THIS IS A FOOTBALL TOUR……….NOT A HOLIDAY
How do you get sixteen 14 year old girls out of bed, breakfasted, walk a mile, warmed up ready to start a football match by 8am in the morning?
Answers please before next July when hopefully we will be attempting the impossible again. The only thing in our favour was the light mornings – well and nights – as we were in Reykjavik, Iceland.
The U14 girls squad with the help of a couple of local Icelandic girls spent a wonderful week in Iceland this Summer playing six matches in four days at the Rey Cup with 75 other local, Scandinavian and British sides.
Iceland – not a football nation to be feared – how wrong can you be.
Girls’ football may be the fastest growing sport in this country but in Iceland it has been the top girls’ sport for many years – and is played at the fastest pace I’ve ever seen. The girls we played against train 5 days a week: playing 11 a side in the summer then 5 a side in wonderful purpose built indoor arenas during the dark winter months. We will be trying to increase our hour and half training accordingly. Richmond Borough has a population comparable to the whole of Iceland; we can scrape together three under 14 girl sides: Reykjavik alone has over a dozen – all fantastic.
The accommodation was school classrooms with a wonderful spread of breakfast each morning… completely wasted on our British girls who had not paid any attention to Jamie Oliver’s campaign. Luckily we have a cosmopolitan group of girls and the non-British tried to take in enough energy giving calories to support the rest.
The setting for the whole tournament was lovely parklands near the centre of Reykjavik all enclosed, with the National stadium, swimming pools, theme park/zoo (imagine Chessington circa 1960), nine top quality football pitches – and a pub!
With an opening ceremony starring Iceland’s runner-up in their “Pop Idol” series, barbeque, disco party, and a closing ceremony it topped-and-tailed an incredibly well organised tournament.
If that wasn’t enough we stayed on for two more nights to take in bathing in the Blue Lagoon (to ease the stress levels of the parents), all the geysers and volcanoes as well as a spot of whale-watching.
Oh I forgot we won a couple of matches – but we will be back prepared with sleep, food and hopefully later kick off times next year.
It was a lesson in life for the girls and all credit to our coach Lino, Sue and Inge for keeping a wary eye on the girls and all the other parents who helped to make it so enjoyable.
Chris Rudd (U15 Manager)