Opening night and first game

OK, here's the picture. Everywhere you look, there are teams - and these aren't even the team that are in the parade! 800+ teams in this tournament.
Several from each of the 50+ countries are selected to parade through the town and are cheered by the towns folk. It's bedlam in the stadium as they arrive. I had terrible position for photos, but had a lot of fun. If you look in the last few photos, you'll see the US flag above the crowd. There were four or six USA teams chosen to march and Kelix was one of them. Tom and Jim may have some much better shots than these of our team, but, hopefully, the bedlam shows up in mine...

This is Brazil, matching hats, jackets and pants - all in white, quite the sharpies!

Jumbotron, Danish rock band, announcer who spoke several languages, this was an event.

This is the Fortuna Clubhouse - a top youth - adult soccer program in Denmark. They are just one of five or more club houses that I counted in Hjorring alone. Because they are in Hjorring, they help host the tournament. Because of this, when they're not playing, they're working. Some members of the club worked in the Dana Cup food tent and served food to the other players in the tournament. The food tent serves 4000 meals per hour!

Dig the white stripes on the lawn in front of the club house!

The next day, we played our first game against a very good Sweden team. It was a loss of 2-0, but it showed that we could play with them and hang in there. Each game was like that. A 2-1 loss to the eventual bracket winners and a 1-1 tie that got us a better seed in the B bracket playoffs. Unfortunately, that did not go so well. It was a loss of 3-0. Here are pics from the first game, I know I missed some kids...
Meet together and then the game is on.

Spirits are not too bad after the game. The guys had fun and knew they could play!

Off the the bus and back to the school.

Trip to Hjorring and Pro Game at Horssens

Today we drove up to Horrsens. As you see the scenery, you'll know why all the Scandinavians settled in Minnesota. I would swear I was driving along one of our highways!

Except in Denmark, you'll have the occasional lighthouse attached to the farm!

However, there are a few differences. Notice how the Danes pack for a weekend. On the other hand, get used to it. This is what we'll all be doing when gas costs $11-12 per gallon and we all want to go up to the North Shore. Everyone drives a relatively small car and they all have hitches (note the trailers) and most have roof racks. I have seen ONE American pick up truck all week.

On our way we crossed two suspension bridges. The first crosses the straits between Zealand (the area where Copenhagen is in) to South Jutland. We are on our way to North Jutland, six hours from Copenhagen. This is the longest suspension bridge in N. Europe. Yes, it's long!

The second brought a tremendous rain and enough wind to buffet the bus rather heavily!

It crosses over multiple small islands and marshlands.

After a few more twists and turns in the highway, we make it to Horssens and a professional soccer match awaits!

By the way, this is what it looks like when you travel with 13 boys suffering from jet lag. Those are legs going from seat to seat and only one or two heads to be seen!

Horssens is building a brand new, 20,000 seat soccer stadium. Yellow is their team's color!

A yellow tiger is their mascot, who spends a lot of time having fun with the little kids on the sidelines.

The team comes out with one of their junior teams. Horssens is one of the top teams in their league, which is one of the top levels in Europe. Several of their players have been 'sold' to other teams for over $1,000,000.

The stands go right up to the field edge, literally 10' from the sideline.

This is where the opposing team gets to cheer. They're behind a double wall of iron grate, they have their separate entrance and parking lot! Talk about rivalries. No ruffians however; good, loud fun.

Part of the stands are not finished. The ones that were done, were packed.

More and the last of Copenhagen

More and the last of Copenhagen. A charming and cool city - we took another walk today, here are a few more sights.

This is one of the favorite food stops for the guys - red hot dogs, frankfurters, and all things sausage!!

We had a nice walk through the King's Garden. This reminded me of the the Boston Commons. A large urban park heavily utilized by its residents and home to one of the smaller castles.

A shot of the residences near the park.

An tree lined walk way.

Here we walked down an espaliered path to the castle.

A couple of team shots in front of the castle in the King's Gardens.

After we went through the King's Gardens, we walked over to the Queen's residence. Denmark has a royal family and it's led by Queen Margrethe. According to Sven, our soccer guide, the monarchy is much loved and actually holds the government and populace accountable for their actions.
The changing of the guard is a rather friendly affair. The guards themselves are tremendously serious, but the police are friendly and you can get quite close to the action.

The Queen's residence and the happy crowd - yes, they're all happy. Denmark was recently rated one of the 'happiest' countries in the world.

The guards march in.

Much ado about changing the six men. Yes, those are real automatic rifles and they're loaded!

Time to walk over to change out the guard on the other side of the square. They walk right through the crowd - who parts enough to let them troop through.

After the Queen's residence and changing of the guard, we walked past the National Theatre.

And off to lunch!

A lovely 1700s era window with some hydrangeas.

Next, off to Hjorring and Danish Cup. Sorry I'm running behind. But, I've had a few connection issues! Stay tuned.