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Thursday, 13 July 2006 |
Arrival in Detroit - By Rasmus Bonde Stouby
See pictures from Detroit here
Bonding
on team Denmark is on the fast track. A little too fast if you're
soft-skinned and shy. I arrived at Detroit Wayne County airport earlier
than anyone and intended to spend the extra time typing up some
thoughts for this blog. My mind was too distracted by thoughts of the
coming weeks and the many beautiful Michigan girls strutting by to
focus though. So I took a nap instead and all of a sudden everybody was
there.
Reunion in Detroit airport. Most of the team did the
12-hour journey across he Atlantic. Others, like me, arrived in Detroit
on less grueling domestic flights for the pre-World Games Team Denmark
training camp.
Two hours later, after checking in at the Super
8 Motel in Birmingham outside of Detroit, 20 guys dressed in red and
white helmets, gloves, and uniforms circled coach Matt Cone for the
first full national team practice in a year. If you hadn't felt it yet,
this is where it hit you. It's on! I kept thinking how weird it is with
all these Danes... here? On a field in Michigan... yelping in Danish,
which is completely Greek to anyone other than Scandinavians. It's
unreal. These guys belong in Denmark, but here they are and they are
all talking, chatting, laughing and looking forward to the tournament.
There
is a few new faces among the 20 guys. The three days of preparation
will also be used to bond and become a team, to bring in the new and
blend them with the old. At dinner, everybody presented himself, stated
a little known fact about himself and revealed an embarrassing
situation he for some reason (for the most it was a drunken reason) had
ended up in.
A disturbingly large percentage of the stories
included lack of bladder control and also even worse administration of
human waste. Others pulled laughs through obscenities, and some were
just hilarious. Like the midfielder, who at a summer festival in
Denmark had a few too many and ran towards a boom box, thinking it was
in fact a cardboard box, and proceeded to swing his booted foot and
kick it as hard as he could. The music stopped as bits of pieces of
boom box flew several yards into the air. The hip hoppers dancing round
the box didn't appreciate the comedy in this and proceeded to beat him
up. There is also the story of the guy who lost a drunken fight to a
statue. I guess you can't really win a fight against an adversary
literally made of iron. His hands needed a few weeks rest after that.
For
a large group of Danes gathered around a dinner table, surprisingly
small amounts of beer were consumed. People are focused and excited.
The atmosphere is light and joking and everybody is incredibly happy to
finally be in the middle of what used to be an abstract conversation
topic at practices in Denmark for over a year.
Coach Cone delivered his tournament expectations. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priority = have fun.
"When you have fun, the rest usually comes by itself anyway," he said.
It is the "One Love" philosophy, the love for the game.
Back
at the motel, the team realized that Super 8 accomodation means four
people in a room with two queen size beds. One set of sheets per bed.
It doesn't matter, though. Everyone is happy just to be here.
Later
last night in the corridor and in the rooms at the Super 8, objectives
such as defeating Finland in the last game were added to the tournament
expectations by the players. One of the team captains even went so far
as to state that: "If we beat Finland, it's tournament improved!" |
