October 2 – Alf and Charlie and Final Tournament

Bus out to Coerver Headquarters – first off is a training session with Alf Galustian and Charlie Cooke – both co-founders of Coerver – very rarely are they together and they don’t normally run training sessions together so its pretty special.  Charlie (as expected) has a very heavy Scottish accent although he has lived in the U.S. for many years. He was (and is) a Chelsea legend for die-hard soccer fans.  Its nice for the boys to get coached by a ex-soccer player of his stature (and he can still move pretty quickly for a 67 year old).
Noah and Ethan with Charlie Cooke.

Afterwards he and Alf were very accommodating of people that wanted balls, caps, jerseys, etc signed.

After training, the tournament started.  The guys are now familiar with the concept and starting to understand how quickly the game is played.  They start with a convincing win and then followed by a loss but win again later on.   They now only lose by 1 goal when they lose or win narrowly in a hard-dought contest.  
Noah plays goalkeeper to save a shot...

They are able to compete against these teamd and be convincing in their display and they have only been here a week.  In some ways it would be nicer if this could be a regular thing – to play in these tournaments and at this pace. They have learned so much in such a small time.

They are treated like rock-stars and the Japanese are genuinely excited by our presence and all want photos with our kids.

This tour has been many things to players and parents alike.  It has been a wonderful cultural and learning experience in so many ways.  It has been an eye-opener for many players and parents.  The quality of the football here is of a very high standard (due to many reasons of course).  I can see Japan being more likely to produce players that are capable of winning a World Cup more than Australia can.  Their facilites, geography, population, professional league and attitude are more suited to producing a team of players that can play and win at that level in the near future.

I think it is more likely and more logical that our future national players ply their trade in the developing Asian region (Japan and China).  Whilst the Chinese league may still be developing the J-League is much more technical and better than our own in so many ways.

For us it comes down to what we have always relied upon and that is our fitness, grit and spirit.

Tomorrow is our last day.  Some shopping in the morning and then our to the airport for our flight home.  I never had an interest in travelling to Japan and if it wasn’t for Noah, we would have never visited here.  I must admit I find this country fascinating and brilliant in so many ways.   I don’t think I’ve ever visited a country where the people are so welcoming, polite, respectful and helpful.  Not because they want something – they are not poor.  Just because they are like that…  Where you can walk around and fell totally safe – a rare thing when you are overseas visitor.   You can leave your bag with cameras, etc on the floor with hundreds of others and know that it will all still be there when you get back...

We can only wish that we had infrastructure and organisation like this in our cities.
Thanks Japan. Thanks for the memories, the education, and the experience.
One day who knows... we may be back..