We All Went Down to Amster-(shh)

Ok, so I've neglected the blog for a bit since getting back from Honduras. Damn this "real life" thing getting in the way of soccer!

Since we're still a few weeks away from the next set of qualifiers, let's talk about what I was doing three years ago:

March 3, 2010
Amsterdam Arena
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Friendly: Netherlands v USA

Pro tip: If you stay up until 6am the day before an international flight in the hopes of being so tired on the flight that you can fall asleep, maybe you should just consider sleeping pills instead.

See, this happened back in my days of playing roller derby. No, seriously; I played roller derby:

We had a bout on Saturday night; my flight to Amsterdam was late Sunday afternoon. Derby plays hard and parties hard: there was the after party, then the after-after party. I got home around 6am, slept for two hours, then got up to finish packing for the trip.

Did I sleep on the flight? Of course not. After arriving in Amsterdam at 7am Monday morning, I was wiped; this led to fatal mistake number two: taking a nap. In retrospect, I should have just powered through and stayed awake until it was the proper time to sleep. Instead, I spent three days as a time zombie, staying awake until 6am then sleeping the late mornings and/or early afternoons away.

The awake times were great, though. I didn't really do anything organized, aside from the US game; I mostly just wandered the streets of central Amsterdam, taking in the sights and taking pictures.

On Tuesday I met up with Greg from No Short Corners and a few others to kick a ball around at the Museumplein; later that evening, the group gathered for a great dinner.

Wednesday was game day. First stop was to meet up with some Sam's Army and American Outlaws folks at a bar for some drinks. I skipped out early on that to meet up with Greg and others at another pub, and ended up tagging along with some guys from Arizona to go to the stadium.

The game itself was a bit disappointing, but not terrible. The US sat back way too much for my liking, eventually losing 2-1. Professional leg-breaker Nigel de Jong added Stuart Holden to his collection in the first half; Stu's never quite been the same since. One can only wonder, three years later, what the path of Holden's career would have been had that not happened.

A train ride to Hoek van Holland was in the cards on Thursday, leading to an overnight ferry ride to England. I went to sleep far too early on the ferry, but by the next night in Norwich, I finally time acclimated. That part of the trip is another story entirely.