Futbol playoffs

When I went to see them off, who should be there but Ed (the Scots trainer). He has flown down from Canada just for the finals and traveled with them to Vallarta.

And Ivan, Giovanni told me to tell you to pay for it yourself - for now - and he will give you the money later. Or mañana, I think was the word he used.

Mañana means "not today."

  

Nice poster TrueBrit!

Thank you Rosa (heavily borrowed by the way). By the way, Chuki, one of the more exciting excitable members of the team flew to Torreon for a return try out with Santos. He will be there a week and then return to Ajijic. If they like him, they will invite him back and develop him - and they pay for room, board and education.

TrueBrit wrote:Thank you Rosa (heavily borrowed by the way).  By the way, Chuki, one of the more exciting excitable members of the team flew to Torreon for a return try out with Santos.  He will be there a week and then return to Ajijic.  If they like him, they will invite him back and develop him - and they pay for room, board and education.

how exciting!

Anybody who wants to watch training - come along tonight at 6pm to the Cruz Azul field (by the side of Salvador's).

Found out a little more about Saturday's game. Two very simple errors led to two early goals against us. The rest of the game was spent battling it out in midfield - apparently not much end-to-end stuff. Confidence remains high we can pull it off on Sunday. Someone went to Guad and bought horns and confetti bazookas. Yhe porristas (cheerleaders) promised they will be out in force - and noisy. There is a presentation of the flag and a band at 4:30pm by a school group. And of course, pizza for the kids and beer for the bigger kids.
Injury report: Yeye still not fit and Chuki who if he returns from Torreon in time is not eligible to play because of being sent off in the last game.
Vamos Union!

Let's not forget the huge game this Sunday at 5:00pm. It would be great to see a big turnout of gringo supporters. Go Union Go!!!!

I'm hoping to gather a couple of friends and bandwagon on this one. It will undoubtedly be a good time. How could it not? Sunday at 5 pm at the whichever field on Revolución in Ajijic.

Rosa Venus wrote:I'm hoping to gather a couple of friends and bandwagon on this one. It will undoubtedly be a good time. How could it not? Sunday at 5 pm at the whichever field on Revolución in Ajijic.

Looking forward to seeing you at the game! It is great fun. Probably lower field but I am sure they will tell us.

Z

Boy, we sure could use those big bleachers in the upper field for this one. The semifinal with Tepic was mobbed and this game should be even more so.

Good luck in the game on Sunday. Wish I was there.
My daughter delivered on Wednesday, and I expect our team to deliver on Sunday.   

congrats grampa!

Pedro wrote:congrats grampa!

Gracias mi amigo.
Now get your sorry ass out to the game on Sunday!   

Bottom field (Revolucion & Constitucion). It is officially known as Campo #1, but everyone calls it 'Empastado'.

The big game is today at 5:00pm. We hope to see everyone there!!!!

Go Union Go!!!!!

Wear a yellow shirt if possible.

Unfortunatlely we lost the 2 game series 1 - 2. PV has won the championship.......  

Let us remember that these kids gave us a season to remember.
We will be back.   

Losing is as important a lesson as winning in life. They had a great year. Never known anybody worth a crap who didn't lose once in his/her life.

Z


PM me Truebrit I owe you 200P.

That's a great idea.  We need to see if we can help line up some business sponsors.

I notice the PV  team was sponsored by a construction company.  

It looked like they also came to the game in one of those top-line ETN buses.  Now that's sponsorship!

 

I have just come back from a 'welcome back Chuki' gathering. He got back from Torreon this afternoon and was picked up at the airport and brought down to a little celebration set up by his parents. There were lots of kids there, as well as the usual adult suspects. And we got to talking about what the future might hold for the club, the team, other kids in the village and, of course, the fantastic supporters. I get the impression that there isn't much expertise when it comes to planning, so even before I read the posts above, I was going to inquire whether there was IL talent that could help out in this area. I really don't know how receptive the patronato would be to getting advice on how to structure their enterprise, but there is no doubt it is needed. I would be happy to present anyone's ideas to Rafa - he knows our intentions are in the right place.
Anyway, here is some news on strategic direction. The division we were in (4th Division Jalisco Plus) has two seasons per year. The next one starts in August. We spoke about the need to stabilize funding to be able to have a more predictable league experience and Rafa is certainly on board with it. We hope to be a part of this league again. We briefly spoke of other leagues, but the problem is that the local leagues are not good enough and the Guad leagues insist you play in Guad, i.e. no home games in Ajijic. We want to expand the number of teams; with these other teams being in local leagues - with an emphasis on recreation and pulling the kids off the streets. We are going to advertise the program in local schools.
At one time Ajijic had quite an impressive soccer program that fell into disrepair. Rafa and the patronato have tried to correct the course and I see a lot of very positive things happening. Yesterday's attendance was around 1,300. Not bad. And we were close; there was very little difference between the clubs. To see the village supporting the efforts of the kids was the sort of community sentiment that is not always easy to come by. We've all had a little part in this.
I took about 500 photos yesterday, so it will take a little time to sort out. But I will publish them on Flickr for those who don't use FaceBook. It is not hard to see in these photos what this season has meant to a lot of people. Thanks for all your support.

Photos of yesterday's game...
Photos on flickr