Back from The Italy Tour

All Sponsors and at DRSC,

We have arrived home. Very sorry for the lack of contact and update on the smugmug site but internet access in Italy is 'marginal', costs a fortune or we were traveling in areas where coverage didn’t exist except by modem. Can you imagine loading photo's to smug mug by 56K speed???

Anyway, essentially in dot points here’s the summation:
1. Ovada cancelled our game with them on the day before as they were 'tired' from
their game on the Sat night - THEY were tired, sheesh....
2. Livorno - The firsts play in Serie A and we put up a good first half performance to
be 1-0 down and ended up losing 4-1 at the end. No stand outs and good overall effort.
3. Cisco Roma - They must have heard the Aussies were coming because these guys were
TOUGH, real hard on the ball and player. We were thrown off a little and suffice to say the referee should have worn their jumper.
A 4-1 loss again and some bruised bodies
4. AS Roma - Firstly, check the smug mug site for photo's of one Bruno Conti, '82 World cup winner and star who is Roma's development coach. Secondly, all at DRSC should check for one familiar face who starred for us in goal at the AS Roma. This guy will play in Europe I believe somewhere someday. The squad was disappointed to hear that Spaletti had closed training to all and this deflated the guys. We also, I believe, suffering a little post tour downers and these factors combined with a heavy schedule, lead to a 11-1 defeat. 3 CLEAR offsides not called but no excuse. We were a shadow of the squad that played against Torino and Juve.
5. Why are these guys in Italy so good?
- They train 5 to 6 days a week
- They train to move the ball always - it does not stay still on the pitch
- Effortless control and ability to pass the ball with all parts of the foot,chest or head
- Ability to pass the ball under any pressure
- Tactics and structure and how to play as a team ALWAYS
- Emphasis on the above from a young age

Hope you've enjoyed these updates and the photos.

Ciao to all,

John and Sam