Day 14

Boa Noite Pessoal

This is Adan Noel reporting from Santa Cruz, Brazil. Today is day 14 on this brazilian tour. Everyone woke up with a big game in mind, today would be the day we face brazilian giants Fluminense.  The day started with heavy showers as we journeyed to the Fluminense facilities, upon arriving we were surprised to play our game on a field that had taken some wear and tear. We picked up our heads and focused on the job at hand. I believed that my teammates and I were a bit worn out from all the excitement from the day before whereby we visited the island of Paketa. In all we pulled together and fought for each other in the game which lead to a 2-1 victory over Fluminense youth 20 team. Goals coming from Tucker Coons and Xavier Rajpaul, both being key contributors on the trip. This concluded our games in brazil and ending with a win brought great fulfillment to the team. The camp became must lighter, the team became must closer which brought great joy to the coaches. 

After the game we visited a mall in Rio to do some last minute shopping before we begin our journey back to Charleston tomorrow. We were given 4 hours to explore the mall. Instead of shopping, some guys enjoyed watching Godzilla in their in-mall movie theater. Others wandered around the mall until there was nothing left to see. Some even went on to buy food at burger king and took full advantage of their free refills. The mall was much enjoyed by the team. The only downfall of the day was the nearly two hours of traffic we stood in to get home. If you ever move to Rio, I suggest getting a moped, or walking. 

In all the day was well spent. Great victory for the cougs, and we are all looking forward to what is in store for us tomorrow. This is Adan, reporting from Brazil, time to sign out and watch the Heat v Pacers game with my team. Enjoy your night everyone.

 

 

 

Hello everyone!

This is Christian Jablonski (Jabo) reporting from our Brazilian compound. Finishing up day 13 of our 15 day journey, the great battle for the wifi continues amongst the team; with some of the boys getting up extra early to grab some of the limited wifi spots. Coming off a great team win last night, we were rewarded with an amazing trip to the island town of Paketa. A beautiful little town, that took about an hour to reach by ferry.

One of the first things we noticed once reaching the town, was that all transportation was done by bicycle or foot; there were very few cars. Most of the team stuck together, besides our Trini boys who decided to take the road less traveled. Our goal was to find the beach and we came about a cool lookout tower which consisted of underground tunnels. Ryan was determined to find the entrance to one of the smaller underground tunnels and he succeeded, not leading us to our death. 

After leaving the lookout tower, we came across a grove of trees where we saw little monkeys jumping from branch to branch. Offering little pieces of bread, chips and some of the leftover sausage, those little guys came right up to us and ate from our hands. Adam Purvis achieved a successful selfie with one of the monkeys, and Tanner Clay’s GoPro footage of the monkey needs to be on Animal Planet or Nat Geo. Erik Clark was not so lucky, as the monkeys did not take to his offered chips. It was a fun, unique experience for the boys as we interacted face to face with nature and animals that we’d never see back home. 

Took a nice relaxing ferry ride back home and returned to the compound for an amazing Brazilian BBQ meal prepared for us by our fantastic hosts. Huge game tomorrow morning for us against Brazilian power house, Fluminese. We are excited about this challenge for us and how it will continue to strengthen our team. Hope everyone back home is having a great evening! 

Go Cougs!

-Jabo 

Hey everyone!

This is rising junior Hunter Greer reporting from the second floor hallway of our compound just outside of Coach Lundy’s bedroom in fear of losing the wifi for my computer. Today was another much needed day of relaxation due to our 5 p. m. match that we had. 

The day started with our usual 8 a.m. wake up call. We ate breakfast and hung around the compound in preparation of our game later in the day. Shortly after finishing our food we retreated to our beds for our post breakfast nap. After our nap we watch Tucker Coons break Brian Kilgallon’s bed becoming the third bed that we’ve broken this trip. Tanner Clay showed us today that power trumps finesse as he announced throughout the day that he made 8 balls in 11 shots. After lunch Daan Brinkman, Brian Kilgallon, Adam Purvis, Nico Rittmeyer, Ryan McLaughlin, and myself broke the Brazilian record for headers in a row with 33 in the pool. Once out of the pool we relaxed in preparation for the game.

The Cougars were able to bounce back from our loss in the previous game with a 5-1 win with goals from Kye West (3), Nico Rittmeyer (1), and Xavi Rajpaul (1). After the game we were humbled as all of the fans and even the opposing team asked to take pictures with us. Xavi, Laurel, and Adam were particularly popular with the locals. This brings our record to 3-2-1 for the trip with one game remaining against Fluminense. Tonight we will have some more time to relax and prepare for the early morning and the long day ahead of us. 

Boa Noite Everyone, 

This is Kye West reporting live from, ‘the cartel compound chill spot’ as my fellow teammates are off playing billiards or cards. Today was a very laid back, restful day as we recover from the hard game we played yesterday. The plan for today was to go soak in the salt at Copacabana but due to the inclement weather, there was a change in plans. Instead we headed to the market around 1pm so that anyone who needed to, can purchase any knick knacks or souvenirs they still needed for friends and family.

Apparently we didn’t get the memo that this was the hang out spot for all the tourists visiting Rio, as the majority of people their, spoke english and seemed to be American. So much so that we met a girl who attends the College of Charleston. Nevertheless, it was a great experience to see all the hand made arts and craft, as well as barter, or ‘bundle’ with the salesmen as Coach lundy would say.

After two hours of shopping and enjoying the scenery downtown, we loaded the bus and headed back to the compound in Santa Cruz to rest up and get ready for our 6th game tomorrow at 5 pm.

Go Cougs, 

Kye west.

  

Day 9

Good evening everyone.

This is Erik Clark reporting from the “cartel compound” as Daan Brinkman would describe the place we are staying. However, today the team woke up bright and early to another great breakfast, that consisted of the usual ham & cheese sandwiches. After breakfast we headed over to the Sao Cristovao complex; home of the great Brazilian phenomenon: Ronaldo. Which we later discovered that he was scouted at the very complex we were playing at at the age of 15!! But, we headed to this great complex, consisting of very generous and humble people that were very considerate and helpful. But, as we arrived in the guest locker room, shortly coach Lundy came in and expressed his usual eagerness, by saying we were playing the pro club team who ended up being first in their division!!! We fought valiantly for all 90 minutes!!! Unfortunately losing 2-0, however we have learned from our mistakes and shall capitalize and improve on these mistakes in the next match (which is Monday)!!

After the game, Lundy was very excited about the all you can eat steak house we were going to after the match!! Very beautiful restaurant where the servers would come around cutting slices of meat onto everyone’s plate and wouldn’t stop till you were getting the term phrase, “meat sweats.” I would highly recommend a vegetarian to go no where near this place (if you happen to be in Brazil or anywhere in that case). But, everyone enjoyed the meal and was very thankful again for the opportunities the coaches are giving us. Following this fantastic dinner, we watched the Champions League final between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, in the restaurant!! The game ended up being a blowout towards the end, however was a great game to watch!!! Hala Madrid!!!

Unfortunately, after watching the game we had to drive to the airport where we had to say farewell to one of our fellow teammates, Tam McGowan, who had to attend his Grandmother’s funeral in Scotland. We the team expressed our condolences and wished him the best!!! After, we arrived at the compound where the team is fighting for wifi or playing billiards. This is Erik Clark signing out and I hope everyone has a great night!!!  

Day 8

This is upcoming Sophomore Paul Burdick reporting live from the patio at the compound. Today was quite an eventful day for the College of Charleston Men’s Soccer Squad.

It began with an early 6 AM wake up call from Coach Lundy. We jumpstarted our day with a recurring breakfast of eggs, ham and cheese sandwiches and an assortment of juices. After breakfast, we hopped on the bus to head to the Christ the Redeemer Statue which followed with a train ride to the tip top of a frightening and breezy peak. At the top we got to encounter the legendary statue up close and an incredible view which showed the entire city of Rio de Janeiro. For the remainder of our stay atop the mountain we experienced an array of randoms attacking us for pictures (thinking that we were the USA National Team despite our “Charleston” attire). Xavier Rajpaul represented our team in a plethora of photobombs that a few tourists were not too happy about. 

Lunch came as a pleasant surprise for us as we were treated to chicken sandwiches instead of the typical ham and cheese (even though a few people still got ham and cheese). We were also surprised with lays, oreos and a knock off Twinkie brand. We were also greeted in the park, that we ate in, by a herd of pigeons that were obviously starving. We followed lunch with a couple jungle gym challenges and a close face-plant from Ryan McLaughlin who decided to go down the slide face first.  

After lunch, we headed to a six story mall where we got to shop for a couple hours. With little astonishment, the Starbucks wifi offered in the mall drew most of the attention of the team. After a long ride back to the compound, the night consisted of rice and beans and a few matches of soccer tennis.

In the future, look forward to our match results from tomorrows game.

 

 

Photos courtesy of Trent Rieflin

Day 7

This is Troy Peterson reporting from the master bedroom in Brazil from Trent’s laptop. I must say that Trent has the best spot in the room because he is the only one who gets wi fi from his bed and he has an incredible fan about two inches right of his bed. Nico and Trent also have matching Tiger blankets and have connected their beds so they can sleep together.

Today the team fought hard to earn a 2 1 win this morning, we went down 1 0 early in the first half and were able to put 2 goals together late in the 2nd half to steal the team’s second win of the tour. The sun was scorching today and the bugs were even worse, players were constantly coming off the field to get the bugs out of their eyes. Trent hit a nice free kick that nestled into the bottom corner of the net for the first goal, T Clay All Day (Tanner) scored the game winner with about 5 minutes left to go in the game from about 6 yards out after a free kick was headed back across the front of the net. It was a great team effort, every single field player received minutes in today’s game with B Killa (Brian) between the pipes.

After the game, we were given the day off at the compound. Most of the players took naps, Kye slept for about five hours so I don’t know if you can call that a nap. For lunch and dinner, as we all guessed, we had some rice and beans. Today was a special day though because for dessert we were given popsicles for the first time and they were incredible. We have nothing on the agenda for tonight, except maybe a stroll to the corner store for some gatorades and hopefully we can get the wifi working well enough to watch the Heat vs Pacers game.

Day 6

Good afternoon everyone.

This is Daan Brinkman reporting live from Brazil. Yet another great day in Rio de Janeiro. We got in a little late last night, therefore I will be writing about the great adventures of yesterday. Breakfast started at 8 and the fact that we got to sleep in till that late was greatly appreciated by all the players and a good ham and cheese sandwich never gets old. The morning was relaxing and consisted of hanging around the pool and sleeping off breakfast at the Cartel compound. After lunch we headed toward Copacabana beach and it was a beautiful day, so we were all excited and Ryan Mclaughlin even more so after hearing the news that the girls had even smaller bikinis at Copacabana than they did at Ipanema.

As we reached the beach we quickly made friends with the guys who were selling soccer jerseys, especially Nico Rittmeyer who functioned as our Spanish/Portugues translator. We made their day, because we bought over 20 jerseys off of 2 guys and almost everyone payed full price as we are all not very good at bringing the price down. Ryan even gave a guy 50 bucks for juggling a coconut, but we all know we’re just doing this to boost the Brazilian economy and we’re just really good guys. After getting our pockets picked, some of us bodysurfed on the great waves and some of us juggled a soccer ball with the Brazilian Johnny Bravo (who actually was pretty skilled).

Another very exciting part of the day was the fact that we got to go to an all-you-can-eat pizza place, even though some of us were afraid that even the pizzas would somehow consist of rice and beans. Nevertheless, the pizza was great and in exactly 8 minutes (as measured by Xavier Rajpaul) we ate more pizza and chocolate desserts than Domino’s delivers in a week which resulted in some great team bonding on the restroom of the restaurant.

Last, but certainly not least we went to Fluminense vs. Sao Paulo in the same stadium as the Flamengo game only this time our seats were on the other side of the stadium. Fluminense ended up winning the game 5-2 after coming back from being down 1 goal twice. It might have been one of the best and most exciting games all of us have ever attended. Fluminense played very attractive soccer with their most skillful players in the midfield. The team also had some individual bets going and unfortunately Xavier Rajpaul bet his life savings on Sao Paulo. If anyone out there feels the need to help, I think he is accepting donations. It was a great day with lots of fun and lots of laughter.

Finally, our bus driver ‘Micro’ (probably the best bus driver in the world) picked us up and it was time to return to the compound. I will end in the words of Thomas Mcgowan: “Micro, lights off, no bouncies”.

Day 5

Hello everyone! This is Ryan talking to you through the computer from Brazil.  This morning started off early with the most pleasant Scottish alarm clock, Tam McGowan.  After breakfast we took off on the bumpy roads to our third game.  It was a scorcher but everyone still played as hard as they could.  We ended the game tied 1-1, which was a disappointment as we were far and away the superior team.  I have to say so far the Brazilians can’t handle the cougars.

Once back at our compound we stripped down into our bathing suits and had a nice relaxing pool session.  I must say coach Keith looks like he has been hitting the gym.  From there we hopped on the bus again and drove up what has to be the worlds most bumpy road.  Im having trouble writing this paper because my brain is still jigglin around.  The road led us up a mountain where we arrived at Petropolis, the city in the mountains.  This City was absolutely beautiful and was also the home of the man who invented flying in Brazil.  We were given two hours to walk around and shop, so all the players had plenty of time to get their parents a gift.  So if you don’t get anything, give them a bag of coal for christmas.

We are now back at the compound enjoying our dinner and our night off.  I hope everyone has a great night!

Day 4

This is Adam Purvis reporting for day 4. I am a junior from Statesboro, Georgia. Today made me thank God again that I do not have to drive in Brazil .

The early part of the day was just spent relaxing, hanging around the compound. We shot a lot of pool and just basically took it easy due to the match we had at 3. Brian Kilgallon showed us time after time that he is the worst billiards player in the history of the game. Coach Danny took us through a pool stretching session to wake us back up after our post-breakfast naps. 

We left the compound around 1 o’clock in route to the Tigres soccer facility. They are a second division team in Brazil that will be in the first division next year if they win their next two matches. They had a huge facility with incredible scenery surrounding all of their fields. We played a very competitive match and won 2-0. 

It was a good day for soccer. We have another match again tomorrow at 9 in the morning. Hopefully we can get another result.