I was treated with the opportunity to spend the night and all day today at the new St George’s Park in Burton England.  This 100MM British Pound multi-purpose, recently completed facility is the finest of its type anywhere.  It has a pair of lovely hotels, meeting space, complex banquet and dining rooms, incredible soccer fields (including an exact replica/duplicate) of the Wembley Stadium surface (same size, crown, sub-base, grass, everything).  The physical therapy facility and aquatics center will be used to help wounded war veterans go through rehabilitation. 

The complex will primarily be home to the England National Team for men and women for events such as the World Cup or any other national team competition.

Today’s event was the start of a weekend tournament for 9 Barclays Premier League academy teams at the U-15 age group competing also with 3 teams from Europe (Spain Portugal and Germany). The complex is owned by The FA and is being run by metrics and proforma that do not include the necessity of private profit because The FA is a non profit entity with a mission of charitable and educational purposes. It’s other real estate asset is Wembley Stadium.

A BBC story and video for St George’s Park can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19530548

The FA has taken a huge step and made an enormous investment in the long-term future of their soccer program and others in need of top of the line medical rehab treatment.

Javier Hernandez

Tons of fun going to the Man Utd match last night with Larkin.  We sat 2 rows behind the song leader and that made for a rowdy experience.  For the first time, we got to somewhat understand the words to the songs and chants but we’re no experts!  I will say that it is a good rule that alcohol consumption “within sight of the pitch”, as it is a criminal offense in England.  Watching Javier Hernandez of Mexico and the rest of the Red Devils play was really nice. This game was our 5th in 5 days.  Off to St George’s Park for the Premier League Tournament.

An amazing evening with James Wilson, Laura Smallwood and Martin Howe.  Larkin and I enjoyed dining at Dimitris in Manchester with them.  Martin and James came over in 2008 and we’ve been in touch both through meeting up in Manchester or social networks.  Larkin and I were so happy to meet Laura and thank Jame and Laura for the ride to the match.  It is quite interesting to keep up with these guys and how they’ve grown personally and professionally.  Sad to not have Carol on this jaunt, I know she would love to catch up on things with these guys in person.

While touring the marvelous Imperial War Museum in Salford Quays of Manchester, we came across this wrinkled set of beams from the World Trade Center in NYC.  This facility was truly amazing and the facility does a great job of reminding new generations of the sacrifices made to keep England and its allies out from under foreign rule.

The prime room at the Manchester United museum at Old Trafford is the trophy room.  In it are trophies from leagues and cups that Man Utd has won all over the world.  Sitting in a prime location are two trophies they’ve won at the Dr. Pepper Dallas Cup.  The trophy on the left is from this year’s event where they were finalist in the Gordon Jago Super Group and the one on the right is from the 1998 U-12 team.  Carol and I recall the 1998 finals where they won this boot and ball trophy, played at Lake Highlands stadium on a beautiful spring day.  Certainly proud to see such a prominent display for hardware they won in the USA with their junior teams sitting next to UEFA, Premier League, and Football League cups.

So as we cruise by train to Burton on Trent to St Georges Park, we pass a Coors brewery. Larkin wants to know how expensive it is to get that Rocky Mountain spring water 5,000 miles to this plant. Good question.

We stay in Manchester 3 different times on this trip as it is kinda our central hub.  Hoping to to meet up with a few of our former Dallas FA Academy lads there prior to the Man U v Newcastle match tonight. 

On the way now from Leeds to check back into the Ox Noble Public House and Hotel (a special and most enjoyable place for Carol and me).  So note above Larkin’s imitation of an ox.

So for the equivalent of $28 per day, we got unlimited-ride railpasses before we left home.  We’ve made great use of this investment as the rail system is phenominal.  Each day we’ve criss-crossed the north of England to get from city to city in a very short time.  With gas at $16 per gallon here, makes the daily fare seem cheap.  Each night has been a different city and it’s just been smooth as silk. 

Pictured above is our combination hotel/pub in Leeds, directly across the street from the train station.  The pub is called the Scarbrough Hotel.

We got pretty close to US National Team and Everton goalkeeper, Tim Howard, at the Leeds match last night. Tim is likely the best American player in the English Premier League.  I know he just about keeps the US Mens National team alive in any given match, especially their recent win at Azteca in Mexico City.

The crowd for the Leeds v Everton match was unbelievable on both sides.  Everton brought a large group of fans and they were constantly sparring with the local Leeds fans at the other end of the endzone.  We could not even hear each other talk when they were in the middle of their chants and songs.  There was tons of passion last night and Leeds went away the 2-1 winner.