I have to start by mentioning how awful it is traveling with more bags than you can easily handle. I had two checked bags, one 23kg and the other 30kg. In addition, I have over 10kg of carry-on luggage. Getting from the MYPA apartment to the train station took 20 minutes and had me in a full sweat, even though the train station was only 400 meters away. I then had to lug the bags for a train change which sucked, and then once I got to the final train stop I had to run to the bus to the airport. Then, at the airport I got off at the wrong terminal and had to take all my bags across the entire airport to get to my check-in counter. There I got a bit of luck, as I wasn’t charged extra for my extremely heavy bag AND the woman let me check a 3rd bag because it had my hair twist cream in it and couldn’t be carried on. I just had to turn on the charm! All of that was before I even got to Sweden.
Yesterday was not an ideal situation for a trial. My plane didn’t get into Stockholm until 3:45 and then the person picking me up was late and I had to train at 5:30. Considering that Enkoping is close to an hour away from Stockholm’s airport, I cut it really close. I arrived at training a few minutes after it started but I didn’t miss anything. After a few warm up and passing drills we jumped straight into 9v9 on a half field. There were three teams and each game 2-3 players had to stay on so the numbers were right. Each game was 6 minutes and the level was actually quite good. I was really surprised by the quality of a third division team. The level of play tonight was as good as any of the teams I trained with in Finland, and they were all in the top division. I played well, creating a few goals and going close to scoring myself many times. This was pretty good since I was playing as a right midfielder instead of a forward. I don’t know where the coach plans to play me in the match tomorrow, but it looks like there’s a decent chance I’ll be playing right midfield. It’s not my favorite position, but if that’s what it takes to get a contract then I’ll happily do it.
Enkoping is a pretty nice town. It’s small, but much bigger than Myllykoski
or Valkeakoski. The place that the club
has housed me is on the outskirts of the town, but it’s still within walking
distance to anything. In fact, Raza
(another trialist who I’m staying with here) and I walked to the supermarket at
9pm and got some stuff for the week. In
Myllykoski that wouldn’t have been possible.
I don’t know too much about the town just yet, but I’ll have more either
tomorrow or later in the week when I have some free time. For now I don’t have too much more to
say. We play a much lower division team
tomorrow and the coach has told me that I’ll be playing at least 60
minutes. We play another game on
Wednesday against AIK, one of the top teams in Sweden’s Allsvenskan. My goal is to score 2-3 goals in the first
half Tuesday so that I can come off and be allowed to play Wednesday against
AIK. I imagine that if I have to play
60+ minutes tomorrow then there’s not much of a chance of me playing again the
next night against AIK.Tomorrow should be fun!
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