Lena Moreno, Guest Writer
On August 1st the Lutes and I started our ten-day adventure to England.
Eighteen women’s soccer players and fourteen men’s soccer players were fortunate enough to play soccer, experience a new culture, and have fun all in another country.
The trip brought each team closer together and presented a great opportunity to play together before the regular season.
The main objective in England was to play together as a team, before our season started in September.
We played three games against Blackburn, Manchester City and Crystal Palace, all of whom were professional soccer teams. Our games were spread out over the ten-day trip with practices in between. We came home with a great record of 2-1 against three competitive teams.
Along with playing soccer, we were able to watch soccer at the highest competitive level.
After finally arriving in England, we were rushed straight from the airport to Wembly Stadium to watch Chelsea play Arsenal.
Although everyone was exhausted, our enthusiam was soon revived by cheers from the 90,000 capacity stadium. Both the guys and girls team were chanting along with the other fans.
We attended another Chelsea game later in the trip, which happened to be the opening game of the English Premier League. We toured major soccer stadiums like Old Trafford and Emirates.
The trip wasn’t all about soccer though.
We traveled to historical parts of England as well. We spent time walking around the birth city of William Shakespeare and tried to make the guards at Buckingham Palace notice us.
Overall, we had the most memorable time in England. The games and practices gave us confidence coming into pre-season competition, which will carry over to our regular season.
Seeing where some of top professionals teams play was like a childhood-dream come true and traveling around England was an unforgettable experience.
I wouldn’t have wanted to share these memories with anyone but my soccer family.
