September 27th – Japanese Coaches @ Coerver Headquarters and Tokyo Verdy

Forecast: Rain and its all day constant heavy drizzle.  Bus transport out to Coerver headquarters in Tokyo which is located underneath a bullet train line (which are mostly overhead).  Free space is a premium in Tokyo and so fields/parks are located near train lines as they don’t build houses/apartments here.

Parents were given opportunity to sit in a lecture given by Alf Galustian to prospective Coerver Coaches.  Was interesting as Alf lectures in English and translator then translates to Japanese coaches.  Alf went over their Coerver Code – which all makes very good sense and is great to hear for the parents.

The teams went outside and trained in rain.  Afterwards parents were also allowed to watch Alf give a lesson to Coaches before all the Japanese coaches then took the kids through 4 separate training segments.  The coaches were all very enthusiastic and great with the kids and the language barrier didn’t seem to be a hinderance at all. All the kids seemed to have a ball.  What a brilliant experience!

Afterwards kids tried to dry off a little before going back to hotel for lunch of Chinese banquet (in Japan..) and afternoon rest.

Bus transported all of us to Tokyo Verdy facility (J2 League team facility).  The facility is brilliant and our teams had the opportunity to play against their development team. Not sure how this was organised but it was a chance for our teams to go up against kids that are ear-marked early for a professional career.

Jason spoke to all the parents to tell us how rare and special this opportunity is and to not expect our teams to have any chance.  For the 10s it would be the first time they would play on 3/4 pitch with 8 per side and for some reason they played 3 x 15 minutes periods. Whilst our teams were brave in defence and tried their hearts out they were thoroughly out-classed.  The technical skill, decision-making and team awareness and positioning is truly mesmerising at the ages of these academy teams. It was beautiful football to watch and a valuable lesson to all prospective players on what skill level is needed to compete at a “professional” level – both as an individual player and at a team level. 

The spirit of the game and the politeness and gratitude of the Japanese people is truly marvellous.

This was the most educational and enjoyable day yet for all…

Got back to hotel about 10:00pm.  I believe the kids will sleep tonight… and although thoroughly beaten in competition they are much the wiser as footballers and as kids - they will always remember this day….

Unforgettably brilliant.  Thanks Japan.

September 26th – Tournament Day 2 and chicken pox

Another day –another tournament.  Unfortunately Josh, (under 12s) has come out with chicken pox.  Quick action by coaches separates Josh from the rest of the group and unfortunately he will be isolated for the rest of the holiday.  Its is a very sad day for him and his mum and everyone feels for them as obviously its just a huge case of bad luck.

The coaches call for all players who haven’t had chicken pox and the decision is made to separate those that have had chicken pox (which is the majority of the group) to travel in one bus and the others that haven’t in the other bus.  Most unfortunate but it was the best decision for the group.

Tournament day 2 saw a huge improvement for the all the teams from Australia.  There is some greats skill and passing starting to be seen and some team dynamics are showing through.  They are improving day-by-day and if there were a few more tournaments I believe the improvement level would be massive.

The under 9s started the day with a win and went well through the day. They ended up coming fifth and there were some good goals scored but most noticeable was the ability to shut down a lot of the movement of the Japanese teams.  Noah had a great day and was very excited to score his first goal for Australia and it was a left-footer.  Stoked!  Probably their best game was a 0-0 draw against the Japanese team dressed in Barcelona outfits – this team ended up winning the tournament 4-0 in a final against the under 10s.  Noah played in goals but didn’t have to save any direct shots on goal which meant the team defended brilliantly.

Under 12s (both teams) went well too. One of the under 12s made the final but lost 2-0.  They had some great chance but unfortunately couldn’t convert on the day.

All round great day out. The parents had a game for about 10 minutes after the tournament.  Lots of aging bodies trying to resurrect skills of the past.  Loads of fun!

After the tournament bus went to our new hotel (Washington Hotel – Shinjuku) which is much more central.  Because we hit heavy traffic on the way to hotel some of the boys couldn’t hold on any longer so bus had to stop for a “wee” stop on side of motorway.

Went for dinner at a Japanese restaurant on the 29^th level of a huge office block.  Sky View restaurant.  The building had a great sky elevator on one side which was fun to ride in as it had great views and felt more like a fun-park ride.

Tomorrow is a training session with Alf Galustian of Coerver and then in the afternoon we will play 11-11 tournament against J-league Toky Verdy development side.  Will be a huge challenge and great experience once again.

September 25th - Tournament Day 1

Exciting day for the guys today.  This is what the trip was about.  Playing football against teams from another nation.  It was always going to be a big ask to throw a bunch of kids from different Coerver districts together and play in a format which they weren’t to against teams that play 5v5 regularly.

Australia basically fielded 4 teams – 2 under 10 teams and 2 under 12 teams.  Although most teams were jumbled up, there was basically an under 9 team and an under 10 team in the under 10 tournament, and again there were 2 teams in the under 12 tournament – one made up mostly of 11s and the other of 12s.

The Japanese teams generally were very technical, very fast, extremely good team awareness, and very, very lethal in front of goal.  Having these tournaments regularly would be extremely beneficial for all our kids.  You can see why Coerver is so successful in Japan with the different regions playing their kids against each other. And not all teams were small...

The welcoming from the Japanese Coerver people was very nice and Alf Galustian (founder of Coerver) was there for the whole tournament watching the kids as well.

Games were all 8 minute s long and play at frenetic pace.  As expected the under 9 team faced the biggest challenge, and although they didn’t win any games their biggest losing margin was 3-0 and they led for  2 of their 5 games before running out of puff and losing.  Considering they are playing against 10 year olds (and some are under 8s) and have never played this format they did great!

The under 10 team went extremely well and made the final but unfortunately lost by a goal.

The 2 under 12 teams finished 4^th and 5^th respectively and also did extremely well for their first run.

Day started out quite cool (about 17 degrees) but once sun came out it started to heat up quickly and most got a little sunburnt.

Dinner was at a traditional Japanese restaurant with sunken tables, communal boiling pots and a variety of raw meats, vegetables and noodles to dunk in and cook. Great experience for everyone.

Walked through the bright neon lights of the city before heading back to hotel to crash.

Tomorrow there is another tournament at the same facility but against different teams.

Everyone will sleep well….

September 24th – Tokyo – Calpis, anime, warm toilet seats and vending machines.

Even Qantas F21 offers a choice of Japanese breakfast (salmon and miso soup) or “aussie” breakfast.

After a 10 hour flight with little sleep everyone seemed a little tired.  

2 full size buses with translators/guides are taking us around.  Under 9-10s on one bus and 11-12 on bus behind us.  Parents are at front of bus and team is at back of the bus so they can commence "bonding" which includes learning each others’ names still for some.  Its a great idea and kids already getting on fine.

Tokyo is “busy” as expected. Stop at Akihabara shopping district mostly known for its electrical goods. We go into this Yodobashi Camera store shopping centre specialising in electronics/games/whitegood, etc.  Absolutely nuts.  After about 1 hour in there, their is sensory overload.  Soooooo much stuff!  Mad about anime in all its formats.

Toilets here are also very flashy.  They have warmed seats and have like a remote control on the side which has a optional front/rear wash thing and also have a deodorant button. Without going into too much detail, for the toilet connoisseur they are the rolls-royce baby.

City is flooded with vending machines.  They are everywhere and selling everything imaginable.

Found some Calpis - (kids like the name cos it sounds like "moo-wee" if you know what i mean).  Noah seems to like it.  We tried both plain and  soda type.  Carbonated milk basically.  Sounds too weird and sort of disgusting in concept.  If you can imagine mixing a spoonful of plain yoghurt into lemonade then I think that’s pretty much the taste.

Had sushi for lunch and it was pretty authentic.  Maybe too authentic for some of the kids that tried it… It was great. Noah got a lollipop that was in the shape of a sushi so he was happy.

Meet in the lobby shortly to discuss tomorrow.  First “tournament”. Oh boy!

September 23rd - Its time

Its beginning to sink in.  Noah played his first Summer Soccer game last night and the boys did pretty well and got a 2-2 result. Noah was also excited to be on the back page of the local papers along with Jacob and Nicholas.  He was misquoted and they were called "prodigies" so there was a little poetic license but that is part of journalism I guess.
He has also had an interview/photo shoot for Kiama Independent so seems like this is his 15 minutes...
Have attached photo of Noah in his outfit.  He was allocated No. 7 so he had to decide who his favourite No.7 was... Raul, Ribery, Ronaldo, Emerton... Of course he has settled for David Villa (of Barcelona/Spain fame...)
We are heading to the airport in a few hours...

Next stop Japan....

Preparation - September 11-12 -Training in Canberra

The 9-10 age groups and 11-12 age groups met at Monash Public School in ACT for training on a synthetic surface.  Very nice surface.  In fact, its the best Noah has ever played on and the best we've seen.  This is at a Public School in Canberra.
Apparently most of the surfaces in Japan are synthetic and so this is to get the guys used to playing on this type of surface.  Ball plays very true and almost glides along the surface.  Makes the ground passing game very fast.  Only wish they could spend more time together to get to know each other better as they will face J-League development kids who would play together regularly.  Still will be loads of fun and boys will get lots from it.
The boys also got to meet each other and learn each others names and also met their coaches who will accompany them on tour.