Team Chicago Academy-Santos is currently in Copenhagen, Denmark participating in the prestigious Brondby Cup. Every other day the players will share their thoughts on the experience. Here is the first installment:

Our journey to Denmark began on Sunday July 28th. We all arrived at the airport mid afternoon matching and ready to go. We boarded the biggest plane we have ever seen in our lives! It had two floors, three separate sections of seats and mini tv’s. We thought we were livin’ large! Pretty much no one got any sleep…except for Lilly. We had both dinner and breakfast within a 7 hour time frame which was pretty weird. We closed the windows when it was dark out and shortly after we opened them and it was light out again!

After 7 long hours, we finally arrived in Amsterdam feeling like we all just got hit by a car. We had a short layover in Amsterdam which allowed perfect time to grab a quick Starbucks before we left for another flight that would get us to Copenhagen. This flight was much shorter and instead of being served typical American food, we were already being served foreign snacks.

We arrived in Copenhagen after a long journey and were greeted by Phil’s mom and Aunt who were each holding the cutest American flags. It was all smiles from there. We got bused to the Brøndby Stadion where our hotel was connected to the soccer arena. We finally were able to relax for a little in our hotel rooms only to discover that there was no air conditioning whatsoever. The shower was different because it didn’t have a curtain but other than that the rooms were great! We had an awesome view of the soccer fields from our patio so while we weren’t playing soccer, we could watch it.

We all took a small nap before our first game later Monday and then headed off to dinner at Cafeteria Klubhuset. We didn’t expect to like the food, but surprising it was great, especially the bread!!

At the first game, Gianna ran into Isabel, the Danish girl who she and her family hosted last summer when they came to the U.S. It was so great to see them and their coaches. Our first game was against Brøndby IF. They were very physical but continuously got tired as we connected the ball. We won 2-0 with beautiful goals by Kristen and Sam.At th e end of the day, we all crashed. We were so tired from the long day of travel and soccer.

Tuesday morning we woke up and started the day with a good breakfast in the hotel lobby. Then, Phil took us on a walk through part of the town to visit the Supermarket and Bakery. It was very cool to see a different way of living. We learned that the Danish are much more patient than Americans when crossing the street..meaning NO J-WALKING:-)

Later we went to our second game of the tournament and played OB. We won 6-2 with goals by Kristen (2) Katie(2) Heather and Hannah.

After the game we went back to our rooms to rest and then went to dinner. We ate a delicious pasta with meat sauce and again…bread! In our second game of the day we played Hillerod. We won 2-0 with goals by Sarah and Gianna. The team played low pressure so it was easy for us to play around them and keep the ball. Later that night we went back to our rooms to shower and get some rest.

It has been a great trip so far and we can’t wait for more to come!!

Gianna
Rachael
Lilly