Stanford University's Official Athletic Site - Men's Soccer

Home again, home again. After a wonderful nine days in Espana, we have returned back to school. 4 am wake up, 4:30 departure, 730 flight to London, 1130 flight to San Francisco, 430 arrival at Stanford. A long day of travel made much easier by the wonderful personal tv's in each seat.

Thank you very much for following along on our trip. We hope you enjoyed our commentary. We apologize for any short posts..there were some misunderstandings with the business center in the hotel so computer availability and time was always limited.

Also, thank you very much to everyone that made this trip possible. The coaching staff, Nick Simons, Stanford University, donors, and most importantly, our parents. We had an unbelievable time and the experience of a lifetime. We will try to have pictures up in the next couple days so that you can have a taste of the wonderful sites we go to see.

Thank you again,

Stanford Men's Soccer 2008

A fitting end to a wonderful trip. With our last day in Spain, we had the choice to go to the beach or go back to Barcelona. Taking into consideration the somewhat chilly weather and wind, majority ruled in favor of Barcelona. On a side note, rumor had it that the beach in consideration was a nude beach...while appealing at first, we realized that more old men probably walked around naked than good looking blondes, swaying us towards going to the city. But that's probably more information than you wanted.

Entering Barca near the famous Cathedral, the group began together to get a quick tour of Barca's two most famous cathedrals. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the names, but the biggest and more well known of the two is under heavy construction on the outside and not much of a site. But because Spain is predominantly a Catholic nation, the Cathedrals are always interesting to see (the religious history of Spain and specifically Catalonia is an interesting one, but as I am not an expert on it and don't want to write a long elaboration of it, I'll simply refer you to Wikipedia if you want to know the full story).

After touring the two Cathedrals, the group broke up so that people could follow their interests and finish what they intended from a couple days prior. Los Ramblas was again popular and crowded, with new people dressed up seeking money along the street and the scam artists hard at work (the two men we saw arrested a couple days ago were back on the streets doing their thing, however, the groups of scammers were larger, using up to 8 or 9 people, some of which were used as lookouts for the policia). A new group of stands now stood on the middle of the road, boosting bracelets, necklaces, and other small goods. Likewise, at the end of the road, another flea marker arose, with all sorts of strange goods available (everything from old scuba gear, to records, to American WWII outfits).

Before meeting as a group again, I made sure to stop at Gelato stand with a couple guys. There's nothing like a smooth cup of Gelato (ice cream, only better) after walking around for a couple hours. Then we reconvened as a group at the statue of Christopher Columbus, towering about 100 feet into the air, similar to the Washington monument, surrounded by smaller statues of lions.

We then headed off to lunch, the highlight of the day. I must take a quick side note to mention and thank our tour guide, Ricky. For the last six days of the trip, we showed us around the country, ate meals with us, and most importantly, became our friend. A die-hard football/soccer and Barcelona fan, he was awesome to talk soccer with, always on top of the latest news and willing to share his thoughts and stories of the sport. It's safe to say that everyone on the team enjoyed his company and loved his conversation. On our last day, he set us up with an awesome meal in Barcelona, including delicious appetizers and drinks, followed by a main course of seafood paella. It was the perfect meal to send us out of Barcelona in style.

Our last event of the trip was attending the Espanyol vs. Racing Santander game. Espanyol is the smaller club in Barcelona and rival to the famous FC Barcelona. They currently sit 7th in the league. The game took place at the Olympic Stadium that hosted the final for the Olympics. Racing won the game 2-0 in undramatic fashion.

From the game, we headed back to the hotel to back and prepare for the return home. Most guys choose to stay awake until our 4 am departure in order to readjust to CA time.

With the soccer part of the trip done, today we turned out efforts to sight seeing and tourism. We headed off around 10 am to Girona, a historic town two hours north of Barca. We started the day following our tour guide Ricky (more to come on him later) through the castle-like part of Girona. He showed us the Arabian Baths (Same as Roman baths, just a little nicer) and other parts of the old town. Much of the walk was uphill on old rock stairs, so I was a little too tired to remember the details of the town, but I´m pretty sure it was all interesting..it looked cool at least. I believe the general background is that Girona stood strong against Napolean´s forces from France. That doesn´t quite do the town justice, but it´s a start.

Then we broke off into groups, some continuing to follow Ricky, some starving for food. Many guys headed to the new part of Girona for Paella (a traditionally Spanish meal consisting of rice and seafood or chicken). The newer part of Girona didn´t consist of too much to talk about...just a nice river running through the middle and nice quiet town. While the description sounds bland, everyone had a great time walking and exploring the city.

Once we left Girona, it was just back to the hotel for dinner and bed.

We finally got a chance to explore the streets and inner-part of Barcelona, and we were not disappointed. We started off the main street..I wanna call it Le Ramblas, but I probably know the least Spanish on the team... with vendors, gamblers, scammers, and funky shows. People wore elaborate outfits similar to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, hoping people would take pictures with them and drop a Euro in their bucket. Perhaps the most interesting part of the street were the scammers who would play a game (three boxes and a ball under one box and you have to pick the box). They would work in groups of 2 or 3, one moving the boxes and the others betting always winning, making it look really easy. Then a tourist would try and lose..the scammers were pretty awesome that cheating and moving the ball without the person noticing. But the real excitement happen when some policia hopped out of a van and caught the scammers, throwing them up against the van and arresting them, saving a naive old lady from throwing in fifty Euros.

There was also a big market in the center of the city where most guys went to explore and get food. A major component of the market was a fish center, which I personally found to be pretty repulsive. Seeing fish heads, eels, and sting rays on dinner plates isn't really my thing. Although some guys had no problem getting pizza or fruit at a neighboring store.

After that, some guys wandered to the Gothic Quarter to see the narrow streets and big Cathedral. Not the most spectacular part, but worth seeing.

All in all, it was a good day of sightseeing. Most guys felt they did not have enough time, but hopefully we will back it back in a day or two.

The day started off early with 845 breakfast and 930 departure for Nou Camp. We toured the stadium, going into the Away locker room, viewing the field from the President´s box, going right up to the field (but not on), and walking through the tremendous Barca museum. The tour finished (quite strategically I assume) at the Barca megastore. Two floors of endless Barca and Nike gear. If you don´t receive gifts (thats you mom and dad, sorry), please blame the exchange rate and not your loving children.

After the museum, it was back to the hotel to relax and eat before the game. Again,we played a third division squad and lost 2-0. More will follow on the game tomorrow (as we are about to get kicked off the computer).

At the half way point of our trip, we used to the day to relax and regroup for the final stretch. Despite a light jog and stretch around noon, guys had the day free to relax, sleep, and hang out around the hotel and local town. Some guys chose to walk the beach (it was a bit too cold and windy to stay there), others watched movies, while the rest simply slept and rested.

At night, we played our second game. The team was a mid-table professional team in the Spanish 3rd Division. We lost 2-1. but certainly took lessons from the game. They had most of the possession in the first half but only had two opportunities to score. Unfortunately, they finished both of them. In the second half, we regrouped the started to control the game. However, we did not finish our opportunities and could only find the net on a nice played Daniel Leon shot.

After the game, we came back to a nice dinner at the hotel before bed. It´s off to Nou Camp tomorrow.

Woke up early, started our day.

Eager to run and finally play.

After working out the jet lag that we got,

We headed up to the beautiful Mont Serrat.

The view was lovely, the paths were steep,

On the way back, most fell asleep.

Day 3 is finito. We started out a little earlier than usual. 730am breakfast was pretty hard to come by for most of us. Once again it was a solid meal of pastries and fruit. We then headed off to practice in Barcelona at 900am. The field was in the middle of what looked like Lombard St in San Francisco. Beautiful buildings lined the busy streets and in the middle of the hustle was a turf field. Practice was fairly light, just working out the kinks and the jet lag.

We then drove back to the hotel and made a quick turn around to go sightseeing at a place called Mont Serrat. It was a long and windy drive in which most of the team caught up on sleep while the freshmen played a few charismatic games in the front of the bus. We arrived at the top, ate, and had some time to walk around. There were massive rocks surrounding us. The landscape surrounding Barcelona is generally smooth and hilly, while this mountain is jagged and rocky. The place was gorgeous. There were 360 degree views of all of Spain from the top. Also at the top is a monestary. The story is that some religous people found a virgin in a cave on the mountain (not a human virgin, but a picture on a rock i think) and they decided to build a monestary there. Some of the team toured the monestary and the church while a few took a cable car to the highest point of the mountain. Mont Serrat is some of mother nature´s best work. And the church was among the most beautiful in the world. It was incredible.

Upon departure, the freshmen came back a little past the deadline, no big deal. Half of the team was already sleeping on the bus. Almost immediately after we started driving back, the rest of the team passed out. As soon as we got back to the hotel, everyone went to their rooms and continued to sleep. Surprisingly the majority of the team was late to dinner. Everyone seems to be going to bed early tonight to gear up for the match tomorrow. We´ll let you know how it goes.

Story of the day: Kevin dropped Cameron´s camera at the top of the mountain, thousands of feet up might I add, and it skipped across the rocks only to stop right at the edge, seriously it was teetering.

We awoke from our slumber,

Downstairs we did lumber,

All except Kevin, Taylor, and Gunther.

Then off to the beach we went to run,

Starting our day under the sun.

Day two complete.  Everyone exhausted from a long day of travel, we received the luxury of a late 10 am breakfast (although the 9 am wake up call was a little mysterious).  The hotel is extremely nice so they had a nice arrangement of eggs, meat, fruit, and pastries.  After breakfast, most guys headed back for a nap, then met up again for a noon jog on the beach.

The beach is beautiful here.  It rained the night before so the sand was packed and perfect for a morning jog.  Mountains and sailboats fill the scenery behind the chilly ocean, making for a perfect view.  After forty five minutes of jogging and stretching, we headed back to the hotel to get ready to depart for Camp Nou and the Barcelona game.

We arrived at the stadium two hours before game time, just enough space to walk around all of the souvenir stands..  more Barcelona scarves and banners than you ever thought possible.  Most guys got some food as well (per diem is a truly wonderful thing) (it should also be noted that Spain has some great Frankfurters and Bratwursts... who knew?) before heading into the stadium for the game.  As expected, Barca strolled to victory.  Most guys got great pictures of the game, hopefully to be posted soon.

Arriving back to the hotel around 930 (we haven't quite figured out how to find the colon button on the Spanish keyboard), the team was ready for dinner and bed.  Day two is in the books and considered a success.

Story of the Day: (found it) Thiago brought out his speedo to the beach.  Enough said.

Throughout time, Stanford soccer has played soccer.  However, never before have they played in Spain... Introducing Men's Futbol `08.

Our bags were packed, the balls deflated,

team gear collected, our hearts elated,

From PAC Ten Plaza, to SFO,

We left Stanford ready to go.

After we all finished our finals, we went to the airport.  The trip was smooth as we left for Spain.  About a 10 hour flight, we had a lot of time to watch movies and bond.  We first arrived in London where it was unfortunately snowing.  Our second flight was consequently delayed as we finally touched down in Barcelona around 930.  We were greeted by our tour guide and, though exhausted from the trip, we were excited about being in such a new environment.  Our hotel was very welcoming as we were provided a late dinner.  After watching the Stanford Basketball game, we retired to our rooms.

Story of the Day: Around the 5th hour of the first leg of the trip, one unfortunate player went for an unexpected swim.  Dreary eyed and drowsy, one young man went to the bathroom to take out his contact.  As the plane lurched unexpectedly, the contact case, containing the invaluable contact lenses, keepers of vision, deviously flipped from the sink and plummeted into the toilet.  Through plastic gloves and dedication, thirty minutes later, the student emerged from the bathroom with the case, cleaned off the lenses, and put them back in his eyes.