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| The Sagrada Familia in Barcelona |
Yesterday we toured the Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona's city-center. This cathedral has been in the construction process since the 1880's and is so large and detailed that estimates say that it will be another 100 years before it is completed. The church was the crowning achievement of world-famous architect, Antoni Gaudi, and it continues to be built under his guidelines by his successors.
The Sagrada Familia really is like no other cathedral, it utilizes completely unique architectural structures that were invented specifically for use in this building. And it also blends together a large amount of very different construction mediums, and styles of artwork that focus on blending Christian motifs with different concepts of found in nature.
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| The Inside of the Cathedral |
After the tour, we grabbed a light dinner, and the girl's did some shopping around the main shopping streets of Barcelona before we had to meet up to travel to our first match of the trip against CE Sant Gabriel.
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| The Game Field for Our Game V.S. Sant Gabriel | |
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CE Sant Gabriel was made up of players aging from a phenomenally talented 15 year old, to some experienced veterans who were in their mid-20's. They play in the professional women's 1st division in Spain, finishing 7th of 23 teams in their last season.
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| Moravian and Sant Gabriel Before the Match |
The game began very well for us, with Caroline Clark passing the ball into the side-netting around the 10th minute. The next half hour was a complete battle with a lot of hard challenges, and some scrappy play, but ultimately Sant Gabriel's very good technical play paid off, and they managed to get the score to 4-1 by the end. Two of their comeback goals were solid, one was a penalty, earned by more than a little bit of play-acting, and the final goal was a screamer of a shot from range into the top-left corner.
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| Taylor Blake Fighting for the Ball |
Going into the game not fully knowing what to expect, and with a couple of defensive injuries making the game a 13 person roster v.s. a roster of 25, we still by all-means held our own despite the score line. We heard from both their trainer, and some of their players after the game that nothing was easy for them, and that we fought them extremely well. Supposedly the other two U.S. college teams they played were beaten 12, and 13, to 0, so overall we felt very proud of our team's performance, and we cannot wait to get back out tomorrow for morning practice and our night-game against a slightly tougher opponent in, RCD Espanyol, who finished even above Sant Gabriel in the professional 1st division.
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| The Two Teams Interacting After the Match |
The trip has been amazing so far. I know that we have all seen and learned things we will never forget, and the main purpose for our trip, gaining valuable soccer playing experience, has been great for the team thus far. As we begin our official season in just a little over a week, it is great to receive the additional training that other teams are not getting, and not only that, but we are getting experience against some of the best female teams that the world has to offer. Our staff feels that it our time here will go a long way in achieving our very achievable goal of winning the conference and heading to nationals this year.
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