 Wednesday night, the players were free and myself and the staff went to a very nice German restaurant. The atmosphere was very good and it was niceto get out of the hotel. We then came back and waited in the hotel lobby tomake sure the players all came home before the curfew.
Coach Leo is very much into giving the team the responsibility to take care of themselves. He made it clear if anyone was late they would go home, nomatter who there were. All but three of the players were home 2 hoursbefore curfew and 3 came home at 10:30pm. They are all very focused and them getting in trouble was not even an issue.
I woke up at 5:15 am to catch a taxi to the Franfurt airport. I took off for Madrid at 7:55 am and arrived a bit after 10:00am in Madrid. My friend JuanSanchez picked me up and brought me for lunch in his hometown of Alcala. Itis one of the oldest cities in Spain. He took me around to some of the sights and then we went to his house to relax and meet his mother. At 2:15he took me back to the airport so I could catch the flight to Lisbon.
The flight to Lisbon was less than an hour. We landed and Iwalked out and saw Jan the team manager. The Polish team had a delay and was arriving atthe same time as us. The press was all over the place and now you could seethe pressure start to build.
Simao of Portugal has publicly asked for the support of the fans in the stadium for the next two games. He admitted that they dropped too manypoints and now have to get 6 points from the Poland and Serbia matches in the next week.
escorted the team to the hotel . They arrived checked in and prepared forJan flew in a day early to arrange everything. Ronald Koeman, the Dutch coach of PSV Eindhoeven and former Benefica coach had suggested a nice hotelperched on a quiet hill the Hotel Sol Playa Apartamentos. The Police the training session at 7pm. The training was at the National Stadium (wherethey play the Portuguese Cup Final). It was a 15 minute walk down the hill,so I headed out to meet the team.
Before I knew it the bus was following the police down to the training complex. Out of nowhere 100’s of Polish fans appeared as well as the Polish and Portuguese press. No one could enter the gate (except for myself andbus driver) and there was a lot of security to protect the team.
The training was the first activity of the day since it was primarily a travel day. Coach Leo had to change the training plan since the press wasthere and he did not want to give anything away. Tonight at 7pm , Poland will train in the Estadio da Luz (Stadium of Light) to get used to the pitch and the lights.
Information on Estadio da Luz -The Estádio da Luz officially named the Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica
and commonly mistranslated as Stadium of Light, is a football
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_%28soccer%29> stadium in Lisbon
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon> , Portugal
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal> , the home of SL Benfica
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL_Benfica> . It is also called A Catedral
("The Cathedral") by Benfica's supporters.
Luz is actually the area of Lisbon in which the Estádio da Luz stands and
the word 'luz' happens to also mean 'light'. As the people of Lisbon often
referred to the original stadium
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est%C3%A1dio_da_Luz_%28old%29> , demolished
beginning in 2002, as simply the light, the common English name for the
stadium became the stadium of light. The Stadium of Light
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadium_of_Light> in Sunderland
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderland> , England
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England> may well have been inspired by this
Lisbon example, though it has other well established reasons for bearing the
name.
It hosted several matches in the 2004 European Football Championship
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_European_Football_Championship> ,
including the final. The previous Benfica stadium (also called "Estádio da
Luz <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est%C3%A1dio_da_Luz_%28old%29> " and one
of the largest stadiums in the world with 120,000 seats) was demolished and
the new one was built for the tournament with an official capacity of
65,647. The architect, Damon Lavelle
<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Damon_Lavelle&action=edit> ,
designed the stadium to use as much natural light as possible. It is
classified by UEFA <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA> as a 5 star stadium,
allowing it to host major European cup finals.
Once again , practice started with Rondo. The goalkeepers went with Frans and Andreyz and Aran warmed up the team without the ball for 10-15 minutes(coordination and dynamic stretching). They then had two groups ofpossession of 4V4 plus 3 with the starters + one in one group and the reserves in the other.Saturday for the game, 18 players can suit up. This means that 7 will notplay. They will be allowed on the bench.
For the last part of the practice , Coach Leo changed and did some scoring exercises so the press would not give his line-up away. At the end they didsome longer sprints at one speed and then caught the bus back to the hotel.
I walked up the hill to the hotel said goodbye and then took a taxi to my hotel in the Center of Lisbon. Since I am paying my own costs, I could notafford the hotel in either Lisbon and Helsinki.
I checked into my hotel, showered and went out into the city to get bite to eat and explore a bit. After a nice meal and wandering the city for over 3hours, I quickly added Lisbon to my top 10 city list (San Francisco,Amsterdam, Barcelona, Guadalajara, Florence, Innsbruck, Lisbon are a few more). I went to the Baixa (downtown area) and then to the Barrio Alto (theoldest part of the city) which had dozen’s of small bars in narrow streets.It reminded me of San Francisco (only several 100 years older), in the sense that there were all kinds of hills. Barrio Alto is perched way on top ofthe city with magnificent views in every direction.
About Lisbon
Boasting springtime temperatures during the winter and cool summers
freshened by a breeze blowing in from the Atlantic, Costa de Lisboa, on the
southwestern coast, offers a rich and impressively integrated diversity. The
capital of Portugal since its conquest from the Moors in 1147, Lisbon is a
legendary city with over 20 centuries of History. The Alfama is one of the
oldest quarters in Lisboa. Since it largely survived the earthquake of 1755,
the area still retains much of its original layout. Adjacent to the Alfama
are the likewise old quarters of Castelo and Mouraria, on the western and
northern slopes of the hill that is crowned by St. George's Castle. Every
year in June, the streets of all three quarters come alive with the feasts
in honour of the popular saints. The Graça quarter and the churches of São
Vicente de Fora and Santa Engrácia are within walking distance of this area.
Radiant skies brighten the monumental city, with its typical tile covered
building façades and narrow Medieval streets, where one can hear the fado
being played and sung at night. But Lisbon is also the stage for popular
festivities, the place for exquisite, shopping , exciting nightlife, and
interesting museums, a place from where motorways branch off in different
directions.
Well it is now Friday , morning and I just finished breakfast. I am going
to go and do some shopping and then head to the Polish team hotel and work
with Frans Hoek before watching the training tonight.
Until next time. Ciao.
Andrew
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