2006 World Lacrosse Championships - Day One

ARRIVAL IN DETROIT

Bonding on team Denmark is on the fast track. A little too fast if you're soft skinned and shy.  I arrived at Detroit Wayne County airport earlier than anyone and intended to spend the extra time typing up some thoughts for this blog. My mind was too distracted by thoughts on the coming weeks and the many beautiful Michigan girls strutting by to focus though. So I took a nap instead and all of a sudden everybody was there.

Reunion in Detroit airport.

Most of the team did the 12-hour journey across he Atlantic. Others, like me, arrived in Detroit on less grueling domestic flights for the pre-world games Denmark  national team training camp. Two hours later, after checking in at the Super 8 Motel in Birmingham outside Detroit, 20 guys dressed in red and white helmets, gloves and uniforms circled coach Matt Cone for the first full national team practice in a year. If you hadn't felt it yet, this is where it hit you. It's on!

I kept thinking how wierd it is with all these Danes... here? On a field in Michigan... yelping in Danish, which is completely greek to anyone other than Scandinavians. It's unreal. These guys belong in Denmark, but here they are and they are all talking, chatting, laughing and looking forward to the tournament. There is a few new faces among the 20 guys. The three preparation days will also be used to bond and become a team, to bring in the new.

At dinner everybody presented themselves, stated a little know fact about them and relived an embarrassing situation they for some reason (for the most it was a drunk reason) had ended up in. 

Like the guy, a midi, who at a summer festival in Denmark ran drunk towards a boom box, thinking it was in fact a cardboard box, and proceeded to swing his booted foot and kick it as hard as he could. The music stopped as bits of pieces of boom box flew several yards into the air. The hip hoppers dancing round the box  didn't appreciate the comedy in this and proceeded to beat him up.

Or the guy who on his first day at a new job went out for beer at lunch with his new colleagues. He of course had too many . There is also the story of the guy who lost a drunken fight to a statue. I guess you can't really win a fight against an adversary, literally made of iron. His hands needed a few weeks rest after that.

For a large group of Danes gathered around a dinner table, surprisingly small amounts of beer was consumed. People are focused and excited. The atmosphere is light and jokingly and everybody is incredibly happy to finally be in the middle of what used to be an abstract conversation topic at practices in Denmark for over a year. 

Coach Cone delivered his tournament expectations. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priority = have fun.  "When you have fun the rest usually comes by itself anyway," he said. It is the One Love Philosophy, the love for the game.

Back at the motel the team realized that Super 8 accomodation means 4 ppl in a room with two queen size beds. One set of sheets per bed. It doesn't matter though. Everyone is happy just to be here. Later last night in the corridor and in the rooms at the super 8, objectives such as kicking Finlands ass in the last game was added to the tournament expectations by the players.

One of the team captains even went so far as to state that:
"If we beat Finland; it's tournament improved!"