The Blog Returns

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So, we dust off the typewriter (Yes, it's a keyboard - we're just feeling nostalgic. Must be the European air...) from the summer break and write to you from Goteborg, Sweden, which as an absolutely charming city 301 miles from Stockholm. Enough chit-chat. Here's the skinny:

The vast majority of the team got the hotel a little after 3 p.m. local time. Tomorrow's arrivals will be Jonathan Bornstein, Brian Ching, Landon Donovan, and Oguchi Onyewu. Nice to see Marcus Hahnemann for the first time since Hamburg. He's looking ... well ... the exact same. Cherundolo is healthy, Convey looks good, and Spector was all smiles after West Ham's result yesterday. It's always great to see everyone meet up again. This group genuinely enjoys each other, which is a big part of any team's success. Moving on...

They arrived smack in the middle of the Manchester derby, so Michael Bradley, Benny Feilhaber, Kamani Hill and Sal Zizzo headed to a pool hall around the corner to catch the second half. Most everyone else just settled in, with a few guys venturing out to wander around the town. At 4:45, the routine kicked in. Training room and equipment room open for business, casual gear for the trip laid out, and guys getting ready for the afternoon. Today's session consisted of a visit to a local spa for 45 minutes of riding a bike, stretching and hitting the sauna. The general term we use for these days is 'regeneration'.

Everything went smoothly, and then it was off to dinner. The meal room is in the basement of the hotel, which you enter through a metal gate. The room itself closely resembles a wine cellar - perhaps it's because it IS a wine cellar. And in what could be one of the highlights of the trip, for dinner they actually served Swedish meatballs! All of us Muppets fans were thrilled. And for the record, they were quite tasty. Talk around the tables revolved around the scores from Europe this weekend and war stories from the summer. A quick team meeting, and then everyone was off to relax.

Tomorrow's session isn't until 4 p.m., so hopefully we'll generate some good stories during the day. In the mean time, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars...