June 19, 2015 8:55am
Posted by Mike Folkers (team manager)

As was mentioned in previous posts and could be seen in the jogging video it had been raining all day, which made the walk to the fields seem a bit longer than usual.  Once there,  the team got ready in the locker room and Adam talked to them about our game plan today.  After everyone was ready we walked out to the training field for warm up.  As with their main field the training pitch was extremely nice and would be the envy of any team in near Chicago. During warm ups the rain started coming down a bit harder and soaked everything.   A few minutes before game time the team went back to the locker room to relax and get some last minute instructions from Adam.  The team then lined up next to Weinberg and walked out in pairs to midfield.  As the last game both national anthems played and the starters took their positions.

The game started with both teams trading possession.  Then from a Green White Goal kick the ball was slotted to Ashley Welk who passed a perfect ball to split the defense and find a streaking Ashley Adams who netted the ball to put Green White up 1-0.  Then, 4 minutes later a shot from Ashley Welk was deflected and dropped to Ashley Adams who shot the ball inside the 6 yard box to put Green White up 2-0.  Weinberg was not detered they brought some energy and was determind not to let the older and bigger Green White team get the best of them, and only 2 minutes later #10 on Weinberg found a clear shot outside the 18 yard box and hit a high ball catching Green White Goal Keeper Mackenzie Folkers a bit off her line to drop behind her, putting Weinberg back in the game at 2-1.  This goal gave weinberg some momentum, a few minutes later weinberg had another shot that was an easy save for Mackenzie. Then a hard shot was stopped by Mackenzie which she was not able to hold on to and the ball bounced near the penalty spot, a Weinberg player streaked in but not before Mackenzie was able to dive on the ball and smother it.   However in the process Mackenzie's already aching foot was twisted and she was not able to get up.  After tending to her she was able to leave the field, and would not return to the game.  Sarah Magnoni took her spot.  The half ended 2-1 in favor of Green White.  

With Isabelle Suto in goal and a fired up Green White the second half started much different as Green White took control of the possession.  Just into the second half Ashley Welk shot a hard ball that was saved by the Keeper but Ashley Adams got the rebound and was able to finish off her Hat Trick with a goal.   Shortly after Lauryn Schneider had a nice shot the was tip to the cross bar by the keeper however Ashley Welk was able to put it away, putting Green White ahead 4-1.   Later in the second half Ashley Welk was able to get passed the defense and finished off her brace by slotting in her second goal making the score 5-1.    Then towards the end of the second half Sarah (normally a center back) was playing striker and was able to dribble around a defender and was able to slip the ball past the keeper for the last goal of the game.  Green White won 6-1, Although the score did not show SV Weinberg did extremely well against the older Green White team and would be among some of the better U13 teams back in the states.  The team ended with smiles and handshakes from both sides and some sadness from the Green White players knowing that this was our last game at SV Weinberg. 

After the game Wolfgang from SV Weinberg gave a heartfelt speech thanking everyone that put these games together, Adam Wambach, Adam Howarth,  and Cindy Kaempfer.   Wolfgang then presented the club with a flag, SV Weinberg keychains for the players and Hats for the coaches and helpers.   Green White then thanked for the great hospitality and presented SV weinberg a signed jersey and and other Chicago related gifts. 

Following the speachless the teams got together for a dinner of schnitzel and potato salad.  A great way to end our stay in Weinberg.  

Tomorrow we are off to Weissenburg and then off to the campus in Treuchtlingen.   

June 18, 2015 10:20pm 
Posted by Heather Roppel (Parent)

We all slept in this morning which was WELL needed.  I think the team woke up around 12:30 pm Germany time (05:30 Chicago time).  We ate brelundinner (breakfast/lunch/dinner) in the restaurant at Hotel Wender and stayed enjoying some German Weiss bier (parent only) and apfelsaft (apple juice for the kids).  At around 14:30 (2:30 pm) Helmut, the owner of the hotel, broke out a guitar and entertained us with a few good hits.  Some modern, some older; ALL American.  Hopefully we're able to download the video.  It's been quite the experience.  

June 17, 2015 4:20pm local time
Posted by Mike Folkers (team manager)

It's our first rainy day in Germany, we have been very very luck to this point.  The weather has been just beautiful!  So it is only fitting our rest day is cloudy and misty, perfect napping weather.  The team met down stairs at 1:00pm for a little work out to wake them up.    The team jogged the 3/4 of a mile to SV Weinberg (up hill), as I tried to keep up.  Once there they did some stretching and asked a few questions about our next game and what the next place we are going is like.   Once getting all stretched out they took the jog back to the hotel.  Then we had a spaghetti lunch and then some fee time before tonight's game. 

June 18, 2015 1:52pm local time
Posted by Mckenna Kopeny (Defender) Ashley Welk (Center Midfielder) Maddie Roppel (Midfielder)

The last few days have been amazing!  We got a VIP tour of the Hoffenheim stadium.  We started in the press conference room and made our way through the locker room.  After that, we went to the stadium. We all hope to play on a field as big as that some day. Later that night, we won against a Hoffeneim team and ate dinner with them.  We exchanged instagrams and snapchats to always remember our German friends.  It has been great and we can't wait for Munich and the rest of the trip.

June 17, 2015 10:20am local time
Posted by Mike Folkers (team manager)

After visiting Hoffenheim stadium we were off to play their U14 girls team.  When we arrived they brought us to the locker room to let the girls get ready.  Then they brought out some fruit for the team. It was unanimous, these were the best strawberries we ever had!  I'm not sure but the strawberries might go on Adams top ten of things that happened on the trip.  

After getting ready we walked to the field.  After figuring out how to fill their water bottles with "still" water (what is with the carbonating everything in this country) the girls had a good warm-up.  As they walked out to the middle and presented them with Green White wrist bands and the friendship banner.  The game began.

Hoffenheim was ready to play and had chances right away.   Their speed was somewhat of a surprise for the ladies especially after three long days of sight seeing and jet lag.   The team was able to bunker down and stop Hoffenheim's chances.  The teams game plan was a bit like they played against Elite SC a week and a half ago;  stay organized, keep our shape, don't chase and stay behind the ball on defence.  After some direction by coach Adam the girls did this which made Hoffenheim have difficulties getting the ball through the midfield.  The tide started to turn and Green White was able to get a corner kick.  The great ball was put in by Ashley W.  and after a bit of fight Tina took a shot which was deflected to the far side of the goal where Ally F.  was able to slot home the ball to put the Grun up by 1.  

Second half started better than the first half as the girls were able to keep up with the organizational game plan.  As the half progressed though Hoffenheim started to take advantage of some tiredness of Green White.  They had a few chances and the girls were starting to struggle with fitness.  Many of the Green White players were coming to the bench with sore knees and muscles due to the trip so far.  As the minutes ticked away Hoffenheim picked it up to find an equalizer, but as the final whistle blew Green White was able to hold on to the 1-0 score line for the win. 

After the game it was mentioned this was Green White's first victory in Germany in 30 years!  It was great to have the win under our belt and hope that this gives the team some momentum going into the next game tomorrow.  

After the game Hoffenheim had provided us with some dinner.  As usual the wurst was great and the home made baked goods were outstanding!  After the girls showered and changed they came to get some food and started to talk to the other team, within minutes they were having a blast.   It was good that a few of the Hoffenheim girls spoke English since the Green White girls speak zero German.  The girls were trying to convince the Hoffenheim players to get their parents to let them travel to Chicago. There was also going on directly from the Green White adults talking to the Hoffenheim adults.      As all newly acquainted teenagers do, they quickly exchanged instagram names and started taking group selfies.  you would never know that these were brand new friends or that they spoke different languages. So far that this was one of the highlights of the trip.  

In talking to the parents we found out that the Hoffenheim team plays in a boys league due to how good they are and some of the players travel over and hour 3 times a week to be on this team!  I for one commend their commitment and skill, I can't imagine a girls team playing every week in a German boys league, the competition must be amazing. 

The bus ride home was long (2 hours) and didn't get back to the hotel until 10:00pm.  This ended our extremely long day.  The schedule for the next day is much needed rest until game time.

June 18, 2015 12:06am 
Posted by Mike Folkers (Team Manager)

After Heidleberg castle we headed of to Sinsheim to visit TSG 1899 Hoffenheim's stadium, Wirsol Rhein-Neckar-Arena.   The bus pulled around the bend and most were in awe about how large the stadium is.   The tour started in the press conference room where the girls got to sit in the chairs as if they were in a post game press conference.  They sat up thier with respective positions, (Captains, Back 4, Center Mids, wingers, and strikers/keeper). The team saw where the bus pulls up to drop off the team in the underground tunnel.  The tour guide talked about since the stadium was built in 2009 it is very state of the art.  and continued to talk about the way they manipulate the psychological effects in the hallway, from changing the pictures on the wall to changing the lighting colors.   Then the girls went to the "X" room where the two teams meet and walk into the stadium.  Then it was off to the locker room, the tour guide showed us the massage room, the hot and cold tub room and even the sterile room where if need be they can do a surgery.  The girls went out into the massive stadium and were able to sit on the amazingly comfortable team benches.  We weren't sure if they would ever get up.  We then were shown the sky boxes and were able to look into all the different decorated sky boxes.     We had a few minutes to go through the store but we needed to hurry since we need to go and play the Hoffenheim U14 girls team.  Although I think we could have saved time if they just let us use the stadium for the game :).

June 17, 2015 10:54pm local time
posted by Mike Folkers (team manager)

It was an extremely long day today!!  It started to with breakfast at 7:15am, which was excellent as usual.  Everyone had to be on the bus at 8am for our 2 hour trip to Heidleberg.  

The drive was very quiet as there were quite a few people that were sleeping.  However those that slept missed out on a beautiful drive through the German countryside. There were countless small villages, situated in on side of hills and in valleys.  I felt like we were driving through a painting.

Once in Heidleberg we took a tram up to the mountainside to the castle.  We split into two groups for the guided tours with the girls and a few brave parents went in one group, and the rest of the adults went in another group. The tour was great and was very interesting, however the fact of the day was that Heidleberg castle houses the worlds largest barrel of wine that was at one time full.  It holds 55,000 gallons!  Before you get all excited the wine was "tax wine", which means that villagers would come to pay the tax with a bottle of wine, this wine was poured down a hole into the barrel.  So the wine was just a mixture of thousands of different wines.  

The trip ended with a quick walk to local eateries to grab food to eat on the bus as we departed for TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.  

June 17, 2015 1:09 am local time
Posted By Mike Folkers (Team Manager)

Our first game!! After our all to familiar 3/4 of a mile up a 12% incline, and after a good warm up they went back to the locker room they had last minute minute instructions from Adam and walked to the hallway.   

Once in the hallway they lined up with the other team and held hands with younger players to walk them out.   They walked out to Hart of courage on the loud speakers from their promotional video.  It was just like a proffesional game!  They walked out to the center of the field and they played the Star Spangled Banner, followed by the German national anthem.  I can honestly say this was one of the proudest moments as a coach/manager I've been apart of.  After the the national anthem the girls presented the other team with Green White wrist bands and Tina and Lauryn (our captains) exchanged banners with their captains. 

The crowed was amazing, The sidelines around the whole field were filled with spectators.  We were told that the Mayor of the town was invited but had other obligations but he did send a high ranking official in his stead.  This was truely an amazing atmosphere!!!

The game started even matched with chances on both sides.  Weinberg broke the tie with a goal from distance.  The half ended with SV Weinberg up 1-0.  

The second half started similar to the fist half with chances from both sides.   Until a through ball from Lauryn found Ashley W's foot and shot the ball and buried it in the far corner of the net to level the game 1 to 1.  The battle continued until a scrum infront of Green White's goal produced a free ball in the 6 yard box which was finished by SV Weinberg, to put them up 2-1.  Although Green White had a few more chances they were not able to put in the equalizing goal.    The game ended with Weineberg winning 2-1. 

The girls played great and the game was great to watch.

Wednesday June 17, 2015
Posted by Mike Folkers (team Manager)

Today we started the day celebrating the Hawks win!  Then after a wonderful breakfast as you saw in the last post we were off to the 1000 year old town of Rothenberg.  Everyone was able to explore the city as they saw fit.  Most of the girls did some sight seeing and had a "very traditional German lunch" of Pizza.  Many of them walked the approximately 3872384628976 steps to the top of the bell tower to get a true birds eye view of the city.  It was a great time and great to see some very old traditional buildings.   Although we had to cut our visit short due to our first German game.

June 16, 2015 8:45am local time 
posted by Ashley A., Sarah, Marissa, Tina, and Alexa

So far the experience in Germany has been amazing. The ten hour plane ride to here was worth it. We are in the middle of nowhere and have loved visiting the animals next door in the farm! Training with the German coach made us realize that we NEED TO LOOK UP AT ALL TIMES!!!! The food here is delicious. The eggs in Germany are by far the best eggs we've ever tasted. P.S. GOOD JOB HAWKS!!! 

June 15, 10:55pm local time
Posted by Mike Folkers (Team Manager)

After Checking into the Hotel the entourage had a wonderful spaghetti dinner at Hotel Wender and then walked the 3/4 mile to our New friends at SV Wienberg.  The walk was uphill but the backdrop of the German Country side were breathtaking!  Once arriving we were shown their first team field, and it was (not an exaggeration ) the best natural field pitch I have ever been able to walk on!  

The Women's first team told the girls a bit about the club and then ran a great training session!  The girls were even joined by some of the U15 girls players joined in.  It was a gorgeous night and the girls learned a ton and had a great time.  After training SV Wienberg hosted us to a sausage and sour kraut dinner that was top notch.

All in all it was a fantastic first day in Germany!

June 15, 2015 6:26pm local time

posted by Mike Folkers (team manager)

The team made it to Germany, and is doing great!  We just had our first dinner at hotel Wender, and our off to our first training session at SV Weinberg. 

June 15, 2015 11:56am

posted by Mike Folkers (team manager)

after a smooth flight the team arrived in Zurich Switzerland,  and are transferring to our flight to Nuremberg.  Next stop Germany.

Posted By Mike Folkers (Team Manager)
June 9, 2015
 

703 days ago, the current U14 team decided to venture beyond the borders.  We worked hard, raised money and organized, and now are a mere 5 days away.  Since the beginning, the team decided to not only to travel to Germany but to rejuvenate the German culture among the youth teams at Green White.  With this decision started the International Experience Program a way to keep this tradition moving and to pave the way for more teams to have the opportunity to travel to Germany and other countries. 

I have been with this team since 2009 and I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls!  When they started they were in the lowest division possible; however, I am proud to say they have improved every single season and now are competing in the highest level in Illinois!  They train about 45-50 weeks out of the year and never seldom complain.  I am very proud of them and can’t imagine coaching/managing another team. This trip is just another stepping stone for the girls as they continue their path to become great athletes and soccer players.

Our final week of preparation is busy:  Sunday, we played our last Spring season game, falling to the division champs by a score 2-1.  On Monday we had a great training session with the U13 girls after the storms ended.  We also will train Wednesday and Friday and have a watch party Friday Night to watch the US Women’s National team play.  Saturday we have our club picnic where we will have a sendoff for the U14s. Sunday we depart! Busy, Busy, Busy,

I can’t be more proud of the team, and the families of the girls, This would not be possible without the hard work and effort they put into the planning and organizing.