NEWS - JULY: TAMME CUP TOUR DIARY

Dan ‘mute’ Brown
‘Secret’ Sam Eyes
Owen ‘flip-bang’ Franklin
Callum ‘two jug of water’ Trayner
Will ‘Bruce’ Lee
Connor ‘starvin marvin’ Woulahan
Jamie ‘drag back’ Nunn
Joe ‘push the button’ Payne
Connor ‘I want that one’ Shrimpton
Josh ‘Crossley’Thomson
Ed ‘captain sensible’ Mann
Luke ‘Ken Dodd’ Spencer

Tuesday June 12th

The boys reported to Stanstead airport at 04:30 looking a mixture of excitement and nerves at the prospect of 8 days away from home. The boys had to check in their own luggage and look after their own passports and boarding cards, which was nearly beyond one of the tour party, however disaster was averted. This was the first time some of the boys had been on a plane and the first time some had left the country guaranteeing a massive life experience.

The flight was fairly easy, the coaches had to sleep having had to coach at the Academy the previous night and having to fulfil and massively important 5 ‘O’ fixture (we lost 2-0), but the boys chatted and were so well behaved that Carole from easyJet commented on the excellent behaviour and asked the boys if they would like to look around the cockpit, which was interesting for them.

The bus journey from Tallinn (capital) to Tartu (2nd largest city) took 2 and a half hours which some of the boys used to catch up on some sleep from the night before. We are at the Tammeka stadium around 15:00 local time which would provide our base for the next 2 days. We met Simmo who would co-ordinate all our activities for the tour. We were informed there was a friendly kicking off a 16:00 so had to be ready quickly. The game proved a big test due to the travel and early start and many players were well off the pace. Some did come out with credit however the level would need to be raised! The players returned to the stadium with the Tammeka players they had just played against and learned a little of how to communicate when you don’t speak the same language.

The evening meal provided the boys with the opportunity to show what their eating was like with the result a mixed bag. When away on a long tour like this it is not food but fuel because with 11 games in 7 days you will run out of energy if you are not refuelling regardless of how healthy the food is.

Lights out was not observed by some players, affecting their teammates and therefore would have to miss tomorrow’s friendly against the older Tammeka team.

Wednesday June 13th

Time keeping was definitely the lesson of the day with all players failing to meet at the correct times and collecting yellow cards, which would impact on their playing time. The Roy Keane example was very relevant to the importance of not being late.

The players started at 09:00, having had a good nights sleep to set them up for the day ahead and the rest of the tour, with a team shape training session. This was to help improve on the previous days poor showing. Simmo had organised for an ‘English Breakfast’ at the restaurant which reinforced the fuel not food theme. Whilst the boys could tell it wasn’t the most ideal preparation, they understood that it was the only fuel available. We used the example of Graeme Souness at Mexico 86 to highlight this. Callum also discovered the language barrier might affect how you communicate with Estonians!

The fixture wasn’t until the afternoon so we decided to walk into Tartu and have a look around. The weather was very nice emphasising the need to rehydrate frequently. Some players didn’t appreciate this therefore impacting on their preparation, affecting playing time. A further lesson was control what you can with your preparation (drinks etc) and deal with the things you can’t (meals). Owen also discovered that English isn’t always understood when trying to find the way to the city centre! A quality lunch full of carbs set some of us up nicely for the game.

The performance in the fixture against Tammeka 95 was better than the previous game and set the theme for the remainder of the tour in that poor goals were conceded chances weren’t taken but we dominated the game in terms of controlling possession and our build up and link play was excellent. Some players however had to learn that in order to show their ability it was not the playground and that top performance would come from understanding their roles and responsibilities.

After a nice evening meal in which the poorer eaters managed to replace enough energy we travelled to Elva, a beautiful Estonian Town, where the tournament would be held. We were staying in the same motel as Honka United FC and PK35, two of the top teams in Finland. The players were in bed early to help prepare for the next day. A positive note from the day was the praise for the boys’ behaviour in the restaurant we had been eating in and for their help in clearing the tables.

Thursday June 14th

The day started early with a good buffet breakfast full of the appropriate energy for the demands of the day however some players didn’t heed the advice to consume enough fuel, which would crop up later. The boys packed their gear for the walk to the venue, which would provide another lesson later on! We set off and after a small detour we arrived at the venue with sufficient time to get warmed-up and discuss the upcoming games. Our first game was against PK35 (who would eventually finish 4th) and after dominating possession in the first half and playing very well we conceded a couple of very bad goals. Eventually we would lose the game heavily having not maintained our shape and trying to do the wrong things in chasing the game. The PK coaches were later very complimentary about the way we played which is another theme to be repeated throughout the tour.

Our next game was against Metalurgs from Latvia (who finished 2nd) where their players live in a football school and train 10 times a week and are involved in around 300 games per year. Watching their athleticism in the warm-up was very interesting and their running technique was fantastic. In the first half we were excellent and completely controlled the ball however much the same as with the PK game, we conceded bad goals and lost our way a little in the second half. These hard lessons on positioning would result in better performances later on. The Metalurgs coach thought our problem as being the need to move the ball slightly quicker, which particularly in the attacking third we would agree with. He did say with that he thought we would have won the game, which was pleasing to hear.

Our last game proved to be an excellent performance against Flora from Tallinn. The result again showed we conceded poor goals however the way we played made the game appear one-sided. The most pleasing thing was that players who had previously not been able to affect the game because of poor positional understanding were starting to influence the game.

The boys were in good spirits in spite of the results and were enjoying working so well in possession of the ball and creating many chances. After the matches the boys had to find the way to the beach to meet the coaches. They did well and had a good half hour at the lake going down the slides and jumping off the diving boards, something we had never seen at a lake. None of the boys managed to replicate Scott’s ear dive off the top board! The walk back to the motel left some of the boys feeling tired, emphasising what we had said at breakfast. Some also realised only take what you need and that walking a couple of miles with a heavy bag is not the easiest thing! Lunch was very welcome upon arrival!

The free time that followed showed the boys had the ability to mix well with players from other countries. The coaches could hear the chants of ‘easy, easy, easy’ coming from both sets of players having educated the Finnish players about Soccer A.M. One or two players did not use the free time as well affecting their preparation and therefore affecting playing time. Scott spent this time trying to get the water out of his ear.

Friday June 15th

The morning started with a good breakfast then onto a phase of play to emphasise creating and taking goal scoring opportunities which the coaches were very happy with and were looking forward to the afternoon games.

The games were against 3rd and 4th placed teams from the previous day and would again illustrate our ability to create many scoring opportunities but our inability to convert chances. One thing did improve and that was ability to keep goals out and the day was much better for Josh, culminating in him being the second placed goalkeeper in the penalty competition with 7 saves! Highlights of the day were Shrimp nearly scoring with an audacious near post back heel, Will Lee teaching all the other teams our homework diary in match situations, Sam Eyes letting the secret out the bag that he can play and Owen showing fantastic ability that he wasn’t sure he had. What was pleasing is that our last game of the day against Tartu drew a big crowd with many spectators in watching our ‘untypical’ brand of English football.

The penalty competition didn’t finish until 19:30 so Honka United kindly offered us a lift back to the motel, which enabled the boys to learn some Finnish.

Honka were very complimentary about our whole set-up and in a discussion invited us over to their tournament in 2008 and also enquired about us helping them with fixtures if they came to England. Later at the coaches get together we had further compliments from other coaches and have hopefully formed some good partnerships. When we go to Finland in the future we should have games against HJK, PK35 and Honka.

Saturday June 16th

The third day of the tournament was the play-offs for overall placings with F.D.S being in the 9th-12th games. Both games provided replays of games from the previous days. First up were Lootos who we again drew with despite completely playing them off the pitch. We kept up the English tradition of losing the penalty shoot out despite good saves from Josh. This put us into the 11th, 12th place play-off against Flora from day 1. We again completely dominated but went back to conceding bad goals. With 10 seconds to go we were 2-1 down when Luke ‘the salmon’ Spencer leapt to score his second header of the tournament. We knew that head was for something! The boys this time organised the penalty takers but again lost out giving us an overall placing of 12th. We returned later to watch the final in which Skonto Riga beat Metalurgs 2-1. The game was very intense and interesting as Skonto had an out and out sweeper who was their playmaker. There were a number of excellent players on show.

The coaches had joked that we would not be surprised if we won the fairplay trophy, as that is all England seem to win, however that would be to downplay the spirit and way in which our players played every game and overall it was well deserved. Will Lee was voted player of the team by coaches and again it was well deserved. Simmo would later discuss a transfer for ‘Bruce’ however we told him we didn’t want to sell.

That evening we returned to Tartu and took in an Estonian premier league game between Tammeka and TVMK Tallinn, which finished 0-3. Our next stop was the hotel Taru, which was the first hotel in Tartu when it was built. Simmo had done a great job as it had everything we needed and was only a brief walk into Tartu. That evening we ate at a local restaurant where the boys again conducted themselves very well. Over the next few days we would need to prepare some of our own food, which was another test for the boys to help them develop further off the pitch.

Sunday June 17th

Our first day off of the tour. The boys woke at 9:00 for breakfast after which we went to the local swimming pool. It was an excellent pool and the boys amused themselves for the best part of 5 hours! Jamie managed to develop a superb red chest with his diving technique. We returned to the hotel having bought lunch at the local supermarket. Now it was our choice the lunch was very healthy and full of carbs to replace the energy used up. Once everything had been cleared up we headed into Tartu to look around the city. It is a very beautiful city and the walk was good apart from the rain. We looked around for a place to eat which helped to show the players how much thought we have to put into finding somewhere in the right price range and also which provides the right food. We ate in a restaurant recommended by Simmo in the end, where the boys had a pizza (the best option available). A massive positive to come from the meal, other than the responsibility the boys had to take for ordering, was 2 Estonian ladies who spoke to us and could not believe how well behaved the boys had been and how polite they were. This was very pleasing as they were just out for a meal and weren’t obliged to say it.

Monday June 18th

The day started early followed by a team meeting to discuss the performances on the tour and some of the lessons learned. The starting line-up for the morning fixture was discussed, however it pretty much picked itself, as there had been some ill discipline during the day off. The game was against Tammeka 97 and was another reasonable performance with the ball, however only one player excelled, whilst the rest were comfortable to play down to level of our younger opposition. This was not good enough and shows that is easier to lose than to win! This is an area to improve on in future. Some of the poorer refuelling caught up with one or two who no longer had the reserves to perform.

Now that the squad has a good grasp of controlling possession and build up play we need to be more efficient defensively and be able to convert our superiority into goals with more ruthlessness in the attacking third. This approach was typified when Spence rounded 3 players and with an open goal took four touches and had the ball taken off him. He had boasted before coming on that the coaches could punch him if he didn’t score! The players have not covered a large amount of finishing, as it is important to walk (keep the ball) before you can run (finish).

Once we had had lunch we had a team meeting to discuss the impact of the tour and what needed to be done once back at the Academy. Spence was making everyone laugh, another theme for the tour, by telling everyone how he once had his boots signed by Ian Beale (yes the one from Eastenders!).

As a treat the tour party went to McDonalds as a reward for what was overall a very good tour. The lessons to be learned were in communicating to the staff what you wanted and that what you ordered you had to eat. Watching some of the boys having to go up on 3 separate occasions to get what they wanted was quite amusing as was watching certain players trying to eat what appeared to be the whole McDonalds menu! Spence (again) took this a little literally and drank a whole portion of curry sauce much to everyone’s amusement. It was a good end to the day.

The journey also provided what the boys felt was the funniest moment of the tour, as Spence (yes again) was forced to return to the hotel holding the coaches hands as he was misbehaving! The boys then had to pack for the return home. The journey home the next day was fairly easy and the boys hopefully have managed to recharge for the next training session.

Everyone at FDS would like to send a massive thank you to Simmo (and also to En), who enabled the tour to be such a success on and off the pitch. We hope this will be the start of long relationship, which will massively benefit boys from both countries. We look forward to returning in the near future.