Haven't ran in ages

On Tuesday, I had my usual school football training followed by HKFC training. It went very well in that my movement and passing was great and I made some good turns to get away from my opponents which I actually didn't even expect to make the move.

The session was going well until we did some passing and shooting. Again, the passing was good but it  was my shooting which let me down. My shot went all over the place when I tried to volley first time from a cross. The training session therefore ended quite disappointingly.

Today, I went for a 12km run on the path which I haven't been for ages, definitely before Blackburn. I felt good and completed it in about one hour and five minutes when it usually takes about one hour and a half!


Also, I'm actually leaving for Kenya tomorrow for a school trip! I am very looking forward to it and I will learn a lot and hopefully have great fun.

HKFC 9-1 Tai Tam Tigers, South Island School 3-1 St. Joseph's A/C

This weekend was a good week for both the team I coach and the team I play. The first game which was the Girls' U-12 team against Tai Tam Tigers went superbly as we won 9-1. The players were great skillfully and in passing, and I was particularly impressed with their positioning. They would defend solidly and then go up for the counter-attack. To be honest though, we did play quite a few U-14 players but since it's only a development league, playing a game is more important than the rules. Either way, it was a result to be impressed with.


The school game went equally well as well. We won our first game 3-1 against St. Joseph's A/C. We played well by passing the ball around and defending solidly. At first, a brace was scored by our striker and then another was scored as a fluke by our right back. We gained a free kick in the middle of the pitch and the right back played a long high ball which just seemed to bounce into the goal. Funny that was, it was a greater confidence booster since it was right after the opposition scored a penalty.

My position was the usual centre-back and it was quite a mixed day not because I played badly but in fact because I wanted the ball more. In the first half, I didn't do much as the ball didn't come to me much, but in the second half I played solidly in defence by clearing the ball away often and going in to attack. One good movement I did was a one-two and then I ran the ball into the right corner and then played a good long cross which met one my team-mates who unfortunately didn't convert. It was probably noticeable that I wanted to get involved more because I moved up quite a bit and didn't want the game to end. What this means is that it was a fun game!

Led the team on my own

The day was a long day of sports as I started with athletics' day for school. I competed in the 400m, 1500m, and 4x100m events as well as the extras, tug-of-war and three-legged race. It was tiring but I did my best. I only know my 1500m time which I was around 8th out of around 40, and that is 5:25 minutes. After all the athletics, I got ready back home and went to start the girls' coaching.


When I arrived at the HKFC, it was already time to start and the main coach wasn't there so I got them warmed up. As time went by, she never turned up even at the end. I therefore had to coach the team on my own. It went very well because I wasn't not sure what to do and the players were listening to me so I could coach the way I wanted. I did some drills that I thought about and also let them play a game. Of course, it's much more helpful if the main coach was here, but I should be proud that I led the team all on my own for the first time.

Finally, after the coaching I went to training. I was slightly late in fact because I had to stay and do the coaching until the end but it was fine as I made some good movements and some good passing during the training session.

Cross-Country

I had a 6km Inter-School cross-country race yesterday and did generally well. I came 30th out of around 52 people in the race and 6th out of 10 from my school.

Redemption

After a week of poor showing, today I redeemed myself by putting a brilliant performance in HKFC training. My passing was often accurate, I made some good clearances as a defender and made some good movement to get my team-mate and myself into space. One thing that I will have to work on is shooting. I got myself into good positions but missed the goal.

Week of Sorrow

I apologise for not publishing any blog posts recently, but there wasn't really much good news to share. This week was mostly a week of disappointment as my football skills seemed to have dropped. Of course it's hopefully just form, but at HKFC trainings, the game against Chong Gene Hang which we lost 2-0 and even when playing on the beach, my touch and passing seemed poor and I felt like I could do better. Therefore, I am trying to rest as much as possible as the cause might be because of fatigue. I do hope so, so that when I do recover, I will get even better.


By the way, I also wanted to say that today was my 16th birthday!

South Island School 1-1 St. Joseph's

On a beautiful day for sports, a close game against St. Joseph's ended 1-1.  We did not lose this time and gave another good fight, but it was unfortunate that we could not grab a win. I played as a centre-back and gave a solid performance. Making vital clearances with my head, playing aggressively against dribbling attackers and even giving a brilliant long through ball to the right winger. But there was nothing we could about the early goal that they had scored.

It had been about ten minutes in the game and we were playing confidently and dominated in possession. We passed the ball around, weren't troubled in defence and had the upper hand. But a 30 metres half-volley goal by the other team really was a blow to us. It may have been lucky but you couldn't deny that it was a great shot. There was nothing we could have done to stop the goal. But that's football for you.

The goal did demotivated us at first, but we kept fighting and in the second half we were rewarded a goal after a headed pass was converted with a volley. We weren't finished yet though, we kept pushing and going for the goal and had a glorious opportunity when one of my team mates tried for a long shot after the keeper came up which just skimmed the post. I thought that was the one last opportunity and that we blew it. After that shot, I thought it was unfair that the game was going to end 1-1. But, by the end of the game we could have considered ourselves lucky to have drawn since the opposition hit the crossbar from a one on one situation and at another moment the keeper had to scramble to get the ball while three attackers tried to score from close range. The dying minutes of the game were surely an eventful one.

Although we were lucky not have conceded a goal at times, it was disappointing that we didn't win especially with all the corners we had. I believed that we were bound to convert at least one of them but it never happened. The chances of making it out of the group stage is becoming very slim now, but we will keep working hard to win our remaining games.

First Girls' Game

The early morning wake ups continued as I went to the HKFC to coach the U-12/U-14 Girls' team once again. The session was good but one thing I need to do is make sure they are always concentrating. I must make sure that they don't fool around or talk to each and make sure they focus and work their hardest during training. But, for some of them I didn't want to push them too hard since we had a game later on in the day.

At around 3:30pm, there was a game between the U-14 HKFC Girls' team and the U-14 Canadian International School Girls' team. I obviously went as a coach and tried to help them out by giving advice before and at half-time of the game as well as shouting a lot during the game. The team worked very hard and played brilliantly winning 4-2. Of course, it's a development league and the main aim is to develop the players rather than winning games, but it was a great feeling winning my first game as a coach nonetheless. Not only was it the first game I was involved in as a coach, it was also the first game in the U-14 HKFC Girls' history!

5:00 AM

I was worried about being tired later on today after waking up early at 5:00 am for a charity walk. But I ended up doing fine today since I slept quite well last night. Before my training, I started with the coaching as normal once again and then went on to start the session. At first, I wasn't quite warmed up since I just came from the coaching and therefore felt a little nervous doing the passing and overlapping drills. At first, I might not have done well, but later on in the game involving two four goals on four different sides and you have to defend two of them and score in either of the other two, I did much better. I played some good passes and my awareness wasn't too bad. Later on, we finished with a game and although I had a few good moments, I didn't receive the ball as much as I wanted to.

Athletics Day

Today was athletics day for school for the Year 12 and 13. Although it was nice to see my 100m time (14.00 seconds), 400 m time (1:11 minutes), and high jump result (1.20 m), (yes, all those results are quite woeful) it was a shame not to have been able to do the 1500m run. The 1500m run is my best event and I was getting ready for it but we couldn't do it due to running out of time. I will be doing it on the finals day where there's the whole school competing so at least that's quite good.

I've got to sleep soon now because I have to wake up at 5:00 am for a charity walk. It is going to be absolutely horrible tomorrow since I'll be tired in school and for football.

Training and mini game

School training actually went off to a bad start because we actually didn't have a bus to get us there. So we had to all take taxis as well as missing quite a chunk of the training. The training ended up being a game with only three touches and at least it was quite fun.

Before going off to the HKFC, we actually played a friendly game with this other school. I thought it would be quite fun so I played but left midway through since it wasn't serious and I needed to save energy for the HKFC training.

Then, the HKFC training was mostly small sided games which I did pretty well on picking out players to pass and even scored a first time left foot shot.

Morning skill work

Did some skill work for football this morning, going down to the park rather than the beach. I did some different juggling, passing, controlling and passing the ball at an angle drills and I actually did better than I expected to do.

South Island School 0-1 Ying Wa, HKFC 5-0 Happy Valley

I had a bad start to a tiring day by first losing to Ying Wa 1-0 for school but then later getting better by beating Happy Valley 5-0 with the HKFC.

It was a real shame to have lost to Ying Wa, the team that beat us 6-0 last time, because we worked hard and gave them a tough game. As a centre-back, I played solidly making lots of heading clearances and overall being strong in defence. It was a very close game until they scored late from a scramble. You could tell that we played well since they started to waste time and play more defensively after their goal. Although we played well, it was particularly disappointing not have won a game which could have easily gone either way after having previous poor meetings with them.

After the game and the girls' coaching at the HKFC, there was my 2nd game of the day against a strong opponent, Happy Valley, who were undefeated before the game. Despite a disappointing first half, ending 0-0, we played some magnificent passing and moving football in the 2nd half and scored five goals. I came on as a substitute as a right-back for about thirty minutes and I gave a good cameo. It was in fact quite similar to the school game in that I made lots of vital headers and also tackled the ball away from the winger aggressively. Not once, did they trouble from my side.

On top of all the games I've played, I did some coaching yesterday and today. So far, it's been going very well and I'm starting to take more of an initiative and leading more.

Two games tomorrow

I have two competitive games tomorrow. One against Ying Wa for school at 2:30pm and another against Happy Valley for my club at 8:30pm. On top of this, I've got to do the coaching in between the two games. It will therefore be a very tiring day tomorrow and I therefore want to get as much sleep as possible tonight.

Passing

Both training for school and the HKFC went well as my passing was very well done. I played mostly easy short passes, but it was good in that my passing rate was very high. My movement and awareness around the ball was good and I was aggressive when tackling. Overall, it was a good performance but what I can improve on would be to not hesitate at times when retaining the ball and to always focus in order to not make careless passes.

Technique

Went to the gym today but trained differently by trying to use lighter weights but lifting at a much slower rate. My father pointed out that my technique was bad and therefore I focused more on technique and lifted slowly. Although the weight were lighter, the session was incredibly tiring as it also requires more endurance yet it is much healthier for my body as well.

Rest

After waking up early on Saturday morning after sleeping late after a football game on Friday evening, I felt quite tired this weekend. I therefore took a bit of a rest and didn't do any intense training. I use my free time doing homework and thinking about how to coach the girls' team.

Coaching

I had a game on Friday for the HKFC, my first this season, and it went by smoothly as we won 8-0 against Northern District. I played in my usual position at right-back and played the whole of the second half. I would say my performance wasn't spectacular but solid. Most of my passes were accurate  as I tried to play simple ones such as to the right winger back or back in the middle to the central midfielders or centre-back. I made a couple of good crosses and my defence wasn't bad although there was little to do. In all, it was a good easy game.

The big thing recently for me though is that I started to coach the U-12/U-14 HKFC girls' team. It has been a good and new experience so far. Obviously, it's only the beginning so I've still got to learn the names of the players and so on but I am aiming this season to inspire them to win rather than just to play around. It's a newly created team and therefore there's a lot of potential. It's a very exciting time for myself right now because I can work and help create a good team while enjoying the beautiful game.

Coach

Training yesterday went well but I got slightly frustrated at times because last training session, my passing was quite good but my defending was sometimes poor but this time it was the opposite with attackers barely being able to pass me but at the same time losing the ball too easily.

The good news though is that the HKFC have accepted me to come this Friday to assist the coaching of the girls' team. Of course it is not official yet, but it is one step closer.

Book

Other than doing a lot of training over the weekend such as playing football on the beach, going to the gym and doing a record distance 15km run, I've also decided to create a book full of different football drills that I have created. Inspired by the coaches in Blackburn Rovers, I've thought about different drills that can work on different parts of football and write them down in the book. To start with, it will be just a book to remind of the different drills, but in the long run it might turn out to be successful. On top of this, I've also decided to apply to become the assistant coach of the newly created HKFC girls' U-12 and U-14 team. Again inspired by Blackburn, I think it would be a great experience for me to start coaching at a young age and who knows, maybe one day I become a professional coach. Of course, I still have to wait to see if I can obtain this role though.

Mixed Day

Even though it was a holiday today, I still had a training session at the HKFC. It was quite a mixed performance to be honest with some moments seeming very good but other times were quite substandard. I felt very sleepy right before the session which was quite confusing because I slept quite a bit more in the morning because it's the holiday and I had a large buffet lunch with some friends which should have given me some extra energy. In the end, I didn't feel tired training but my focus was poor and I didn't feel confident in skill work.

Although my mind was very negative, I don't think I did too bad with the first drill involving passing and overlapping. Despite feeling horrible, I didn't make too many mistakes and even the mistakes were things such as using the wrong feet or playing the ball too slowly. Following the warm-up, we split into Colts and U-18 with me going to the U-18 team. The next drill was some two vs two with players around the square to pass the ball too. Actually, I thought I did splendid in this drill by making accurate passes which were a mixture of long and short and using the outside players well by passing and moving into open space. Soon after this, we went onto play a full pitch game against the Colts team.

I started in my main position at right-back for the game, but my performance showed little proof that I belonged there. Despite having some good moments by getting the ball and passing it out wide, I had some awful moments when I rushed myself. For example, the ball was loose in our goalkeeper's box, and although I had to time to take the ball and look for someone to pass to, I quickly played the ball first time to a player who was marked. The ball was taken away and a goal was scored. Disappointment was in my mind at first but I was confident enough to make a difference for the rest of the game. When I was moved into centre-back, my performance drastically improved. While three goals were let in when I was at right-back, there were none when I was at centre-back. I made some good interceptions while I was playing in this position but I also went up quite often and played some good passes. When going up, I might of have been out of position but when the ball was lost, I would try to quickly go back and we never were threatened. I kept running around a lot and finished on a good note.

I am still confident of getting onto the Colts team, especially if I play more football like I did when I was at centre-back. The most important thing for me is to always keep focus and be consistent in my performance.

School Cross Country

Represented South Island School in a cross country against other schools. The last time I did cross country for school was back in Year 10, but now that I've improved since then and I showed it with my rapid enough time for cross country last year, I am back on the team. The race wasn't too long, just 5km  long, but obviously quite tough since everybody is competing against each other. The race was especially hard be because of the hills. After the first 1.5km, there was an uphill which were hard on the legs. After completing the uphill, things got worse as another uphill began. In fact, they did mention how there are two steep hills with the second one being even steeper. When I was running on the first hill, I thought this might be the second one since it didn't seem like it could get any steeper. But, it looked like I was wrong. The second hill was the "death zone" with many people walking it. But, I put in effort and managed to run it despite not being too fast. After completing the hill and feeling a great sense of satisfaction, there was another 1.5km flat run which wasn't too hard. The second half of the run was the same way backwards so it involved running down the hill. Running downhill may be less tiring but by no means more comfortable as going down the steep hill after having tired legs hurt massively. I kept working hard and kept my pace until I finally finished the race.

I do not know what time I got on this race but I do know my position. During the beginning of the race, I started at the very back but gradually ran past people and ended up at 25th place out of approximately 50 runners. 7th out of 9 for people in my school in years 12 and 13. The placing might not be one of the best, but I was still happy with how I did and am looking to improve for the upcoming races. Plus, it's obviously benefitting my football by improving my cardiovascular fitness.

Finally played for HKFC

Had a long day of football today by starting with a school football game and then finishing with a HKFC training session. The game was just a training game for players trying to get onto the school team especially. There therefore was a lot of substitution and changing tactics. But, I played for most of the game, just missing about half of the second half out of three halves, as we took on the younger B grade South Island School football team. Obviously, we didn't want to lose because that would be embarrassing, and thank god for a slight fluke of a goal to help us win 1-0. I say it was a fluke because the attacker played a back heel over the head volley which ended up being a perfect through ball through the middle which the player converted. We'll say it was on purpose for now as it was a very beautiful goal.

For the game, I asked to play in central midfield from the start to halfway through the second half. To be honest, I wasn't too happy since I didn't get the ball much and couldn't quite play good balls as I was closed down often. I played all of the third half though as a centre back and I played better as I made some vital blocks and some good through balls down the line. After the game, I felt quite thirsty and tired but I had to go on and train with the HKFC.

It was great to be back at the HKFC again since it's the first time training, or even playing with, the team since leaving for Blackburn Rovers. It was nice to see that the training at HKFC hasn't changed as we did the usual passing and over lapping drill. Although I made a couple mistakes, I generally did well in this drill and felt like I improved since last time I did it. I felt more confident and used both feet equally well. Later on we moved on to doing some three attackers against two defenders with me being one of the defender. I tried to use what I learned from Blackburn with body shape and positioning and although there were some times where the attackers got past us using their speed, my partner and I generally did well on this.

Finally, we played a game for about the last 45-60 minutes. But rather than playing as a whole group, we separated into Colts and U-18 team. The Colts team doesn't have an age limit so it mostly consists of older players. But it consists of some talented players in my age as well. Basically, it's the better team which you can get selected for anytime in the season. Since, the last time I was at the HKFC was quite a while back, I obviously trained with the U-18. We were only allowed to touch the ball three time each time and we would have to shoot on our first touch after passing a certain line. I was quite proud of my performance as I moved around and played a lot of good passes. The only problem was that I was starting to get exhausted, but I still tried to move into space, mark players and shout to team mates to tell them what to do. Although I'm playing with the U-18 team right now, I am quite confident that I can work hard and make it to the Colts team. From now on, I will work hard outside school and even harder during HKFC training so that I can achieve my goal.

When training ended, I was so fatigued that I collapsed on the ground (nothing serious). It was good that I worked hard but I need to be able to run more in a game. It was especially agonising after training because I had to walk with a heavier bag than usual because it was filled with all these books about universities that came for an open day at school this morning.

Drills

Went to the beach yesterday early morning to practice some football skills. Actually, when I got there, I didn't have a plan on what to do so I just tried out some different things to improve my football. After a while I started creating different drills to work different aspects such as controlling, turning and crossing. I'm thinking about having a sketchbook with all my drills but I haven't quite started yet.

HKFC 4-1 South China

After coming back to Hong Kong from Blackburn Rovers, my first time playing with the HKFC since three weeks ago was a football match against South China. For the game, I started as a substitute and I accepted that since they haven't watch me play in a while. We played a brilliant game by winning 4-1, but I couldn't be part of this. During the second half, I was going to come on, but due to a technical error, I wasn't allowed to play. It was extremely frustrating since I felt so confident and excited about playing before the game. But now, it looks like I have to wait until Tuesday to play with the HKFC.

1-8

After coming back from Blackburn Rovers, my first time playing football was with the school on Tuesday. And it was straight to playing a game against West Island School. I was very excited in playing some football again but the game didn't quite turn out the way I would like it to have been. To make it a long story short, we lost 8-1.

The game didn't actually start as bad as it might seem by the scoreline. I started at centre-back and was in a confident mood. From the referee raising his hand to start the game, you could already tell the difference between the football in Blackburn and here. The skill level isn't very different, but the speed and aggression is what separates the two types of football. Since my confidence level was higher due to the Blackburn Rovers trip, I was able to communicate with the team from the sound of the whistle for kick-off, starting with "Push up". This talking didn't stop even though it was becoming painful as I started to get a sore throat. My performance wasn't bad as I cleared the ball away and aggressively tackled the ball (nothing vicious of course). By the end of the first half it was 1-1 and by the way we finished the half, we could have won the game.

The second half was when misery came, I played on until about halfway of the second half until I was substituted off with the score 3-1. It wasn't the fact that I played badly but since it was friendly game, everybody was getting playing time. The goals kept coming and the game ended 8-1. Not a very nice score.

But although the score may not be appalling, I do believe that we have potential to succeed. The problem is not the skill level of our players but how we work as a team. In the game, I thought we needed more movement off the ball, more communication and more aggression for 50-50 balls. This will hopefully come with more training sessions but it's very important for all of us to think about your movement and positioning when you don't have the ball and knowing what to do next before receiving the ball. Then we can play faster and break down the opposition defence.


Today, I was able to do my first personal training session by going for my usual 10km run. It was an incredibly enjoyable experience to being able to run again and I kind of feel like I don't want stop doing sports these past few days. I therefore definitely not miss my gym session tomorrow.

Photos

Here are a few photos from Blackburn.

Top: James and me with the Blackburn Rovers' first team coaches

Middle: James and me with the Blackburn Rovers first team

Bottom: James and me with Steve Kean, Blackburn Rovers' manager

Back in Hong Kong

I am now back in Hong Kong and am excited to start the football season as well as school again. After a wonderful two weeks experience, I will now be able to show my newly learned skills in Hong Kong. Although leaving Blackburn Rovers is depressing, I can look forward to a new year of excitement. The time in Blackburn Rovers was fantastic and I would especially like to thank all the generous coaches and staff of Blackburn Rovers. On Friday, after a sad farewell with the people of Blackburn Rovers, we took another long flight back to Hong Kong. The flight wasn't particularly comfortable, but at least I got some sleep and am therefore fine today. I will probably mostly rest this weekend, but when next week starts, my focus will back to academics. But obviously my mentality on football won't change and I will keep working hard so that my school and club will succeed this season.

Last Training

Slept in one hour later than usual. This wasn't a problem of course since we ate breakfast at 9:00 am not with the U-18 team but with the first team! Today, we got to watch the first team train.

So when we got to the players' lounge, there were quite a few first team players sitting around eating their breakfast. I took a simple a baked beans on bread and, what I thought was a yoghurt at first, a rice pudding. Gradually, some of the players left and came in and it was interesting to see the real life of these professional players. It's very easy to tell who's friend with who, who's a quiet player, who's a bright one and so on. For example, you could see that quite a few Portuguese players sat around together for breakfast including the veteran, Nuno Gomes. Later on, we got a tour of the training centre and saw things such as the rehabilitation pool, the gym and all the players hurt at the physio.

After the tour, we went onto the training pitch to watch the first team train. They started by warming up their bodies by doing sprints, then they got their football touches ready by doing some possession game. Half of the team was split with one half doing some passing, crossing and shooting while the other half played a game. Finally, all players joined to play a game. The thing really impressive about these players, and I may have mentioned this already before, but is their touch and how quickly they can play the ball. Plus all the shouting and movement helps this a lot. What else is interesting is how there are players who put 100% in everything and worked hard to get to where they have and there are others who don't try as much but just are naturally skillful. It was fantastic to be able to watch the Blackburn Rovers F.C. first team train, an opportunity most people don't get, despite standing there freezing to death. We were lucky as well in that we were able to get a picture with the players and the coaches. Pictures will follow soon.

Following lunch at the Senior Training Centre, we got do some more touring, this time at Old Trafford, Manchester United's home stadium. The stadium was massive compared to Liverpool's Anfield or Blackburn Rovers' Ewood Park. The tour was brilliant as we were able to see the pitch, dressing rooms and were told about the history of Manchester United as well. The difference though compared to Blackburn's one is that there were others. The tour involved a tour guide and about 40 customers. And these tours take place every twenty minutes for six hours a day when there are no games that day. You can do the maths. Due to the huge reputation of Manchester United compared to Blackburn Rovers, Blackburn Rovers' tour is a bit like a nice little happy sight seeing in the stadium while the one in Manchester United is a business. That was quite interesting to me. Before going back to the academy we did stop by Manchester United's "noisy neighbours", Manchester City's, stadium, the Etihad Stadium. We only looked from outside but it was nice to see another large stadium again.

Finally, we had our training with the U-16 and then the U-15. It was our last ever training session with Blackburn Rovers. With the U-16 we did some keeping possession at first and then moved on to three against threes. In a way, the game was fun but the toughness made it frustrating as well. Therefore it was more fun with the U-15 team. We warmed with some moving and passing and then moved on to some one on ones (again). My defending wasn't bad as sometimes I tackled at the right time and got the ball, but my dribbling was just appalling. I was slow with my feet and never got past the defender. We finished off the training with a game which I did alright in, at times at least. I did some make careless mistakes such as passing it through the middle and getting the ball intercepted, but I made some good through balls at times and even came close to scoring once, hitting the corner of the post and cross bar. After training was finished, I was exhausted since I wanted to put everything in my last session. Overall despite not quite matching the players in Blackburn Rovers, this was not something I expected, I was able to achieve my goal in that I wanted to work hard, learn, improve, do my best and most important of all, enjoy. And for these two weeks, I definitely had a spectacular time.

I should have played a game

While punching on my green apple in the morning, I was getting excited about the game upcoming in the evening at 6:00 pm. It was a game that James and I were going to get to play for Blackburn Rovers against a local side in our age group. It would be our first game representing Blackburn Rovers and not only that, there was to be a DVD of the game. I've always wanted to watch myself play because then can I see what my flaws are. As we finished off our breakfast, we were to go to gym for a morning training session. Despite the game later on, that doesn't mean I wasn't going to try my hardest in training.

We got ourselves warmed up by doing some cardio work. While doing my warm up, I noticed that the Academy's gym didn't really have that many weight machines but quite a few for cardio work. We were supposed alternate between the machines, so rather than doing cycling, running or steps, it was the rowing machine that I started with for six minutes and then the stair maker for six minutes. I was glad to have tried the stair maker (it's a bit like walking in the wrong direction of an escalator) since it was large bulky machine which would never be in the gym back in Hong Kong. After the cardiovascular fitness, we did some work on our backs, followed by our chest and then finished off with a bit of biceps and triceps exercises. Obviously, I was quite tired by the end but not as much anywhere compared to my forearms from gripping onto weights and bars.

Soon after, we went out into the pouring rain and miserable cold weather outside. The need of moving around to gain heat and the tiredness from the gym made it an even more horrible feeling. When the coach came, we therefore jogged around about three pitches to warm ourselves for the shooting game. The game involved two goals facing each other about 20-30 metres apart. There's one player on each goal and, in turns, a player would shoot at the goal they're facing at behind a certain white line and try to score while the other player tries to save it, using their hands if they wish. I started brightly by putting a few shots in but had one incredibly embarrassing moment. When I saved a shot by James, the ball went over the white line. I therefore took the ball back towards my goal. My touch was too strong and unfortunately the ball went over the goal line and had let in an own goal. Soon later my shots were going bad and were going off target above the goal as I couldn't keep my hard shots low enough. James put some accurate balls in a got the lead. Gradually each of us scored kept scoring a few until James had 9 shots in with only one left to win. I tried to concentrate and told myself that I will win and won't let any balls go in whatever it takes. As I gave myself some confidence, I was able to score a few more goals by blasting it into the goal. One shot from James was going to the right side of the goal but I dove and saved the ball. My body didn't stop moving as I kept sliding due to the muddy surface. It was quite tempting to dive some more after that. When it was my turn to shoot, I tried to blast it again and scored. Now it was 9-9, but it was actually James who scored the next goal. Since he started first though, I still had one shot left to keep the game alive. I know it's only just a fun game, but I needed to win this because as I said earlier, I wanted to put everything in any training. I focused, didn't get pressured and tried for a hard shot rather than a safe placing shot. The gamble went my way as the ball smashed into the net in the top left corner from my point of view. The game was on again and it was now my turn to win the game as James's shot was blocked. I tried for another similar shot and it hit the left post at the bottom. Luck was on my side as the ball rebounded off James and into the net. It was only a small game, but with belief I won.

The rain hit us harder and caused the fun training to end earlier. After my slide, I needed a shower to clean the mud off and then later go to the lounge to have a nice breakfast to give my energy for later on. Another gym session followed soon after lunch. Even though we still had about 20 minutes to spare before working out, I decided to go to the gym earlier and do some stretching on the foam rollers before weightlifting. My coach was happy to see me getting prepared as I lay there in agony pressing some stiff spots the right side of my quadriceps. This gym session was going to be short and easy since the game was only about four hours away. We warmed up with the cycling machine and then did some jumping.

There were four platforms each with different heights to jump on. The goal was to jump with two feet on each one. Simple instructions but not particularly easy. James did fine on all platforms, but I never was a good jumper. I could do the first one, (it would be very embarrassing if I couldn't), and the second one, but the third one halted me. It wasn't only the fact that I couldn't jump the height, if you didn't land properly you could have easily fell and hurt yourself (as well as making yourself look very funny). We did some more jumping again after this, but this time you would jump forward on to the smallest platform, then land on the floor, then spring off to the second smallest platform, then land on the floor, then jump on to the third smallest platform (or should I say second tallest platform), and then you get the pattern. When doing this, I was able to complete the third one after about one or two tries. The fourth one was quite hard for me but I was gradually getting there as my confidence increased. One time, I jumped and sort of put both of my feet on the fourth platform but didn't quite balance on it and landed back down. It was the closest I got, but I hurt my knee a little in the process. The hurting soon ended but mentally I didn't have the confidence to jump back onto the platform. Following that, we did some skill work by trying to head the ball on to the tallest platform and, with good direction and speed, bounce onto the rest of the platforms. After many tries, I was able to do it. Our next challenge was volleying it but that was too hard.

Following the platforms, we did some balancing work by throwing and heading a ball while standing on one leg on some squashy thing. It was quite hard for me as I kept falling off after each pass or header and maybe that's something I should work on in Hong Kong. Next up was some training for the abdominals one of my strengths. The training was a simple one where you had a five kilo medicine ball which you would have to rotate sideways with or do a sit up. I completed the tasks with ease. The abs workout was to be the end of training before the game. The coach told us to meet the academy at 4:30 pm for the game, but mentioned that the game could possibly be cancelled due to heavy rain. I didn't feel too worried about this since I thought, "This is England, they must used to this rain." I was to be wrong later on.

James and I went back to the hotel before the game and I got ready by doing some stretching. When I looked out the window, I considered myself extremely lucky as a beam of sunshine pierced through our window into the room. The clouds vanished and the blue sky was back. It was beautiful weather for some football especially since the temperature wasn't too high nor too low. I put on some high paced music to get myself pumped up for the game. I walked to the academy happy and excited and felt a desperate sensation of scoring a goal so that I can show it to people back in Hong Kong since it was to be all recorded. When we arrived back at the academy, bad news struck us as we were told that the game was postponed due to bad weather. I had a slight hope that we might still be here when the game is played but it wasn't to be as it was going to be played next week. I will be in school studying hard by then. I couldn't understand why it would be cancelled in such beautiful weather but it was because was the pitch was water logged from the earlier rush of rain. We therefore stayed at the academy and had our dinner.

Before going on to train with the at the Senior Training Centre, we got to get a little tour of one of the houses where the players live. Each players have a room shared with another and get to stay there for free as part of the deal for playing for Blackburn Rovers. There are still rules though such as when they have to get back by and they have to keep their rooms clean. Otherwise a fine will be given to them. It was very interesting to see how some players live and I wondered how different my life would be if I did that rather than be in Hong Kong.

At 7 pm we went to train at the astro turf as usual but since both U-13 and U-14 were playing football at the same time, we trained with the U-14 team. After warming up, we did a lot of dribbling. This involved just doing some skills without any distraction and then later doing some one on ones. As you may know, I never was a dribbler but it was quite nice to try a few tricks which I will never have the guts to do in a game. We also did some one on ones and two on twos with goals before going to play a game. In the game, I had a solid display as most of my passes were accurate although safe and made some good interceptions and blocks when defending.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Blackburn. It's unbelievable how quickly everything went. I'm having quite a weird feeling in that I'm looking forward to going back to Hong Kong and do all my normal things such as going to school, doing sports and just relaxing at home yet I want to stay in Blackburn to improve my football skills and fitness and become the best I possibly can.

Long Day

I'm quite tired now after doing six hours of training today, more than any other day. We started with some gym workouts, doing the terrible cycling again, although it was only for 15 minutes, as well as doing some work on balancing and core training. Then, straight after, we went to train with the U-15 team. We separated into defence and attack, with me going to defence obviously. We did a lot of one on ones which was quite hard as their defence and attacking was better than mine. The problem is that my feet don't move quick enough. Part of the reason is that I was tired from the gym but in general I need to improve my foot work as well. We then moved on to doing some more one on one but including attacking and defending crosses and throw-ins. Again, our next training was some more one on ones, except the attackers joined us and we would have to pass the ball to the attacking player. We did some two against two as well. Finally, we ended with a game which I did better on as I was able to complete most of my passes.

After lunch, it was more training with the U-15 team. We didn't do much first as the team was focusing on movement and plays. But we did finish off with a game again. My passing wasn't too great at first, but I gradually got better into the game.

And then there was the night, where we trained with the U-13 and then U-14. With the U-13, we funnily enough did some more one on ones. This alternated from going face to face against each other to running onto the ball from an angle. With the U-14 we did more possession work. I lost focus a few times when we played in a small group and therefore missed a few passes, but when the whole team played, I made some better passes. Tiring day, but good for my fitness.

Ewood Park

We had the usual training session in the morning, but we had something different today in that rather than going out on the pitch, we went to the gym. Obviously, as footballers, we did some workouts for our legs. We started with 30 minutes on the bike which was terribly agonising. It involved some normal sitting down cycling to cycling with resistance, cycling standing up and sprinting often. After tiring out our quadriceps, we worked on our hamstrings by doing some squats. It was very satisfying because although I've thought many times about doing squats at the gym back in Hong Kong, I never quite got around to it. But now, I will obviously doing that workout back in Hong Kong. We did a couple more workouts such as pulling our leg back with resistance and lifting a weight with one hand from the floor to above my head while balancing on one foot.

After an hour of the gym, we had a very special opportunity to visit Blackburn Rovers' home ground, Ewood Park. It was brilliant to see not only the football pitch and the stands, but the changing rooms, suites and conference room as well. The pitch was especially inspirational for becoming a professional football player as you can imagine yourself walking onto the perfectly flat grass pitch with tens of thousands of people watching you.

After having lunch at Ewood Park, we came back for an afternoon session which started at the gym again. This time we did more workouts than cardiovascular fitness as we worked more on our legs and our shoulders as well. My legs seem strong but my shoulders struggled at times. I actually impressed the coach at one point when I was doing the leg extension, one of my favourite workouts. I almost maxed out the machine and probably could have done with only one rep. The furthest I went was 10 reps of 155 lbs. Seems like I've improved since Hong Kong. After a while in the gym, we moved on outside to do some target practice at the wall. We practiced different types of kicks such as a blast straight through the middle and curves. I was very pleased to find the technique of your body when kicking certain types of kick and I can therefore practice correctly. Hitting the wall, alternated to hit a moving ball rather than a dead ball and later we played the hitting the wall game where in turns you would try to hit the wall and if you miss you were out. This game was particularly fun because due to the large field of grass, the ball could go flying miles out and the next person would have to kick it from there. I did have one embarrassing moment where the ball ended right in front of the wall, about five metres away, and I was about to blast the ball so that it would rebound really far away and trouble the next player. But, it seemed as if I didn't kick the ball in the centre enough and therefore the ball went flying over the wall.

Although I just explained a very embarrassing moment of the day, overall I felt much more confident playing football. I think it was because I trained hard last week and had a break over the weekend and therefore recovered into a better footballer. One time, James kicked the ball up in the air, about 20 metres in the air at least, and I controlled with my back heel and passed it straight to my coach behind me. The weird thing is that I meant to do that, but I never expected it.

The confidence stayed until we went to train with the U-15 and U-16 players. I wasn't scared when I went to training and it seemed to show as my passing was generally better in the keeping possession game. My performance seemed better than before, not forcibly better than the U-16 players, but better than I have ever played. I therefore looked forward to play the game in the end. But our training was cut short, as the coach suggested that we should rest so to prevent injury since we've been training all day and will do tomorrow as well. I insisted that I can still play but it was inevitable so we went back to hotel earlier than usual and ate at the restaurant with me having a nice caesar salad with bacon, chicken and anchovies.

Manchester United

There was no training today, so I took this day as a resting day and a day to do plenty of stretching and schoolwork. But, around midday, we went to the Manchester United academy to watch the U-15 Blackburn Rovers team play against the U-15 Manchester United team.

The Manchester United was a wonderful academy. Bigger and nicer than Blackburn's to be honest. There's a long bright hallway for the dressing rooms with pictures of former academy players such as Beckham, Giggs, Charlton and Best on the sides. Similar to Blackburn Rovers' actually but just bigger. Then, the pitches were probably larger than the ones here. In total, there must have been about ten pitches including an indoor astro turf. The day was again beautiful with bright celeste blue sky and a strong sun. We were actually very lucky with the weather since when we came back to the hotel on the coach, it started to rain very heavily.

The game started, and although Manchester United have a reputation of being good, Blackburn Rovers scored straight away. Just before half time, Blackburn scored another. One goal was pulled back by the Reds but Blackburn Rovers completed the win with another goal and a 3-1 victory. It was very interesting to see the quality of play for my age group. It didn't seem like I would be too out of depth, but one thing that they are definitely better than me is the overall skills in controlling and passing and how quickly they do all of this. Those are things I need to work on when I get back to Hong Kong. I was also extremely pleased with the win because it shows how good of an academy Blackburn Rovers really is. The U-18 team won, the U-15 team won, and I'm training with these guys for two weeks. It may only be a short time, but learning from these top players will help me improve my football performance massively.

Break

Normally, there would be games on the weekends. But the U-18 had a game on Friday and the first team didn't have a game either because it is international weekend. Therefore, we had nothing to do other than the training in the morning with the U-15 team.

At first, I was slightly nervous because I haven't played with them yet and I knew they would be good. But I tried not to think much as went on to do some keeping possession with three against one and then later one team against another. My confidence grew as I was able to make some good passes. I wasn't playing fantastically but nothing bad either as we moved on into a game. Before we started the game though, we played a proper game by starting from the goal kick and moving to the opposition's goal but without any resistance. So there weren't any defenders trying to get the ball from us but we had to attack towards goal in a realistic way. It was quite an interesting exercise that one. We did move on to a proper game later on and I played at right midfield. My passing weren't all completed but I had some good moments too with one time I ran for a through ball and played good cross in that was headed over the goal. At the end of the training, that was to be the last football for today.

So for the rest of the day, James and I were able to relax so to recover our muscles from the hard work this week. It's quite a strange feeling actually. Every time when we have training, I feel like relaxing but now that we can relax, I feel like I'm wasting time and I should be doing some football. James's mother met up with some friends and we then went to the Blackburn city centre. There was a relatively large mall but that was pretty much it for what we saw today. It was quite interesting to see more of Blackburn and the people there as well.

Since I have plenty of time this afternoon and evening, I will try to get some school work done.

U-18 match and the rain

The lucky streak of beautiful sunny weather ended today as it frizzled while we were training. In the morning, we were joined with four U-16 players (who are actually on the U-18 team). We played some keeping possession games, then the exercises we did before where you have to go in a square of mannequins and where you have to dribble past three mannequins, and finally some one-on-one. The training was quite tiring but it was important to move around to not get cold from the weather.

Soon after lunch, we went to watch the U-18 team play against Nike Academy, a team consisting of talented players who couldn't sign a contract with a team. The Blackburn team won the game 3-1. The game was a fierce one with strong contact, sliding tackles, and loud rants at the referee. It really showed what an English game is like.

We had an afternoon session as well and we started it with some more football tennis. Except this time, there were goals in the back where you can score in. The game was quite fun and I should think about doing some more of it back in Hong Kong. After that, we sort of did this obstacle course. It was basically a mixture of drills that needed to be completed with high intensity. The exercise was brilliant because it worked on all sorts of skills, passing, dribbling and shooting, as well as your fitness. It's quite complicated explaining the exercise without a picture of it so I will give a brief description in steps.

1. Dribble the ball to cones from side-to-side going in a zigzag motion.
2. When you reach the end of the cones, shoot at a large goal from about five metres. The ball must hit the net and not the ground.
3. Collect the ball back and pass it against a rebound board from right to left with a mannequin in front of you making you have to hit the ball against the board on an angle. Pass it 10 times with your right and 10 times with your left.
4. Take the ball and slalom past three cones and three mannequins.
5. Leave the ball and sprint back to where you started the dribbling from and this time run from side to side through the cones and mannequins.
6. Get the ball and run back to where you started the dribbling and repeat it again.
7. Leave the ball and move on to a station where there is a small goal with three cones situated behind it. One about five metres, another about ten metres and finally one about fifteen metres. Each cone should have two balls each. Run to the first cone, the closest one to the goal, and shoot the ball into the net. Move to the second one which is slightly behind you and then to the third one. Repeat this again to score with the second balls.
8. Finally, sprint back to where you started.

After all of this, I didn't particularly feel thirsty but I had a huge crave for oxygen as I panted for quite a while.

This weekend, there are no football games from the first team because it is international weekend and none for the U-18 team as well. Therefore after the game which started at 12:00, they were allowed to leave and go home. This meant, there won't be any food for supper at the academy. That wasn't a problem though as we had a nice dinner at the hotel we were staying at. I had a cumberland sausage as a meal and finished off with an upside down lemon cheesecake.

Starting at 5:00 pm, the U-6 to U-9 football teams had training. The coach told us that we could there to not play but to watch the coaching style and so on. If the players were better than us at football, then that would have been really embarrassing. We unfortunately couldn't watch them though since the dinner was quite long. So we went to watch the next teams training which was the ladies' first and reserve team. To be honest, it's hard for me to say, but they are really good as well.

U-16

The day went the same as usual with one session in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The first session started with target shooting. Our aim was to hit the head of a mannequin about fifteen metres away from us. We never really hit it, since it was so hard, but at least it was a good way to practice accuracy. While two people are doing this, there would be another person who would try to hit the ball in midair with another ball. That task as well was not accomplished. After that, we did a drill where it involved you to pass against a rebound board with your right and left foot. Then, you would pass the ball to the coach on your left and overlap him. He would pass the ball back and you will have to hit another one-two with a different rebound board. When the ball hits the board, the player with the board aims to play a cross into a small goal while the other player runs and tries to intercept it into the goal. This training was especially good because it involved overlapping and crossing, two vital components for right-backs.

That was the end of the session, but not the end of the training in the morning. When the U-18 came out onto the football ground, we joined in their warm-up. There wasn't a whole lot other than sprints and moving with a rubber band on your ankles so that it makes it slightly harder to move your legs. When the warm-up ended, we didn't play, but we stayed to watch the U-18 train. First, they did keeping possession with six against two. They then split into two groups with one practicing touches and shooting while the other practiced attacking in one goal and later set-pieces. Finally, they finished off with a game. The touch and speed and the aggression and hunger for the ball was unbelievable. Very little would they make careless mistakes and some of the shooting was mind blowing as well. The even more unbelievable thought is that only about 10% of these players will actually go on to become professional. This shows how hard it is to become a professional football player.

The U-18's game ended as a draw so they went on to penalties. Everybody took one including James and I. Fortunately, I scored mine.

In the afternoon, we started something quite fun which is called football-tennis. Basically, there's a board in between two players and you have to kick the ball in the air into the opposition box. Just like tennis really since you can let the ball bounce once as well. Following that game, we practiced free kicks from a the left side of the goal. There were two small goals inside the large goal and three mannequins blocking the shot as a wall. Your mission was to curl the ball into the goal. That was not all though. You then had to run past the wall and try to score from a cross given by another player. This exercise was good for right-backs as well since you practiced your crossing. But, I actually did better in my free kicks than crossing as I felt that the ball bounced too early.

Finally, we trained in the evening as usual on the astro turf. But this time, things were much harder as we played with the U-16 team. Our age group really. Most of the time we played a game and I've learned a lot from this. First of all, I'm obviously not good enough. The level here is much higher than in Hong Kong. And there's one big thing that causes this. Speed. The speed of the players running around and passing was incredible. When you have the ball, instantly there are players pressuring you and pushing you. When my team-mates had the ball, they can play the ball up the field in a matter of seconds. Plus, they're touches, dribbling and passing was flawless compared to mine. No wonder the coach in Hong Kong says that we play so slowly.

I did struggle to be honest. But, I tried to keep a positive attitude. I just kept working hard and didn't worry about anything. The valuable thing from this is that now, I know how quickly I should be playing in Hong Kong. The players I played against are some of the best in the world. And if I want to become one of the best footballers, then those players are my targets.

Individual Training and First Team

The U-18 team didn't train today since they went to college for their prerequisite education. We therefore didn't train with them, but that didn't mean that we didn't do much football today. In the morning, we worked on shooting and shooting technique individually. We did drills such as passing with a back spin and a curl to begin with. Then, we moved on to some accurate shooting by having to shoot from different angles at tiny goals. Following that, using the same goals, we volleyed the ball. Finally, for that training session at least, we did some passing, overlapping and shooting all at once.

Personally, I believe that shooting is something I should improve on, despite being a defender. I therefore found this training session very good as it gave me new ideas of how to practice my shooting. Perhaps I can even introduce them back in Hong Kong.

After lunch, James and I had a very lucky opportunity to watch the first team play a "friendly" game against Wrexham. It was brilliant watching professional players from the sidelines. The amount of communication is tremendous and it's no surprise why the coaches in Hong Kong keep telling us to communicate more. I watched the right back of Blackburn Rovers, Bradley Orr, to learn from his movements and positioning. After the game, we got even luckier in that we got to take a picture with Blackburn Rovers manager, Steve Kean. We even exchanged a few words afterwords.

After the game, we came back to the Academy to do another hour of training. This time, it was much less physically demanding. We started by doing some more passing, overlapping and shooting. Then we calmed down and did some free kick practice. We tried shooting from different angles with different types of kicks such as curves, top-spin, etc. This session was good as well as it helped me learn new exercises as well as practice different ways to kick the ball.

The football training didn't end yet. We went to the Senior Training Centre, just like yesterday, to play with the U-13 and U-14 teams. Most of the time we played a match or keeping possession of the ball so it was good practice for skills training. Some of my passes were slightly bad but overall it was a fun experience.

Second Day

For the second day, James and I did a similar session as yesterday in that we trained with the U-18 in the morning and then younger players in the evening. In the morning, we warmed up with the U-18's doing sprints and stretches. Then, we went off to train on our own working on quick short passes, volleyed passes, volleyed passes after a control with the knee and so on. Next, we went on to work on passing, controlling and dribbling. There were two more activities that were new to me and would be a great exercise back in Hong Kong. The first one involved four mannequins in front of you forming a square and then a board in front of the square. The activity involved dribbling up into the middle of the square and passing at the middle of the board. The ball should come back to your feet if the ball hits the middle and then we would turn on the right or left side of the square and pass back for the next person. The second activity was much simpler. You had to slalom past three mannequins in front of you and then pass against the board. The ball will come back to you if well passed and then you can pass back for the next person. These two exercises were fantastic for working on technical skills.

Skills are not my forte. But in my opinion, despite making mistakes, I can sense that I have improved since a few weeks ago. The most important thing is to keep working on these things and then I will perform well back in Hong Kong.

For the evening, we started training with players who were probably around 12. We went to the Senior Training Centre's astro turf, the same place we did the beep test, and the youngsters had training so we played with them. With them, we did a lot of short passes at first. Then we moved on into a game. After we trained with them, we went on to train with the U-14 for the next hour. They were at the gym when we were playing with the young ones, and now they were switching over. With the U-14, we did some possession work and then finished with a game. Funnily, the U-14 team seemed the most welcoming.

When I played with the U-14, I thought I generally did quite well. The players are definitely fantastic for their age, but I had a solid performance barely making a missed pass. And, these passes included some good through balls.

The players in Blackburn Rovers are clearly better than me and the level is much higher than in Hong Kong. These players play everyday and therefore become so skilled and fit. But, after playing with the U-14, I feel that I have improving physically and mentally. I obviously have improving physically since my legs are sore but I can tell that I have also improved mentally since I'm feeling confident playing with players in Blackburn Rovers who are much better than me. After the two weeks in Blackburn, I can guarantee that I can make an impact when I come back to Hong Kong.

Tomorrow, since the U-18 players have college (their contract states that they need to have at least one and a half days of college), James and I will be doing some individual training.

Also, I came across this on the Blackburn Rovers website. You should check it out. http://www.rovers.co.uk/news/article/hong-kong-starlets-in-rovers-reunion-350826.aspx

Fitness

The U-18 training wasn't the only training we did today. We also did some fitness training with the U-15/16 team. We did a standing jump test, agility test, and beep test. I wouldn't say I did bad, but it was quite a shock to see how fit some of the players especially since fitness is one my strengths.

First Training

I just had my first football training session at Blackburn Rovers. First of all, I would like to mention how fabulous the pitches are at the training centre. There were numerous flat grass pitches where we trained on. Not something you can easily get in Hong Kong. Another difference compared to Hong Kong is the seriousness of developing the youth players here. Diets and gym workouts are specific to the player's needs and many of these players are full-time players. They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at the centre and just play football during the day. Also, the team watched some video replay of a game they played and the coach would explain what needed to be fixed. Another thing that doesn't happen at the HKFC.

Today, we trained with the U-18 although this was only for a short while since James, the other person from Hong Kong who came to Blackburn, and I did some personal training as well. We warmed up with some jogging, stretching and five against two passing with the team and then moved on to do some shooting, and passing trainings on our own. The shooting practice first involved controlling a lifted pass and then shooting. Then, we were supposed to control and pass the ball from the lifted pass with one touch and then James or myself would shoot at goal. Finally, we did some shooting after passing to the coach in the middle and then shooting first time or after one touch to put us through. After that, we did some passing training where both of us were behind separate football mannequins and then we would pass the ball to each other from the left and right side of the mannequin. We also did some passing from side to side where we could place ourselves on an angle and then control the ball with our back foot and then passing. This involved looking behind our shoulders which is an important part in football. Finally, we finished off by doing some 1 on 1 dribbling against each other.

The training was of course brilliant and I learned a lot in quite a short time. Not just in football skills but about Blackburn Rovers in general. In my opinion, my performance was the best I could possibly do, but there's still a lot of improvement needed to match the players here. Hopefully, I will be able to learn a lot for these two weeks and improve my performance.

In Blackburn

I am now finally in Blackburn!

After a long 8 hours trip to Dubai and then another flight of about 7 hours to Manchester was not a very comfortable experience. But after arriving in England, things are looking good. We started the first day by going Anfield to watch the Liverpool-Arsenal game. It was a fantastic experience since it was the first time for me to watch a game in England live. The game was quite exciting and ended 2-0 for Arsenal. I tried to observe for the right-back often, which was Glen Johnson for Liverpool and Carl Jenkinson for Arsenal, to learn from their positioning.

After the game, we went to Liverpool to have an early dinner. The city of Liverpool was quite stunning and I was surprised with the architecture. There were modern large glass buildings as well as immense old cathedrals. All the buildings were unique in different ways.

Tomorrow, training will begin. Apparently, the coach will pick us up at 8:30 am. I am pumped up for it especially after watching the Liverpool-Arsenal game.

Leaving Soon!

I am about to go to the airport now to go to Blackburn. It's hard to tell you how excited I am about this trip.

Laptop

I will be able to bring my laptop to Blackburn. Therefore I will be able to inform up to date news about my journey at the Blackburn Rovers Academy.

Packing

I'm almost finished packing for Blackburn Rovers. They contacted me just now saying that they will provide training kits so I won't need to bring as much as previously thought. I've also received all the work I'm missing over the two weeks of school so I'm all prepared.