First Games

8/26/11

Big two weeks. Last week I had two games, one on Thursday 8/18 and one on Saturday 8/20. The first was against s.v. Houtwijk and the second against V.V. Wilhelmus. I played right back in both matches, ~70 minutes in the first and 90 in the second. Unfortunately, we lost pretty bad in both. 5-0 to the first team and 4-0 to the second. We did play better in the second game against a better team and had some chances, plus we are still missing players so looks like only up from here. In addition, I think both teams were in higher leagues than us.

            This week was spent training my U17 boys team, meeting with the Athletic Director at the American School of The Hague (ASH), and going out with some of the guys on the team last night. I am coaching Graaf Willem’s A2s or the second team for the top youth group in the club (we would call it under 17 in the U.S.). Unfortunately, we’ve only had 7 of the guys come out so far, but trainings have been productive and I am already seeing improvement. They are a good group of guys, they like to play and we get along well. I am excited to continue training them. I am pretty sure I am the head coach for the team, so I will coach them during games as well, but I am still fuzzy on the situation.

            The Athletic Director at ASH is a big contributor at Graaf Willem and I had a meeting with him yesterday morning. I will be reffing 4 games a week and making 25 euro a game! Very stoked on that. I will also coach the JV girls team until their head coach returns in mid September, although if he decides he doesn’t have time to coach this year, I will be given the position. It will be fun to coach a group like this again. English is the language spoken at ASH and it is made up of a mixture of international, dutch and American students. They are in a league made up of other international schools and therefore get to travel to Germany, England, and a few other countries to play away games. The school contains kindergarten through 12^th grade and about 1200 students. The facilities at this school are incredible; any school in the U.S. would be lucky to have them. They have 3 soccer fields, a huge gym, amazing weight room (that I am allowed to work out in), two cafeterias and it overall just looks fancy. I am excited to start coaching and reffing there.

            After training last night, we had a couple beers at the club before I went home to grab dinner before going out. Thursday night here is student night so a large young crowd goes out. We usually start at Grote Markt, a square with bars and club with a large outside sitting area. We had a few beers there and met up with some other guys from the team before heading into the first club around 1am. It was called Super Market and had two levels. We headed upstairs and hung out for a while before heading to the second one where there was dancing. I forgot what the second place was called, but there was good music and lots of dancing. We stayed there until about 3. We ended the night at another club (I also forgot the name) that was explained to me as a place where “old cab drivers that just got off their shift and fat ladies hang out. If you end up there at the end of your night, you know you had a good time.” The explanation reminded me of the Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz, but when we got there, the crowd was young and the place was packed. It wasn’t a typical night I was told. I had a great time hanging out with the guys on my team and the people I met were super nice and it was a fun group. On our way home (a couple of the guys live near my apartment), we stopped to get some crokets. So good.

            Today, Jay took us on a mini bike tour to get meatball sandwiches and crokets and then to a soccer store where ryan bought some cleats and turf shoes. We also rode through the two red light areas of The Hague (yes they have those here as well). One was really gross, the women were all 50 pounds overweight or old or just plain gross. The crowd walking through this section reflected the type of “workers” in the windows, if you know what I mean. The second one was higher-class (if you can call a red light higher class…), that is to say the women looked like they might be successful in their trade. Anyways, no big plans for the weekend; we have a game Sunday although I am unsure if I am allowed to play, I don’t know if I am a member of the club yet.

I have also discovered Kapsalon, a Turkish dish that is absolutely delicious; Turkish food has filled the void that burritos used to fill (luckily!). I have been trying the different dishes, and I think I found the one: it’s made in a bowl with a layer of fries, layer of meat, layer of melted cheese, layer of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoe and beets (I think?) finally topped with garlic and spicy sauce. So GOOOOD! Just finished one for dinner.

Alright, that’s it for now, check back in about a week for another update. Miss everyone and hope you are well!

-Clay

New bikes, amsterdam and Graaf Willem

8/13/11

Hey Everyone! It has been a busy but fun week.
The last week was spent playing U19 and U18 teams from AJAX and ADO Den Haag, both youth teams in the professional clubs of the eredivisie (professional league in holland). They were good competition.

Wednesday evening I went with the SSU team to explore Amsterdam for the night. It was a lot of fun walking around, grabbing some beers and exploring. If you ever have a chance to get to Amsterdam, do it! It is truly an experience.

The SSU boys left Thursday and my roommate Ryan and I got bikes (photos below). They are pretty sweet. In Holland, everyone pretty much has similar looking bikes and the all are similar in style to what we have. What is also cool, is that they have back wheel-locks that dead-bolt the spokes. The deadbolts are unlocked by a key and when you are riding your bike, you keep the key in the lock. We also got large locks to lock the bikes up, but the dead-bolts are convenient if you are just running into a store to grab something while we use the larger locks at night to prevent them from being stolen.

 Today, I had my first training with Graaf Willem. They are located about a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment and are about in the middle league of the amateur teams. I will definitely be the best player on the team which was a disappointment at first, seeing as I came here to be challenged, but the guys are very nice and they set me up with a few coaching jobs around the club (more information on this later), so I know I will have a good time. Here is a website to my league standings:

http://www.hollandsevelden.nl/competities/2011-2012/west-2/zo/4c/

and here is the website to my club website:

www.graafwillem.nl

After training, they gave us lunch which was pretty awesome: sandwiches, milk and crokets (deep fried meat/potato-mash in a sandwich roll w/ mustard on top). It was very good. Thursday night I watched the team play a friendly against another local club and afterward had some beers with the guys. The game ended around 9 and we hung out and drank until 1:30 am at the clubhouse. The guys like to have a good time and are very social so I know I will have a lot of fun this year. Jay was also telling me that it is custom to eat a meal at the clubhouse Thursday night either before or after training at the clubhouse with the team and Sunday after our games (which are at 2 pm), have a few beers at the clubhouse and socialize. The atmosphere and customs that surround a soccer club are so different than what I am used to in the US and so far it has been awesome.

Again, miss you all! Check out the photos below.

Clay

Our new bikes parked on our street.

 My room!!

Our weird bathroom- it looks like there is only a toilet, and the shower might be elsewhere, but that's not how they roll in Holland. This is a state-of-the-art shower-toilet. You can shower and go to the b-room at the same time! Who wouldn't want to do that??? hahaha

 A canal in Den Haag (and a seagull).

The first two weeks

Hello Everyone!

I made it to Holland safe and have been here for about two weeks now. I am living in Den Haag (The Hague) which is roughly 500,000 inhabitants located in western Holland near the beach. It is beautiful here- cobble streets, oldish buildings, lots of friendly people and a great social atmosphere. Oh, and TONS of soccer! The first week I spent exploring the beach, downtown and many streets of Den Haag. This place is a bikers paradise- there are bike paths that line every street and many places around town are reached just as fast if not faster by bicycle. I have been biking and walking a lot around town.

The Sonoma State Men's Soccer team got here last friday for a total of two weeks. I was lucky enough to be invited to train with them and play in their games, as well as travel to Amsterdam, Almelo and Eindhoven Netherlands and Cologne, Germany, which has been awesome. We have played a bunch of first and second amateur teams and will play older youth teams from the professional Ajax and ADO Den Haag soccer clubs. We have also seen multiple professional games including NAC Breda vs. Olympiacos, FC Koln vs. VfL Wolfsburg and The Edwin Van Der Sar send off match hosted by Ajax. Each game was awesome although the Van Der Sar send off game was definitely once in a lifetime: I got to see some of the most famous soccer players ever playing on the same field at the same time including: Van Der Sar, Rooney, Giggs, Edgar Davids, Dennis Bergkamp, Louis Saha and Dirk Kuyt.

On the soccer side, I've been playing with the Sonoma State team at outside back which has been fun although I am excited to get to my club team and play for them. I am pretty sure that I will be playing for Graaf Willem (pronounced har villem) an amateur team in Den Haag. My landlord/friend Jay says that I will most likely be the star of the club but I am just excited to experience dutch football. The amateur clubs over here are insane: they are essentially multiple fields (practice turf fields and grass game fields) with legit locker rooms and a club house with a bar. SICK! Some of them remind me of country clubs where members (who used to play at the club) can come and eat and drink and watch soccer. So awesome!

Although I am having a lot of fun so far, I do miss some things from California/America: burritos, sunny days/dry heat (it's muggy here when it's hot), Santa Cruz, surfing and all of you guys back home, friends and family. I hope to keep this blog updated as much as possible (every couple days to once a week) so please check back often!


Love you guys!

Clay