2011
KEELE
INTERNATIONAL
SOCCER TOURNAMENT
HEREFOR LINK TO PHOTOS
OF OUR TRIP TO ENGLAND FOR THE
2011 KEELE INTERNATIONAL CUP
PASSWORD IS
"FCNY"
Jim's Daily Blog of 2011 Trip
Monday August 1, 2011
Well, this day brings a close to this years trip. It is a sad and happy day...sad because our stay in England has drawn to an end and happy because we had a great trip and I think we all look forward to returning home to the US. After a brief delay, our bus arrived at 8:30am for boarding to the Manchester City Airport. We went through security with no issues, boarded our flight and awaited our departure. During the flight, I spoke with a stewardess who happened to be on board our original flight last Saturday night (which was returned back to JFK due to a mechanical malfunction). She apologized profusely and actually brought me a complimentary bottle of Champagne which I shared with all the adults in our group! It was a nice gesture in a an attempt to extend the thoughts of the crew to us for the disaster we experienced the prior week.
Upon arrival back at JFK, we all picked up our bags (YES...everyone got the luggage back) and went our seperate ways as we were met by family and friends. Although I am slightly biased in my view of the trip, I think it would be accurate to say that the entire group had an experience that exceeded their expectations.
Thanks to everyone that participated...I hope you enjoyed yourself!
I know that I look forward to next year's event which we will begin planning shortly!
Sunday July 31, 2011
On our first free day of the trip, 13 players and parents took a 3 hour train ride to visit London. They had a great day visiting many of the tourist attractions. They left early in the morning and just made the last train back to Manchester at 11:55pm!
The rest of us had quite the day ourselves. In the morning we boarded a coach bus for our trip to tour Old Trafford, the home of the Manchester United Football Club. After completing the tour and spending a ton of money in the Mega Store, we boarded our bus for a trip to Leeds Elland Stadium where we saw Leeds United play a friendly match against rival Newcastle United. It was quite a match in a great atmosphere with the home squad Leeds enjoying a 3-2 victory which was secured by the winning goal in the 84th minute of the match. We then returned back to Manchester were we enjoyed our final dinner of the trip.
Saturday July 30, 2011
The girls played in the "Plate" Championship facing the CYP team from Wales for a third time in the competition. Unfortunately, our squad was not competitive and lost by a score of 3-nil. However, each of the girls received a runner's up ribbon which was presented at the awards ceremony following the game. Upon the conclusion of the presentation, we boarded a coach bus for departure to Manchester City.
We arrived in Manchester around 3:30pm due to traffic. Although the hotel was not as nice as Cranage Hall, it was suitable for our needs as we only needed a place to sleep. We ate dinner at 6pm and then a group of us went to a local jazz festival while another group joined me on a train to Liverpool where we spent a few hours walking around the city. We went to the City Centre, walked down to the docks on the River Mersey, went on a giant ferris wheel and then walked back to the train station. On the train ride back to Manchester we were serenaded by a group of slightly inebriated passengers for most of the trip back. They were quite entertaining to say the least.
Friday July 29, 2011
On the first day that threatened rain with a grey sky and chilly temperature and after an early morning stretch and run, the girls arrived at the field ready to play their first match of the day against a big, strong team from Finland, the RAKE 97/98 Tigers. Down by a 2-0 score, the girls came back with a goal from Annabel but ended up losing 2-1. After the game, the girls from Finland asked for a group photo and exchanged hugs with all of the girls. They also presented their player of the match award to our 2nd half goalie, Kailey Broderick! What a terrific end to a well played game by both sides.
In the afternoon, the girls played a friendly match against an older team from Colorado, the Bromfield Blast who earlier defeated the lone undefeated team in their bracket by a 2-1 margin. The girls from the FCNY Squad played extremely well (with a guest turn by Greg Schebece in goal) and ended up with a 0-0 draw against this older, very skilled American team. A very successful end to a great day.
Tomorrow, the girls play in the "Plate" Championship game against the squad from Wales in the third game between these two squads in two days.
Thursday July 28, 2011
The boys draw in the "Plate" semi-final was the Wolverhampton Wolves Developmental squad...the same team we faced yesterday. Although we kept the game scoreless for the majority of the match, we ended up on the wrong end of a 3-0 loss. This is the boys final game of the tournament and although we did not register many victories on the score sheet, the lessons learned about the game itself are immeasurable. This was a tremendous experience for the boys and I am sure each and everyone of them has learned a great deal through their participation in this event including the speed at which the game is played, the effort put into playing the game itself, the strengths of the tackles they faced and the technical ability of their opponents.
The girls played their first game against a squad from the CYP squad from Wales. Bolstered by added players from an English squad, Abbie Viner, Aidie Dyche, Jessica Bailey and Annabel Gittins along with Mya Pichal from British Columbia, Canada, and two girls from Nigeria, the girls played well enough to tie in a 1-1 game with the goal coming from a great effort from Mya. The second game was a friendly re-match against the same Welsh squad. With a goal from one of the Nigerian girls knotting the score at 1, a late goal by Wales saw us down with only a few moments remaining in the match. A fortunate hand ball in the box allowed us with a chance to knot the score and our own Olivia Grizzle did just that placing a perfectly placed ball into the lower left corner of the goal. Although completely spent by the effort put forth in their prior two games, the girls have started to jell.
Wednesday July 27, 2011
The girls began match play against a team from Norway (Vang 97). With only 9 players (the team from Nigeria was not allowed to leave their country), the girls played an incredible game although they lost by a 4-0 score. The passing and effort were great and the score does not accurately reflect how well they actually did. The girls were joined by one girl from Canada and two others from Africa...along with their coach. Laura played with the girls and was able to provide great direction and all of her years of experience to the players on the field.
The boys played a total of 5 games this day. They began the day with a 4-2 loss against Torquay Developmental Centre (http://torquayunitedeadc.co.uk/site/news.asp?292) in a very well played game that saw Noel Reyes and Thomas Block score. The boys followed this up with a 3-1 VICTORY against the Accrington Stanley Centre of Excellence (http://www.accringtonstanley.co.uk/index.php/stats/coe) with Noel scoring all 3 of the FCNY goals. The next game saw the boys knotted up in a 1-1 tie against the squad from Accrington Stanley once again as the tournament was re-seeded for play in the "Plate" and "Cup" finals. Our next game was a 4-0 loss against the Aston Villa Youth Academy (Aston Villa is an English Premier League team). Although we lost, the game was actually much closer than indicated as the Villa squad had 2 members of their Academy program on their roster. The fourth game of the day saw the boys take on the Wolverhampton Wolves, yet another club in the EPL. The boys lost this one by a 3-1 score with our lone goal coming from the foot of our star striker, Noel Reyes. The game was actually very close for most of the match and our opponent also featured several boys in the Wolves Academy.
Overall, this was a very successful day for both the boys and girls as they began to fully experience the opportunity to play against some top quality competition.
Tuesday July 26, 2011
10:00am England time (5am NY)
Players met for a 7:30am stretch and jog. Everyone gathered for an 8am breakfast followed by a few hours of free time. We will be leaving for the University at 1:30pm as the boys begin match play today against a professional academy team, Stoke City. This should be quite a test for the boys but win or lose they will learn what proper football is all about!
Boys played a decent first half, down 0-1 at the half. The second half was a different story as our opponent made some adjustments, our players lost their focus and we ended up on the wrong side of a 7-0 loss. While we "lost" the game, hopefully the boys will gain from this experience and begin to feel comfortable with the speed of the game which is much quicker than back home. We were joined by a very nice player from Ontario, Canada, Liam Millar who joined our squad for the week. Thank you Liam!
Due to re-scheduling, this was our only match of the day...had to wait at the complex for 2+ hours waiting for our bus to take us back to the hotel. We will have a full day tomorrow as the boys will have several games and the girls will begin match play as well.
Monday July 25, 2011
8:30am England time (3:30am NY)
Arrived at Heathrow airport and were met by the coach bus we arranged to transport us to Manchester (4 hour bus ride). Stopped for a quick bite at a rest stop and were met by the staff of our hotel at the front entrance led by the hotel's general manager, assistant general manager and desk staff. They immediately checked us in completing the process in minutes! They have provided us with a private dining area for our meals and everyone here has been most accommodating and polite!
The accommodations are great as the hotel is quite nice and the weather is great…60 degrees and NO humidity. We ate dinner, met with the players and then the parents. Players were given a 10pm curfew and everyone went off to bed.
Sunday July 24, 2011
At 9:45am on Sunday morning, I once again called Delta's customer service even more furious than I had been hours earlier! My call was answered by a Group Sales member who RANDOMLY answered my call. Tracy dealt with my call and told me she would call me back in a half hour after looking into the situation. Imagine my surprise when she returned the call. She had looked into the problem and would begin work on resolving it. For the next couple of hours she worked on moving us back onto the flight to London. She stayed in touch with me throughout the morning as I was unable to contact her directly. I relied on her to call me, hoping each time she would do as she said she would. Around 12pm she called to give me confirmation numbers so I could begin to print out our boarding passes (instead of having each of our travelers print their own, I thought it would be better for me to do this. That way I could meet everyone at the airport where I could distribute them). I asked her to wait a moment while I typed in the first number to ensure we had no further problems...she assured me the problem was fixed...until I typed in the first number and told Tracy that this family was confirmed on the flight to Atlanta leaving JFK in less than 2 hours! She was flabbergasted and could not understand what was happening. At first she insisted that we (our members) were doing this on line. Then she thought someone at the airport was doing this (in an attempt to over-ride what they thought was a computer error). Neither was the case! In the meantime, one of the parents of a player traveling with us, went directly to JFK as he wanted to make sure his bags would end up in London with the rest of us. He ended up speaking with a manager at the ticket counter, Sophia, who was able to provide the most help.
It seems that Tracy had also spoken with Sophia (or her supervisor) and they were going to book our flights at JFK for the flight to London. We mobilized our group and everyone met at the airport by 4pm where Sophia had assigned two ticketing agents to our group. I spoke with both agents and made sure they booked US ALL on Flight 3 from JFK to London! As each "group" (remember, the computer had randomly split us up into groups of 3 so that was the way they needed to ticket us) received their tickets they went through security to the gate. After a final two anxious hours, we finished our last ticket a little before 6pm and I went through security.
Of course, by now, I was too cynical to believe that this was the end of the story….while waiting at the gate for our 6:40 departure, I began speaking with the gate agents, Kerri Cotman and VM Harvin WHO HAD HEARD about our travails from their colleagues earlier that day! I guess we had actually made the big time. We talked about the events and Kerri assured me that “this flight was leaving and I should not be kidding around about this” as we watched the departure time change from 6:405pm to 7:05pm and finally to 7:30pm. We finally began BOARDING the plane at 7:30 and began to settle in. Our group was on board when I saw Kerri board the plane looking for one of our parents. I spoke with Kerri only to find out that 3 of us had been booked on a different flight!!!! She left the plane and returned about 10 minutes later to tell me that she had taken care of everything and all was okay. The doors to the plane closed and we awaited our departure from the gate, and waited and waited a little longer when the pilot told us that we were unable to leave the gate because of ground traffic and we needed to wait until the plane at the next gate had pulled in. At 8:45 pm we left the gate, by 9:15pm we finally took off.
I began to relax after a long 24 hours! When the stewardess came around about an hour or so into our flight, she asked what my meal choice would be. I told her that “I will have the pasta since I had the chicken last night” when she said…”OH, you are part of that group”!!! I was speechless but was able to tell her that yes I was. I guess our situation had made the rounds and was the talk of Delta!
I must say that other than the lack of attention after the 1st flight, the complete and utter rudeness of the customer service reps at the 800 number and the fact that the computer system caught us in some type of circular glitch that could not be cancelled, the people we met at JFK and Tracy, the ONE person at customer service who actually tried to help, were extra-ordinary in their attempts to help! Danielle, the agent from Saturday night, stayed 3 hours past the end of her shift to help, Sophia assured me by phone that she would be at the airport when I arrived and she would dedicate two agents to assist us and she did and Kerri got us on the plane and took care of re-assigning the three people who were not properly booked on Flight 3 (after we had already been seated on the plane).
Of course, we still had to deal with the luggage but were pleased to find that the luggage arrived at Heathrow with the exception of 5 bags, 3 of which were brought to our hotel on Sunday night, 1 of which will hopefully be arriving on Wednesday and one which is lost somewhere in Delta cyberspace! While no one is happy about luggage gone missing, this could have resulted in an even worse disaster so I will count our blessings.
Saturday July 23, 2011
We were scheduled to depart JFK this evening but have been met with quite a problem. Our flight went off as scheduled but 20 minutes in, our pilot informed us that there was a problem with our landing gear and we were going to need to return back to JFK. Unfortunately, we needed to burn off fuel as were too heavy to land. Since they can no longer "dump" fuel, we were forced to circle NY for over 2 hours...then the real story begins...we were told we would be met at the gate by Delta representatives in red coats...we were met by NO ONE! I called the airline customer service number and they knew nothing about the status of the flight or what the plans were. After numerous phone calls and an almost two hour wait, we were notified that the flight had been cancelled and we would be re-booked for the next day. Unfortunately, the Delta reservation system did not take into account that we had booked as a group and they randomly assigned us seats on other flights, through other cities all arriving in Manchester at different times of the day! Delta had in many cases, separated children from their parents. We had several instances where one person was flying through Paris while another family member was flying through Frankfurt or Dublin or Atlanta!
I immediately got on the phone only to be told that we were out of luck and there were NO OTHER options available to us. None of the several reps I spoke to would answer my question how they could have randomly assigned tickets to a large group BOOKED DIRECTLY THROUGH THEIR RESERVATION SYSTEM but one actually told me it was tough luck. When I asked to speak with his manager, he told me the manager did not speak with customers directly! He also offered me the Delta group reservation number but told me they were not in on weekends! Numerous phone calls later, I randomly tracked down a customer service manager at JFK who offered us assistance. She had been tending to a flight going to Budapest that was dealing with a similar situation! Christine Belkhadi assigned a young ticket agent, Danielle Blackburn, to help us out of this ridiculous situation. She found us a flight to London that could seat our entire party of 38 travelers and booked our tickets. We finally left the airport around 2am on Sunday morning with what we thought was a plan...we were wrong! After arriving home, a few travelers went to print out their boarding pass early Sunday morning and found that they had been changed to a flight leaving JFK at 2:55 through Atlanta to Manchester! Once again, the reservation system had moved us to different flights, randomly breaking up our group into flights all over Europe and the US.
May 3, 2011 Tuesday...371 $75.00...Tehmina Haque Sold by Yostpille (Galaxy)May 4, 2011 Wednesday...530 $75.00...Kathleen Keenan sold by Curiale(Galaxy)May 14, 2011 Saturday...535 $150.00...Maxine Coffey sold by Curiale(Galaxy)May 29, 2011 Sunday...275 $75.00...Pat Condon sold by Keilitz(Storm)
Tehmina Haque and Pat Condon donated their winnings BACK to the team! Thank you!!!
April 26, 2011 Tuesday.....498 $75.00...Lucy Campione Sold by Andersen (Blackhawks)
March 2, 2011 Wednesday...018 $75.00...Marge ValentiMarch 9, 2011 Wednesday........209 $75.00...Carlos PelaezMarch 26, 2011 Saturday.......020 $150.00...Chris Berner...sold by YostpilleMarch 31, 2011 Sunday.......146 $100.00...Robert Bricerio...sold by Curiale
Photographs of FCNY's 2006 trip to Wales
Wales International Tournament (formerly Ian Rush Tournament) 2006
Teams that competed in the tournament included professional academy teams from Oldham Athletic, Swansea City, Mid-Wales Academy, Short Football Club and Cruz Azul among many others. Each of our teams had the chance to play at a level which suited their level of ability as each team was placed in the division appropriate to their talent.
