ability and professionalism. After spending the night at a hotel near the Doncaster we took a long drive down what was often a two lane road in farm country, getting stuck behind a large, slow tractor far too often. Upon arriving in Norwich, our first stop was at Surrey Chapel, where lunch was provided along with a pair of Biblical training sessions, one with the pastor of Surrey Chapel and the other with one of the elders (I have forgotten their names). We ate dinner, spaghetti and garlic bread (not suggested ninety minutes before playing), before we played our first match of the second tour. We started slow and the other team flew in with a few dodgy challenges early on, which lead to a rather cagy first half. They sat in for most of the game and we only won 1-0, rather disappointing given that they were a side from the local church league (the pitch was awful though).
The next day we met with the chaplain from Norwich FC, who recently got promoted to the Premiership. We were to go in and have a tour of Carrow Road (Norwich's stadium), but they were doing construct to increase the seating which kept us from being able to take the tour of the ground. In the evening we went to the home of one of the church members from Surrey chapel to work with the youth group from the church. We played a some games with them and a few of us Americans had our first encounter with nettles, awful bushes that make you itch immediately upon contact (a fast version of poison ivy). After the games were over, I shared my testimony with the kids for about ten or fifteen minutes. I just gave them an overview of my life and what brought me to the point where I decided to come over to England. The night would not have been complete without a bit of footy though, and the home fortunately had a small pitch on their massive plot of land. Fortunately, none of the players got hurt, and the kids only had a few cuts and scrapes.
Saturday was a bit of an off day, with us only having a match early on in the day. We were supposed to have done a few coaching sessions with some local kids, but you can always count on English weather to come through. So while the morning clinics were canceled, the game still went ahead, and we battered the Norwich church league select (all-star team) 7-1. I netted the second, and it was 3-0 by the half. After the match we had a team lunch at one of the host families homes and watch Wimbledon on the telly. That evening Paul Gilbert and I stayed up for the Gold Cup final, which kicked off at 2 am for us. We were both rather put out by the result, crying for the sacking of Bob Bradley, but as the game concluded at 4 am, sunlight began to creep over the neighboring homes, so we both decided to go to bed for a few hours before church...
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