My First Match in Sweden

Thank God I am in Sweden.  Finland was okay, but Sweden is a country in which I feel at home.  For those who don’t know, Sweden is a bit more populated than Finland.  In addition, the teams in Sweden seem to be in larger cities/towns than in Finland.  For instance, Stockholm has roughly 10 teams in the metropolitan area in the 1^st-3^rd divisions.  Helsinki has three teams over the same range of leagues.  Even Enkoping has 40,000 people.  That’s double the number of people in Valkeakoski or Jakobstad and even more than double the number of people in Myllykoski, all cities of Veikkausliiga teams.  Of course being American I’m used to living in big cities.  The smallest place I’ve ever lived was Harrisburg, PA and that city had over 100,000 people.  So it’s nice to be in a place like Enkoping and also to be so close (50 miles) to Stockholm.

Yesterday me and my new team (Enkoping SK, or ESK) played Sala FF, a team in the sixth division of Swedish soccer (division 4).  Since ESK is third division and yesterday was a good training, I expected the game to pretty much be a walk in the park.  I started as the right winger in a 4-2-3-1 formation, and for the first 30 minutes everything was going exactly how I expected.  We were all over them and had scored two goals and it was only a matter of time before we got the third.  The first goal was created entirely by me.  I intercepted a loose pass at midfield and ran on the counter at the two center backs and left back.  Our striker ran into the space left by the other team’s right back who was behind the play and I played him a pass which he controlled and fired into the net with the next touch.  1-0 to the good guys.  The second goal came off a deflection, but it was well deserved.  However, after 30 minutes things changed.  We made 8 subs and the only players who stayed on the field were the goalkeeper, the striker and myself.  Within a minute of the subs, the other team’s striker got on a breakaway because of a terrible offside trap and our center back had no choice but to take the striker down.  He got a red card and Sala FF got a penalty kick, which they scored.  Ten minutes later they scored a header off of a set play.  We went into halftime 2-2.

In the second half I played 15 minutes as the striker.  It was pretty uneventful.  I barely saw the ball since the team refused to play through the middle at all.  I was frustrated, but the center midfielder playing underneath me was furious.  He was screaming at his teammates to give me and him the ball.  It was actually pretty funny.  I came off after 60 minutes and the rest of the game was pretty uneventful.  It ended 2-2.

Overall I was pretty happy with my play.  I was the best of the wingers in the game and I feel like I impressed.  The head coach didn’t say a word during the second half, but in the first half he seemed pleased.  The assistant did most of the talking and he was very happy with me.  He didn’t have a negative word to say to me, which was very different from what he had to say to most of the rest of the players.  I don’t speak Swedish, but his tone toward the other guys was clearly a negative one.

Tomorrow we play AIK, the 2^nd place finishers in Allsvenskan last year.  I think that ESK is a good team, but we’ll see how we match up against a superior team.  I see this as an opportunity to impress and hopefully get some buzz around me.  If I play well tonight, there will be more than a few teams who will know my name going into this season (assuming I get a contract).  In a perfect world I would do well enough tomorrow night to get signed directly to AIK or another of the Allsvenskan or Superettan clubs in Stockholm who will surely have eyes on the match. Wish me luck!

MYPA a "no go" means I'm looking west

March 4:

We all know the drill at this point…I was not offered a contract by MYPA.  I didn’t post yesterday because I didn’t have any news and I figured no one reads this anyway so nobody got left hangin.  If you were on eggshells waiting for me to post, well then I’m very sorry.  Bad news can always wait though, right?

Now I’m in a very uncomfortable situation.  My Finnish agent doesn’t at the moment have anything for me and I haven’t heard from the Swedish agent I work with in 10 days or so.  That means I’m stuck sitting in Myllykoski, Finland with nowhere to go.  I can’t take a trip, because at any time one of the agents could call and I’d need to get my two huge suitcases and two smaller bags and go.  But sitting here isn’t gonna do me any good either.  The only good thing about being here now is that it’s rent-free.  If I had to pay for a hotel for a week out of pocket it would ruin me financially, so I’m pretty much stuck here until the next trial comes along.

Now you may be wondering two things: 1. Why are you not getting signed by these clubs if you think you’re doing so well? and 2. What are you doing to help yourself?  Well, I’m glad you asked.

In all three of my trials now, I have been let go not for a lack of ability, but instead for a lack of fit within the team.  Now don’t get me wrong, ability does play a role.  If I showed up at any of these clubs and was head and shoulders better than everyone, then of course the club would find room for me regardless of how I fit into the system.  However, I’m not that player.  In fact I don’t think my game could be less suited to a trial.  I’m super fast, but when I first play with new teammates they almost never adjust right away.  Often my first couple of games with new teammates will feature a ton of underhit through passes or mistimed runs for offsides and so on.  Unfortunately, in a trial those first two games are always the only thing the coach sees.  Since a striker is almost required to score on his trial to be offered a contract, I’ve been put in a tough situation because I am virtually incapable of creating my own goals.  I’m more Darren Bent than Lionel Messi.  It’s ok, I accept that I won’t be the most talented player on every field I play on, but I do feel that I can be very effective at this level.  I don’t know if I mentioned a trial I had last fall in Sweden, but it was with a team called GAIS and they finished 5^th in the Allsvenskan, which is the top league in that country.  They told me the exact same thing that all the Finnish clubs have said.  To paraphrase, "We like you and you're good enough, but we have no need for a player like you at this time."  The reason I mention that trial is because I did just as good or better with that team as I did with any of the Finnish teams I trialed with, even though the Swedish team was a clearly higher level.  The reason is that better teammates make me more effective since I rely on quality service from the players behind me.  Maybe if I get a trial in Sweden I can put that theory to the test again.

As for what I’m doing to help myself, I’ve started an email campaign that would embarrass even the most ardent self-promoters.  If you want to know who I’ve emailed, look at the league table for Norway and Denmark’s top division, start at the bottom and work your way up to about 7-10^th in each league.  If I don't hear from them, I'll start emailing the second division teams starting from the top down. I haven’t emailed all the teams, partly because these email addresses can be quite hard to find, but at least 40% of them have gotten or will get an email in the next 3 days.  It seems crazy, but professional sports teams find players this way.  If you think that a top division Norwegian team getting an email from me and then offering me a trial is farfetched, I put one question to you:  How big do you think these teams’ scouting budgets are?  Most of the teams average 5-8k a game and put the majority of that revenue to player/coaches salaries.  The scouts probably aren’t going too far other than the occasional trip to a neighboring country.  An email from me is a free player with almost no downside for the club if they are indeed looking for my position.  I offer to travel to them out of my own pocket just for a chance.  Hopefully it works out.  I’ve also emailed a friend or two who may be able to help.  Sadly (I prefer humbly), I’m not above begging!

So now I wait.  I honestly don’t know what tomorrow will bring.  There are a few realistic things that could happen in the next week:  I could go on another trial in Finland (probably the Veikkausliiga, but I would consider the 2^nd division here if the city of the club was nice), a trial in Sweden, one of the clubs I emailed in Norway or Denmark could call, or less realistically Jaro could decide that I’m better than the new trialists they have and ask for me to come back.

The biggest comfort I have in my situation is that I have such a strong base of support.  My mom and dad are nothing but wonderful and encouraging.  I won’t make them do it, but they would support me financially and emotionally if I wanted to stay in Europe and keep taking tryouts for the next 7 months.  I also have great agents working for me both here in Finland and in Sweden, not to mention my actual agent in America.  Those guys have done a great job and had I been a bit better, we could have toasted a contract long ago.  I’m sure they’ll find a good place for me.

I can’t say when my next post will be.  If I end up leaving tomorrow it may be 2-3 days before I can settle in somewhere and put out a new post.  Or I might just be sitting in Myllykoski and have nothing to say.  You’ll know when the next post hits the presses!  Til then wish me luck.  I need it!

Changing Formations, and Crazy Grocery Prices

March 2:

The weather is getting better, so Finland is finally starting to get some color.  In the month that I’ve been here, I haven’t seen a single blade of grass.  However, the last two days have been above freezing so the snow is starting to melt.  Maybe sometime soon I’ll get to see the beauty of Finland that people around here have been talking about.

I missed yesterday, so I’ll recap that in ten seconds.  We had two trainings, I scored a bunch of goals in each and then I watched 6 hours of Netflix and went to bed.

Today we had training in the morning and it was pretty simple.  The coach today though inexplicably debuted a new formation that we’re going to play tomorrow against HJK.  We’re going to change from a 4-3-3 formation to a 3-4-3.  For those not so technically involved with soccer, that is ridiculous.  It essentially causes every single player on the field to have new or expanded roles.  In addition, the formation has forced two players in the starting lineup to play in entirely new positions.  That’s not a good thing.  We’ll be lucky if we don’t get killed tomorrow.

Speaking of the match, I have once again been selected from the pool of trialists to play in the match.  I don’t know if I mentioned before, but in the League Cup matches a team may only play two trialists.  Last week we had four trialists, but this week we have six, so I’m happy to have been selected once again.  I’ve even been selected ahead of the trialists who haven’t had the chance to play in a game yet.  I feel like this bodes well for my chances, but getting my hopes up is useless because I have no idea what the coach is thinking.  I’m not starting, so I won’t have much time to show my worth.  If I do well though, I expect that a contract will be offered pretty soon.  Send me positive vibes!

Other than training not much happened today.  I spent almost 30 euros today on candy and bakery products at the grocery store, which isn’t even saying all that much because groceries here have freaking heroin prices.  A couple of things, notably milk, are quite cheap.  However, everything else is very expensive.  In Europe, or at least in Scandinavia, food is more expensive in euros than the same food is in dollars in America.  For instance, in the US a 2 liter of Coke costs around $1.79.  You can argue the number but it’s close enough for my point.  Here, they sell 1.5L bottles of Coke for 2.19 euros.  Considering that a euro equal about $1.27, that’s a significantly higher price.  The same discrepancy goes for essentially all other food.  Of all the money that I’ve spent in the 30 days I’ve been here, at least 90% has been on food and train tickets.  The good news is that I’m becoming a Top Chef over here and I’m learning to make good meals from the cheapest possible foods!

I’m starting to get used to Myllykoski now that I’ve been here for 10 days or so.  I’m not saying that the town is any better than when I got here, I’m just accepting it much better than before.  I put a picture of the town center so you can see how slow it is. If I sign a contract here, I will just hole up in my room and watch Netflix all day.  Hulu too.  I guess if boredom is my biggest problem then I will be able to say that I have a good life.  Hopefully I’ll get to that point.

Next time you hear from me I will have played in my second match with MYPA.  Hopefully I play well and have good news for you!

Payday sucks when you don't get paid! And MonsterDogs.

February 28:

Today was supposed to be my first payday in Finland/Europe.  My contract with Haka was slated to pay me $2150 per month after tax + a free apartment.  Maybe MYPA will pay me for the week I’ve been here?  Lol I’m not holding my breath on that one.  Anyways…

I don’t really want to go much into the trainings here but there are a couple things I’ve got to get off my chest and since I’m absolutely sure no one in Myllykoski reads this (or much anyone outside of my family), I can say what I want.  First, our trainings have been 75% intrasquad scrimmages.  That’s fine, nothing wrong there I guess, but we only have 20 guys.  That means that we play 10v10 on an enormous field.  The result is something closer to basketball than soccer.  One team sends six attackers versus four defenders in a huge wave.  They either score, kick behind for a goal kick, get dispossessed or have their shot saved by the goalkeeper.  Literally regardless of what happens, the other team immediately begins a counterattack the other way.  It’s like this team is coached by Paul Westphal and Mike D’Antoni.  This is a ridiculous way to play the scrimmages because in the end nobody gets better at all.  In the match the team didn’t make 10 consecutive passes at any time, yet in the training we don’t try to pass, we try to run up and down the field as fast as possible.  I wish the coach would say something but maybe that’s what he’s looking for.  There’s a reason why he’s got a head coaching job and I have no job.  Maybe I shouldn’t be complaining since I get breakaways every single practice and score every practice.  If this team had more than one player signed who could score, then this approach could actually work.  I guess I’ll have to be that guy.

Second, we have a training program that makes absolutely no sense.  We had two medium difficulty training sessions on Monday, one physical training today (Tuesday) at the clubhouse, tomorrow (Wednesday) is off, then we train twice again on Thursday and once on Friday before playing Saturday.  It seems that we could find a more consistent schedule, especially since each training requires a 20km drive to the turf field.  That’s it for my soccer rambling.

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People here seem to just not care about the weather at all.  I’ve been having allergy problems since Saturday, but I refuse to go to the pharmacy today because it’s snowing like the world’s about to end.  It’s only 4:30pm but it must have snowed close to a foot already today.  However, I keep looking outside and see people walking their bear-dogs.  Side note: all the dogs here have a hilarious amount of fur.  Every single dog looks like some long lost four legged creature from the Ice Age that you’d see at the Smithsonian.  One lady walked by with two dogs that must have weighed 70 pounds each and looked like wooly mammoths.  She could just have easily have ridden those things around town.

Tomorrow I will venture into central Kouvola, the most urban area around.  I’ll be heading down with two trialists who are staying here with me, Vili and Kennny.  Vili is from Finland and has his car here so we’ll make the 20km drive into town and have a nice day.  I’ll take some pictures!

Another Week in Myllykoski

February 26:

I got word today from my finnish agent that my trial has been extended for another week.  Apparently the coach was happy with what he saw in training, but discouraged by the game.  That pretty much syncs up with how I felt about my performance.  Honestly I think this team needs a player that is a speed option and has a real desire to take responsibility and score goals.  Currently there is no real speed option and only one player who scores goals.  I can use this week to show my value, but in reality everything is going to come down to the match on Saturday.  We play HJK, the reigning Veikkausliiga champions.

Other than that there’s really not much to report.  I did literally nothing today.  This morning I went to the pharmacy, but of course it was closed.  In fact, the only things open on Sundays in this town are the church, bar and grocery store.  I’m not saying that as a brief listing that includes more things; those are literally the only three things open.  Want pizza?  Sorry.  Unless you want to get one from the grocery store.

Not that you care, but for the last three days my allergies have been going crazy and I have no idea why.  Normally this happens when the leaves start to come back on the trees, but there are two feet of snow outside and no leaves whatsoever.  I can’t imagine there’s any pollen here either.  If you have any idea as to what is going on with me I’d be happy to hear it.

I’ve got to make this week count!  There’s not much time to get a contract and the options shrink every day.

Coming to Kouvola...uh, I mean Myllykoski

February 21:

Today was pretty boring but noteworthy because I have now arrived at my next trial with MYPA (mee-pa).  The club is located in Myllykoski, which is part of a group of towns that form Kouvola.  Of course, things being the way they have been thus far in Finland, I had no idea that the club was not in the center of Kouvola.  What that meant was that instead of staying and training in a relatively good sized city (Kouvola’s city center is upwards of 50,000 people in a space about the quarter the size of Indianapolis or Tampa’s downtowns), I was staying in a village of what can’t be more than a couple thousand people.  Myllykoski is by far the smallest town I have visited in my time here.  It makes Valkeakoski seem like a metropolis.

That said, at least I’m here.  After waking up and schlepping my luggage to the rail station, I took three trains and six and a half hours to reach the Kouvola train station.  There I awaited my ride…and waited. 

And waited. 

After two hours finally, mercifully, a player came to the rescue and picked me up.  The player was really nice though and put my mind at ease.  That is, until I got to the place where I’m staying.  It’s an apartment that is connected to the club office and it is a nightmare.  In stark contrast to the nice hotels I’ve been staying at up until this point, this place is more or less a dump.  The electricity isn’t even working is most of the rooms.  I’m writing this blog post from the kitchen, since the room I’m staying in has no lighting whatsoever and the plugs in the room don’t work.  My room doesn’t even have a door.  If I had a normally functioning laptop I could just charge it up and then work from my room, but like a big dum dum I bought my laptop on craigslist and therefore it carries no charge and shuts off the second it’s disconnected from the charger.  Oh well…

Complaining aside, I’m ready to get this trial going.  Tomorrow probably won’t be much as the club just played a match today (they won, 2-1).  Maybe the sun coming up will give me a sunnier disposition.  I hope so, because the way I feel now makes me wonder if coming to Finland was even a good idea.  I had a lot of optimism in traveling over here, but a series of bad things happening has made me wonder if maybe success here just isn’t in the cards for me.  I was a starter with a contract at Haka and they let me go, then I played well and was dangerous in a position of need for Jaro and they let me go as well.  Hopefully MYPA will see that I’m good enough to help and offer me a contract based on that, but even then I don’t know if I even want to stay here.  If I get an offer I guess I would have to take it since there are no others, but I have to weigh my unhappiness against the small salary and relatively long odds of moving to somewhere bigger and better.  But those are tough decisions that professionals have to make.  And I’ve got a ways to go before I can even get to that point.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.