Feyenoord FC Trip 2015 - Maricourt Catholic High School

MARiCOURT CATHOLIC
HIGH SCHOOL
FOOTBALL TOUR TO
FEYENOORD FC, HOLLAND
13th to 17th FEBRUARY 2015
Travelling to Holland
Varkenoord; Feyenoord’s Training Ground
Sessions with Feyenoord’s Coaches
Year 9 & 10 Fixture
Year 8 Boys Squad
Year 8, 9, 10 & 11 Girls Fixture
Ajax Amsterdam v FC Twente
StadiumTour of De Kuip
StadiumTour of De Kuip
What a long weekend of Top Class
Football does to our Boys & Girls
Maricourt Catholic High School
Football Development Tour to Feyenoord FC, Rotterdam, Holland
Day 1- We started the day in School but all met up at around 1:30pm to put our kit on the bus
ready to drive to Hull for our Overnight Ferry to Rotterdam. The coach was lovely and we soon
arrived at the Port of Hull ready to check in and find our cabins.
Check in was smooth and we soon got on board and settled in our rooms. We went straight to
the restaurant where we had a Buffet tea, the choice was enormous and everyone had a good
meal, even the fussy eaters filled their plates.
After tea we had a chance to shower and explore the ship. The Ferry had a showbar with a DJ
and live band, coffee shop, duty free shops, games room, 2 cinemas, and small communal areas
for us to hang out in. We had to be in rooms for 10:30 and lights out at 11pm. We were really
excited and didn’t get to sleep ‘til after midnight.
Day 2- We woke up on board, and we were on our approach into Europoort in Rotterdam. We
were up at 7am for a 7:30 breakfast, we had to be quick to return to our rooms, pack our gear
and check out. The whole group were excited as we wanted to get through Passport Control to
get back on John’s coach and head to our first training session.
At 10am we parked up outside the De Kuip Stadium, home of Feyenoord FC, we then took the
short walk over to their Varkenoord Training Complex. We met Luuk our Rep from InspireSport
who was looking after us for this trip. As we walked in the Feyenoord Youth teams were playing
NAC Breda, we were amongst the clubs future stars and a bit nervous now. Here we changed
into our tour kit and went out to meet our coaches. Mike Obiku introduced himself, he played
for Feyenoord and Nigeria, we was a League and double FA Cup Winner, as well as playing in the
AfCoN and Olympic Football Teams. He told us that Feyenoord Academy has been voted the
best for the last 4 or 5 years then he introduced coaches Terrence and Patrick and we soon got
stuck into a tough warm up.
We worked hard on our “Core” and then did some passing, dribbling possession drills. Mike was
strict and very disciplined but he was very good. After this we were tired and ready to get the
coach transfer to our hotel.
We checked in at the Maritime Hotel on the riverside which had great views of the impressive
Erasmus bridge. Our rooms were massive compared to the Ferry Cabins and we quickly met for
a light sandwich lunch. We then had a small amount of time to unpack, chill out and prepare for
afternoon training.
We took the short journey back to Varkenoord and trained hard for another 2 hours, we played
some small sided games at the end of this session which we all enjoyed. We were really tired by
now and ready to get back for Tea. We had Soup, Spaghetti Bolognese and Ice Cream for our
tea then had some time to shower and change ready to go out Bowling at Dok 99. Luuk sorted
out the night time and the bowling was good fun. Some of us bought extra chicken nuggets from
the restaurant that was part of the complex. It was late when we got back and we were glad to
get to our rooms. Although we had lights out at 11pm we still didn’t get to sleep for a while.
Day 3- we had a lie in and breakfast was not until 9am which was much needed. Breakfast was
nowhere near as good as the Ferry but we had a choice and all ate something.
Sunday was Game Day, we travelled out towards The Hague to play SV DWO Zoetermeer, this
was a massive complex of pitches and a big club house, and former club of QPR’s Leroy Fer.
Our Girls team played on grass and won 15-2, the goals were scored by Emma 5, Ellie 3, Lydia 3,
Lydia 3 and Emma 1. A fantastic result and a great performance from a mixed age team made up
of Year 8, 9, 10 & 11 girls.
The boys played on the 3G pitches against opposition that had a few girls in the teams.
Our Year 9 & 10 boys won a tight game 3-2, Matty scored twice and Hayden scored a last
minute free-kick to clinch the win. Sean was unlucky to hit the post with 2 great efforts. The
boys played very well with some great performances from Adam, Ste, Michael, Connor and the
two Sean’s as well as the goal scorers.
Our Year 8 Boys narrowly lost 3-2, this was a great game with goals coming from Adam and
Matthew.
In all 3 games everybody who was fit played at least a half a game, some were lucky and played
a full game.
We then had a chance to shower and change before eating our packed lunch and driving into
Amsterdam. On the way we played Bus Bingo for big bars of chocolate, we had prizes for lines
and full house, some people thought this would be boring but it was good fun and helped make
the journey go quicker.
We were all looking forward to the game, and we had a chance to go into the Ajax Fan Shop
whilst Luuk collected our tickets.
Some of us bought gifts and we headed into the ground to take our excellent seats. What a
game, FC Twente took the lead, then Ajax scored twice to make it 2-1. FC Twente then
equalized before Ajax scored two more to win it 4-2. Not only did we get to see one of Europe’s
best teams win, we also saw them score their 5000th Top Flight Goal, they are the first Ducth
team to ever do this, we saw a little bit of history in the making. As the Stadium emptied, we
stopped to take some group photos and made our way back to the coach via the Fan Shop once
again. This was an unbelievable experience in a massive stadium.
We travelled back to our Hotel for tea, Luuk had organised take-a-way Pizza, this went down
very well.
After having our late tea, the teachers ran a really good night of activities, we started with a
football badge quiz then played a load of games where we nominated people from our team to
play some fun games. We had a right laugh doing this and it ended the day perfectly. We had
lights out at 11pm again ready for a busy Monday.
Day 4- We woke up buzzing after the game day and motivated to train hard. We had an early
breakfast as we had to pack ready to check out before we went training. We worked hard at
training in the morning, then had a good packed lunch at the training ground. We then went on a
Stadium Tour of Feyenoord’s De Kuip Stadium, it was well better from the inside as the roof
made it look a bit naff. Our tour guide was called Dik and he had a laugh about what his name
meant in English, he was funny and good at telling us about Feyenoord and the stadium. It’s
called De Kuip which translates as Bath Tub due to its shape. He showed us everything and let
us take lots of pictures. We saw the Changing Rooms, went down the Tunnel, walked around the
Pitch, sat in the Dug Out saw the Directors Box, Media/ Press Room where we at in the
Managers Chairs and saw the 12th Man area where the Feyenoord Legion meet. They don’t have
a Number 12 shirt as their fans are the 12th man! He told us about some of their former
players, Robin van Persie is probably their best. This tour was great and the Evertonians were
going on about having won the European Cup Winners Cup here before we were even born. There
pitch was unreal, Dik told us that it always wins the best pitch award and once Real Madrid paid
1million euros for the head groundsman!
We then spent our money in the clubshop before heading back to training for our last session.
We worked hard doing skills and games before getting changed for the final time. Mike,
Terrence and Patrick then did a presentation of our awards, where he gave us certificates,
medals, water bottles and T-Shirts. He said a little bit about each of us and we finished by
giving the coaches presents from Liverpool as a memento of our stay. We said goodbye to Luuk,
gave him some presents then headed back to the coach for the transfer to Europoort. We
arrived, checked in, and went for the quality Buffet Tea again. Just like the journey over we
travelled on the Pride of Rotterdam between Rotterdam and Hull doing the overnight crossing,
we went to bed a bit better tonight as we were so tired.
Day 5- at 6:30 we woke up for a 7am Buffet Breakfast on board, after this we checked out of
rooms and disembarked the Ferry. We had to go through Passport Control before we could load
up our coach for the Journey back to school.
About an hour into our drive we stopped at Services, after this our teachers presented some
Tour Awards, Luke was given his prize for winning “Play Your Cards Right”, Michael was given a
Birthday Present and Adam, Hayden and Ellie were given “Player of the Tour” T-Shirts, Ste and
Lydia took the “Top Scouser” awards for being a credit to the School and City throughout the
tour. The pupils then presented some of the staff with some thank you gifts for organising the
tour. Lastly we presented John our Driver with a Feyenoord shirt as a thank you for his hard
work driving us around Holland all weekend. We left the bus and headed for home, to catch up
on some sleep!
This was an unbelievable trip and we would like to thank Mr Heaviside for putting this together
with Mr Marshall, Mr Beenham and Miss Cousins.
The pupils of the 2015 Feyenoord FC Football Development Tour