Costa Rica Soccer Tour – Day 1-3
May 31, 2009
Day 1 – Travel Day!
My day began at Newark Airport where I met Coach Woods and 3 of my teammates From William Paterson University who were also going on the trip. We were excited but new it was going to be a long day as we had to take 3 planes to get to Costa Rica.
Everything went well as we met most of the team in Miami. There were a few girls who were taking different flights and meeting us at the San Jose Airport in Costa Rica.
Our last flight into Costa Rica from El Salvador was delayed a few minutes but the excitement of knowing we were a short flight away from our destination kept us going.
At the airport in San Jose we met the rest of our team and also our tour guides, Roberto and our bus driver Carlos. Both were full of energy and ready to help get to the hotel and get situated.
We arrived at the Costa Rica Tennis Club and Hotel, checked into our rooms and then Coach Woods spoke to us briefly and explained the next days schedule. Time to rest up for Day 2!
Day 2- Practice and our first game
The hotel has a small field turf field on the premises. It was really cool complete with a small set of bleachers. Coach Woods gave us the run down of our training session. Since most of did not know each other we started out with a soccer related ice breaking name game. After that we tried to loosen up our weary travel legs with some light jogging and stretching. We finished practice with possession game and then played a 5 v 5 game for about 20 minutes. Our tour guide Roberto got to be one of the goalies. As most people in Costa Rica, he has played the game his whole life.
That afternoon we had our first Game vs. Universidad De Costa Rica. The game started out slow for us as we were getting our legs under us and still getting to know each other. We played well but the university team was putting us under alot of pressure. At half time it was 0-0. The second half started out well for us but we could not score. As we got deeper into the game we were again under alot of pressure from the university team. We gave up a goal with 25 minutes left that seemed to deflate us. Coach woods decided to push some more players forward to try and tie the game. We ended up giving up 3 more goals at the end. It was a 4-0 loss but we played some very good “futbol” as they say here.
Day 3- Bartering, The National Theatre and our Second Game
Day 3 began with a trip to the center of the capital city of San Jose. Roberto and Carlos showed us the historic sights of the city. We went to Artesian St. It is a block full of vendors that sell all sorts of souvenirs. if you are a good barter (which I am not) you can get some good deals. I picked up some jewelry and the some souvenir gifts for my family. We then ran a couple of blocks through an incredible rain storm the National Theatre. This is a source of pride for many Costa Ricans. After seeing the inside and going through the tour you could understand why. The architecture was incredible. Everything was marble and gold. It was built in the early 1900′s but has been preserved very well. There a group practicing for a performance which we were allowed to listen to for a few minutes.
The day ended with our second game vs. a local club team. We got a chance to play under the lights. It is incredible how many soccer field there are here. It seems like one every mile. This particular field was about 20 minutes from the hotel. We had a great game from start to finish dominating the local team. There fans even started cheering USA at the end of the game. I even scored a goal as we won the game 5-1! Time to rest up as we switch hotels early tomorrow morning and then get to see some volcanoes.
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