Today, my cousin and I biked to Feyenoord Stadium, to watch Feyenoord play against FC Utrecht. What an amazing atmosphere! When the the teams came out of the dressing room, 50 000 fans rose to their feet and started chanting who knows what.  The game was good, Canadian born Jonathan De Guzman played every well. Guzman just received his dutch passport on Wednesday and intends to play for The Netherlands over Canada. One report was quoted “this sort of thing will continue to happen until there is environment in Canada that can develop and retain talent.”

Comments like these is just one of many reason why I am in The Netherslands, we cannot let this happen in the future. We must create soccer culture in Canada!!

Article:

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/postedsports/archive/2008/02/06/soccer-de-guzman-chooses-holland-over-canada.aspx

I have now been in Rotterdam for one week.  My first day consisted of sleeping and lots of it. My second day I met up with Marco Van Lochem, youth director of Rotterdam Excelsior, we then drove to Eidhoven home of PSV, we were driving a U15 National player who plays within the Excelsior system. I received a full tour of the PSV stadium.

After our first tour we went to the PSV Youth Academy training grounds, Wow. The most exciting part was I was able to sit down with 2 of the PSV coaches and talk soccer, I watched video on what they believe should be taught at all ages. I can’t wait to bring it back to Canada.

The next day, I went to the club Excelsior, it is only a 10 min bike ride away from where I am staying. I was able to watch all age groups from U6 to U19. It was amazing to see the skill and intensity in every player. Not just in drills, but more importantly in scrimmages.