Written By: Junior Miki'ala Maio
 
IT'S GAME DAY
 
We started our day with a tour of the Real Madrid Soccer Stadium! It was surreal getting to step into the lives of these soccer players and seeing their facilities. When I was little, I aspired to be a professional soccer player so seeing something like this was really full circle for me. The amount of success their program has is CRAZY. FIFA World Cups, European cups and a lot of other cups that I don't know the name of. Not to mention all their individual achievements, especially Cristiano Ronaldo *heart eyes*
 
The best part I think was getting to be on the field. Seeing where their players sit (which is in some really comfortable chairs) and getting to step on the same field they step on. All in all it was a pretty crazy tour and somehow Coach Shannon convinced me to buy a shirt.
 
Later in the day it was our first official game day!! For our first actual game playing together I think it went well. We still have a lot to improve on but as for our first game day, playing against professionals, I was proud of our fighting spirit and our responses in the second half. Our young players were able to get a lot of playing time and experience, scoring was spread pretty evenly and our energy was really high. We are growing and bonding a lot more out here so things have been really fun! We'll bounce back even better this next game for sure! #GoPack
 
Side note: Madrid is beautiful, their ice cream is better than the U.S. but I miss good pizza, quesadillas and my family.
 
-Miki