Aug. 23, 2004

GLASGOW, SCOTLAND
Junior defender Kenney Bertz

This has been a really good experience for our team because there are so many new guys on the team and there's a new atmosphere on the team that it's been a good chance for everyone to be close to each other. Since there isn't much to do outside of soccer, it's a time to really bond and get to know each other that much more. Overall, I think that will really help us going into the season because that will help us play together.

The highlight of the trip so far was the Manchester United game. I don't know if any of us will ever get a chance to be in that kind of atmosphere again to see that kind of a game.

We have two games left and we are going to try and close it out with two more wins and hopefully two more shutouts as well. We've been playing some pretty good soccer so far and progressively getting better and hopefully we will keep that trend going.

We start off pretty well at the beginning of games and set the pace, but towards the end of a couple of games we started kind of letting things go, especially today we got a little sloppy and lost a little bit of focus. We just have to keep a strong mentality for the full 90 minutes.

One of the funny stories from the trip was back in Manchester, when Sash didn't want to eat at the cafeteria and he went to the Indian restaurant down the street and got a kabob. We saw him after we got done at the cafeteria and he was going to town on that kabob but he was trying to talk to us, too, and there was just food all over his face. I don't know if he realized it or not, but there was food hanging all around his mouth. We didn't want to look at him because we were all trying not to laugh.