Lynn
Our offseason plans changed a lot with being invited to these camps, because it means we have to maintain a high level of fitness. If we weren't in China, Pat would be in California relaxing at UCLA or at home in Lodi with the family. I would be doing the same with my family in Houston and enjoying a bit of a rest after a long season. However, we are both here in China and neither of us would rather be doing anything else.
==================================
Hope you both have good games. Let us know what you think of the Chinese team: physical, technical, strategic, etc. Stu, BTW, I sit across the isle from your parents. Great "clan"!
-- MCvdB
The Chinese team was very well organized and the players in the backline were huge! I think their number 5 is only a couple inches shorter than Yao Ming! They were technically sound and their outside backs could hit 60-yard balls across the field with ease. It took us a little while to adjust to that, because they were extremely accurate and well-played.
==================================
Thanks for keeping us informed of what's going on around you overseas ... As a Dynamo fan, I'm very proud to have two of the MLS championship players with the national team. My question is, if you score a goal against China, can you dedicate that goal to all the Houston Dynamo fans that are going to be watching you play? Can you please? Stuart, Keep up the hard work, I would love to see you play in South Africa 2010. God bless you.
-- Mario V.
If either of us scores a goal against China, you can believe we will for sure be representing the Dynamo. There are actually a good amount of Texas players on this team, and we have a Texas celebration planned if any of us manage to actually score!
(Stu): I would love to represent the USA in South Africa and if that opportunity arises it would be a great honor!
==================================
Hope y'all are having fun in China. Most obvious question ... what do you miss most about the United States and what was the most shocking difference you have experienced in China? What do you wish you could bring back from China for American soccer?
-- #1 South Carolina fan!
Hey, my favorite South Carolina fan, how have you been? I miss a lot in the United States, mostly the obvious things such as family, good TV, and friends, but I always enjoy the experience of traveling to a new country and learning more about different cultures. I would bring back the stadiums, because the two stadiums we have played in have been fantastic and have a great atmosphere.
That is ALL (or too much) for today. Hope to hear from more of you again for tomorrow! Thanks again,
-- Stu and Pat from Guangzhou, China!
Well, it is now Wednesday night over here in China, and I'm getting ready for bed. It is the night before a game, so it is important to get a lot of sleep and prepare the right way for tomorrow. Now, I know some of you will be a little disappointed that this entry will be shorter than normal, but do not fear because we will be back tomorrow with a full recap of the game and the day's events!
Today was a pretty standard 'Day before a Game' routine. We had breakfast around 9:30, Lunch around 1:00 and then practice around 5 o'clock on the stadium field before returning back to the hotel for dinner and a brief team meeting.
At practice we did a lot of team shape and set pieces in preparation for tomorrow, followed by some shooting on the goalies. The stadium we are playing in is magnificent and can seat around 50,000 people. As I said in my previous entry, they are expecting between 35-40,000, so there should be a great atmosphere tomorrow night! The team is feeling good and we will be ready to represent the Red, White, and Blue over here in China.
Unfortunately I am off to bed to get some sleep, so I will have to leave it at that for today.
Pat and I have decided to add a new feature to the blog, which will allow you to ask us some questions via email. So please email US AT THIS LINK with your questions and we will do our best to answer them. Once again, thanks for reading and hopefully we can get a win tomorrow against the Chinese Olympic team!
Best, Stu
Stu: Hey everyone, I'm back for the 2nd entry in my blog from China. I found my long lost roommate from Houston, the great Patrick Ianni. We don't get to choose roommates, so luckily I didn't get stuck with this big Meatball.
Pat: Hey Dynamo fans, I'm happy Mr. Teen Houston had me as a guest on "HIS" hometown blog. We are having a lot of fun over here in China preparing for a battle against the Chinese Olympic team on Thursday.
Stu: I hope you enjoyed the pictures that I took of the hotel and parts of the city. I will continue to post more pictures as I get them, including some of the stadium we will be playing in on Thursday night. According to some of the news stations (which I couldn't really understand) they are expecting a crowd of between 35-40,000, which doesn't seem like that many people after we managed to sell out 31 thousand at Robertson for the last 3 home games of the year. (THANKS again for your continued support!)
China has been interesting, to say the least. I think the majority of the team expected that before taking off from Los Angeles. The weather here has been overcast and freezing, which is a bit of a change for me considering I have lived in Houston for the last 12 years of my life. I'm starting to lose this Texas tan that I worked all year for, so hopefully the sun comes out here at some point in the near future!
Pat: As you have seen, the hotel we are staying at is beautiful. The nicest hotel I've ever stayed at during my young life. We are actually the first guests to stay here, as it just opened two days before we arrived, so we have been receiving a bit of "royal treatment", if you will. Stu was really impressed to see his quarters before walking down to the king's quarters (my room -- sometimes it pays to be a Big Boy, Stu!) The food has been surprisingly normal for us Americans. An array of different cultures are represented on the buffet line such as Orange Chicken (P.F. Changs' Style), Quesadillas (Mambo's Seafood Style), Rice (of course), Sushi (not of course, since this is Japanese, right!), and the standard salad and fruit. We also get a taste of Chinese tradition at our meals as there is a chef making hand-tossed noodles which is the base for a delicious soup.
Stu: I'm glad Pat let me type again, I thought he was never going to stop talking about all the food! (shock). Pat covered the food and hotel aspect of the trip pretty well, so I'm going to tell you about some of our training sessions. We have been doing a lot of training in this camp, but the workload has lessened a bit since we have arrived in China. The focus has switched to more tactical awareness and becoming a better team. After practices we returned to the hotel for a regeneration session in the extravagant pool. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention Pat's little mistake he made before practice on Monday! We have been taking these pills at night that help promote sleep so we can adjust our bodies to the time here in China. Pat decided to take one on the bus to the stadium about 15 minutes before we started practice. (Smart right?) Needless to say, Pat didn't exactly have his best practice of the camp and seemed a little tired! (haha!)
Pat: Speaking of which, it is 10:30 p.m., and Stu and I are getting a little sleepy considering it is 6:30 a.m. in California. My body clock is starting to adjust since I waited until a half an hour ago to take the Melatonin this time. Hope you enjoyed today's blog and be on the lookout for another one before our game on Thursday.
Stu: Thanks for reading and stay tuned!
Hey, loyal Houston Dynamo Fans! Stu here from Changsha, China!
Our trip to China with the U-23 National Team started with a week-long training camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. I was definitely excited when I got called into this camp, because it was my first as an official United States citizen. I flew out of Houston with Arturo Alvarez from FC Dallas, who is also a Houston native and a good friend (off the field). We arrived on Saturday in LA and had a team dinner that night, in which we met the coaching staff and support staff.
We started the week with a fairly light session on Sunday to get the legs going a bit, before really hitting it on Monday. The schedule for the rest of the week was fairly consistent, with a hard session in the morning followed by regeneration in the cold tubs/steam rooms, lunch at around 1:30 p.m., and then back to The Home Depot Center in the afternoon for either a weights circuit on the field or weights in the weight room.
Needless to say, it was a lot of intense work that will be good for the team while we are in China, and leading up to our qualifying matches in March 2008. The sessions involved a lot of playing and team formation, because the majority of players haven't been playing together over the MLS season. Overall, it was a good week of practice in which everyone put in a lot of hard work.
The flight to China was on Friday night at 12:40 AM, which was technically Saturday morning! We had a 13-hour flight into Beijing and then a three-hour connecting flight to Changsha. The 13-hour flight was nowhere as bad as I thought, many thanks to the sleeping pill and my 10 hours of sleep. I finished off the flight with the movie "Superbad" and was more than satisfied! We were greeted in Changsha by media and fans, which is typically an exciting experience, but after 16 hours-plus of flying, the only thing you want to do is to get to the hotel and relax! After a couple of minutes sorting through the bags (mine made it), we boarded a bus and headed to the hotel. I don't think anybody really expected the hotel to be as nice as it is. It turns out they put us in the Venice Hotel Changsha (a five-star hotel), which has only been open for two days!
The hotel is beautiful with tall hand-painted ceilings, huge rooms with incredible views, and about 20 staff patrolling our hall constantly. As soon as we put our bags down, we were back out to training for the afternoon to get our legs moving again.
I will be back with another blog tomorrow that will inform you on yesterday's activities, but for now I am off to bed!
Best, Stu