Jayhawks' Brazil Tour: Day Two
May 23, 2008
SANTOS, Brazil –
Over the course of the next week, the Kansas soccer team will tour the country of Brazil. Kuathletics.com will follow the Jayhawks each day and chronicle their adventures through journals and photos from some of the student-athletes. Today, freshman Kaitlyn Cunningham checks in after KU’s first exhibition contest in “the soccer state.”<?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Day Two – Kaitlyn Cunningham
We woke up early to have breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast we went to the beach as a team. We watched some of the locals play a game similar to tennis as well as watching some soccer. Then we headed back to the hotel to lay around for a while until lunch.
Lunch was our pre-game meal, so we had to make sure that we ate enough to keep us energized for the game. After lunch we had some time to sit around, however, for some of my teammates and I this time was stressful because we had to wait for our luggage to arrive. After a long awaited arrival, Coach Francis and the other staff members finally arrived. Thank goodness!
Everyone got prepared for the game and we were ready to go. We arrived at the field around the same time as the team from Santos and both teams warmed up. When the game first started we were intimated knowing that we were playing girls who started for the Brazil national team. Santos was a very technical team and they were always on the move. The referees did not appreciate how physical we played and were calling a lot of fouls on us, Coach (Francis) did not really agree with all of these calls.
Unfortunately we lost 1-0 but we had our chances to score. At the end of the game we took pictures with the Santos team as well as some of the locals that had come to watch. The girls on Santos’ team wanted to trade jerseys but we couldn’t, so we found other belongings to trade such as Shannon McCabe’s shorts and Lauren Jackson’s headband, which pretty much made their day.
We all got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. Everyone showered and got ready for dinner. We ate in the hotel restaurant. After dinner, the whole staff headed off to watch a soccer game and the girls headed to the beach. We got to the beach and found a few guys who we had met the night before. Some of us sat on the beach with them, while others went and watched the big game. We all met back up at the hotel and sat out by the pool for a little bit and then headed back to our rooms for the night. Just another fun and exciting day in Santos!!
