From Saturday, August 7, until Sunday, August 15th, the John Carroll men's soccer team will be plying its trade north of the border in Canada. More specifically, the Blue Streaks will be visiting, practicing and playing in venues throughout the greater Toronto metropolitan area.

Senior Jeff Kosek has agreed to supply correspondence during the team's venture.

Entry #1

Saturday was pretty much a travel day. We stopped in Erie, Pennsylvania, before heading across the border. For some of our guys, its a first trip to a foreign country. We got settled in, saw a little bit of Toronto, and then just relaxed.

The first day in Canada began with a training session in morning on an enclosed turf practice field. This was our first session of the season with Coach Marinaro, and we recognized some issues and improvements we will attack as a team. 

The afternoon training session focused on fitness at a park, including long distance circuits and sprints up a large hill. We capped off the day with an awesome team dinner at Boston Pizza. 

Monday started off with another solid training session in the morning. Afterwards, we picked up some over sized Italian sandwiches from a place called Rocco's (highly recommended from a friend of Coach Marinaro's) and feasted back at the hotel.

In the late afternoon, we visited the CN Tower, which stands more than 1.800 feet tall in the Toronto skyline. A storm came through as we were in the tower, so we witnessed a few lightning strikes close to eye-level. Thor Eriksen also heroically returned a lost young girl to her mother in the tower.

We ate dinner at Wayne Gretzky's Restaurant in downtown Toronto. Good food and atmosphere, and the restaurant holds much of Gretzky's memorabilia, including the hockey stick used to score Gretzky's first NHL goal. The rest of the night included exploring downtown Toronto on our own.

We are all looking forward to our first practice game Tuesday evening.