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.
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