Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope everyone has a great time with friends and family. I'm really excited to be home and spending this time with everyone here. Already looking forward to 2012, I'm excited to get back to playing soon. Can't wait to get started in the New Year and have my best year yet. Will keep you all updated with whats happening, but for now enjoy the holidays!

All the best,

Robbie

Home

So it’s now less than 2 weeks until Christmas and I’ve been home for almost a month and a half. I had planned to write a review on my season on here as soon as I got home, and now here I am a month and a half later, finally writing it.

So before I get to my season in Norway, I’ll write a bit about what I’ve been up to at home. I got home on Halloween and had a few days to re-adjust to the time zone, see friends, etc. and then I was off to Hawaii with my parents. Although I have been doing a ton of traveling lately, this was my first non-soccer related, relaxing holiday I’ve had in years. It was great to get to spend some time with my parents, who I hadn’t seen much of over the summer and just totally unwind, after a long season. We went to Kaui’i, which is a great place to go on holiday. The highlight of the trip for me was going surfing for the first time! It was a great trip, but by the end of it, I was ready to return home and spend some more time seeing friends. When I got home I started back up with my coaching job at Peace Arch Soccer Club/South Fraser Soccer Club, which I really enjoy doing. My job as a staff coach is basically to go around and help all of the coaches/teams that need assistance and quite often I end up joining in and playing in the practices. It’s a great job and I love getting involved with the soccer at my old club, in my hometown.

So now onto Norway. I had a great experience there this year. It’s always difficult to join a team mid-season (which I seem to have a habit of doing lately!), but I think I did well to break into the team and establish myself a bit. I was always in the First team squad for games, and I was always getting a full game every week with the Reserves, if I didn’t play for the First team. Before I went over there, I made it a goal of mine to join a team, where I would be playing week in, week out. So I’m glad I was able to accomplish that. Another goal of mine, was to join a team in the 2^nd Division, which I also accomplished. The level of training was also fantastic. I was challenged everyday and I looked forward to getting to training everyday, which is so important. There were so many quality players on my team, that I’m glad I got to play with and become good friends with. It was fun for me to get to fly all over Norway for games and see some of the country. I really enjoyed living in the capital city of Oslo, which is a fantastic city to live in. I really love Norway, the football is great, people are fantastic and overall, I just feel at home there. My only real complaint about living there is the cost of living. It’s such an expensive place and I don’t know if I will ever be able to adjust to that completely. I’m definitely able to say that when I left at the end of the season, I was a much better player overall and the experience was completely worth it.

As of right now, I’m just enjoying being home around my friends and family. I’m continuing to train hard and looking to keep all of my options open for next season and the New Year. I believe I have some good opportunities lined up and I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next in my career, but for now I’m mostly excited to have a great Christmas, with everyone I care about around me. I will try to write an update again soon.

Robbie.

Trip to Milan

Another season in Europe has come to the end for me. My season ended on Saturday the 22^nd and I was lucky enough to get a chance to travel to Milan last week, for a few days. My good friend Alexa, has been living there and it was great to go and see how she's been living. This was my first trip to Italy and I really enjoyed it. Milan seems like a really interesting and busy city; it’s certainly a lot different than Oslo. I was really happy about the low prices on pretty much everything. As much as I love living in Norway, I have to admit the extremely high prices here are starting to get a bit annoying. So it was nice to be able to go out and get a Large pizza for lunch for 6 Euro! There were a lot of great shops and football seemed to be everywhere. One of the highlights of the trip for me, was going to AC Milan Vs Parma. San Siro Stadium was huge, definitely the biggest stadium I’ve ever seen in person. The atmosphere at the game was quite good, considering the stadium was only just over halfway full. The game itself was actually quite a good one, Milan won comfortably 4-1. I really liked their style of play, they played a nice short passing game and seemed to box Parma into their own half, the whole game. Antonio Nocerino scored a hat trick, including a great volley directly in front of where we were sitting. I was most of all excited to see Robinho play though, he only played a few minutes, but he made everything look so easy. Overall I had a great trip in Milan and I’m so glad I got a chance to go there and check it out. Now I’m back in Oslo and heading back to Canada on Monday. I will write a review on my season with Kjelsås and post it on the blog in the next couple of days.

Norway Vs Cyprus

Yesterday was a busy day for me, but a very good day. I started the day training in Bodø, before heading to the airport and flying back to Oslo. As soon as I got home, I got my stuff together and made my way to training with Kjelsås. I then went home again and ate a bit of dinner and headed off to the Norway Vs Cyprus game a few minutes away at the national stadium, Ullevall Stadion. It was a freezing night, but it was a fun game to watch. This was the first Norwegian National team game I have seen. Norway won 3-1, but unfortunately they did not qualify for Euro 2012.

Bodø Visit

I’m writing this post from the sky, currently flying back to Oslo from Bodø. I was lucky to have a chance to return to Bodø (the city I played in last year) and go visit my old friends. Unfortunately in my last match for Kjelsås I got a red card, so I had the weekend off and decided to head up North. I left last Thursday and spent 5 nights in Bodø. It was a great trip, I really enjoyed my time in Bodø last year and it was really nice to come back and get to see everyone there. I was able to train with my old team a few times and it was a good feeling to get back out onto the field at Aspmyra Stadion again. I stayed with my good friends Hans-Vilhelm and Bjørn-Otto, who both are still playing for Bodø/Glimt. We mostly just relaxed, watched movies and played a lot of Fifa. It was definitely a strange feeling for me to be back in Bodø. It had been about exactly one year since I left there, which is really hard to believe. There was definitely a huge change in weather from Oslo to Bodø. It was so much colder in Bodø and I could definitely feel that I was North of the Arctic circle again! On Saturday night, we had a great view of the Northern Lights, which although I have seen before, I'm still amazed every time I see them. It’s a very cool sight to see and one that everyone should try and see at some point. So now I’m heading back to Oslo and I have less than two weeks remaining in the season. I have two more games to play and I’m looking forward to having two good final games there.

This week

It's friday afternoon and I'm just taking it easy at home. I need to clean my place up a bit and do some grocery shopping to fill the fridge... But wanted to quickly update the blog. It's been a hard week at training, my body is pretty sore and I'm starting feel like it's close to the end of a long season. We have one more training session this week (this afternoon) and a game tomorrow away to Ørn-Horten. Horten is a small town, about 2 hours from Oslo I believe and it should be a tough game. I played another solid 90 minutes for the reserves on Monday. I started at left midfield again and was happy with my performance. We came back from 2-0 down, to finish the game 2-2, which was a pretty good result for us. I ended up playing the last 20 minutes of the game at left back; which I have done in training a few times, but never before in a real game! It was fun though and I enjoyed playing in that game. See the photo below from the game...

Update

Just relaxing at home, after having the day off training today. I'm feeling pretty sore/tired after playing a hard 90 minutes for the reserve team last night. It was a really fun game to play in, I started at left midfield and feel like I had a great game overall. We won 3-2, which was a great result for us.

Other than playing games and training, I've been keeping really busy coaching for the club as well. The club runs an after school coaching program, with the local schools, for kids aged anywhere from 5-12. This happens 3 days a week and I've been working mostly with the older players, but I have also worked with some of the younger players. Working with the younger players is quite a challenge for me, because they don't speak much, if any English; and I don't speak much Norwegian. But it's definitely a great experience for me and allows me to practice speaking a bit of Norwegian in a no-pressure situation (with young kids). I have also been put in charge of the boys U17 team at the club. It's a great group of guys and I'm really enjoying working with them.

Other than that, not much else to report from here. I moved into a new apartment about 3 weeks ago and I'm loving my new place! It's really relaxing here and I'm nice and close to the stadium. Unfortunately summer is definitely coming to an end here. It's getting pretty cold some days and raining a lot! As of right now, there is just over a month to go in the season here. So I'm looking to finish this season as well as I possibly can.

Robbie.

Checking in from Tromsø

Sitting in the Thon Hotel in downtown Tromsø, the night before our game against Tromsdalen. This is my second trip to Tromsø and third trip to the North this summer. It is definitely going to be a tough game tomorrow; Tromsdalen played in the First Division last season and are currently leading our division.

It’s been a pretty relaxing day. We met at our stadium at 9 45 this morning and drove to Gardermoen (Oslo) airport, it’s about a 45 minute drive. Our flight was at 11:40 and it takes about 1.5 hours to get to Tromsø. We are staying in the same hotel that we did last time we played here; it’s nice to be in a familiar place. The whole day has been mostly about relaxing. We hung out in our rooms for a bit, before going to get some lunch and walking around the city briefly. Then we all went to a pub and watched Liverpool play against Bolton, which was pretty fun. I have to say Norwegians are probably the most passionate EPL supporters I’ve seen, they absolutely love English football here. It’s pretty crazy to be surrounded by Liverpool supporters in a pub North of the Arctic circle, that erupts every time Liverpool scores. It is much colder here than the last time we were here, you can tell the short summer is starting to come to an end. However it still stays light out very late here. After the game we went to get some pizza and now I’m just sitting with my roommates watching some movies on TV in our room.

Tomorrow we can sleep in and get a late breakfast, which everyone is happy about; our game is at 3. Really looking forward to the match and hoping to get 3 points. We will fly back to Oslo following the game, so we get back to Oslo late tomorrow evening.

Robbie.

First Team Debut & First Goals

Things have been very busy since the end of the summer break, I’ve been playing lots of games. I made my debut for the first team in a game against FK Mjølner a few weeks ago. It was a nice feeling for me to play my first game for the first team and it was also a great weekend with the team. The game was way up North in a town called Narvik, it was pretty cool to see another town in the North of Norway, it's very beautiful up there. By the way, we won the game 3-1!

I also scored my first two goals for the club in a reserve game right after the summer break, in a game against Korsvoll IL. I was thrilled when my first goal went into the back of the net. My second goal in the same game was a very special goal for me. I can’t remember scoring a better goal in the past couple of years, it was probably the best goal I’ve scored in my time in Europe so far. The other team cleared the ball from near their left-corner flag and it came straight out to me and I hit it first time, from at least 25 yards. The ball couldn’t have been hit better; it flew into the far right hand corner. I’m happy with how things are going at the moment. I’m playing 90 minutes every week and feel like I’m developing as a player.

I've also started doing a lot of coaching for the club. I’m the head coach of the club’s U17 team, which is a good challenge for me. I’m not much older than the players on the team, but it’s a great experience for me to work with a good group of young players. They had their first game last night and we won 3-2. The club also held some summer camps last week. I worked with the U14 girls all week and they were a fantastic group, I really enjoyed coaching them. They also taught me some Norwegian, which was great. I believe the club has a few other youth programs which I’ll be involved with on the coaching side, so I’m getting a lot of good experiences all around.

It was also nice for me to have a visit from my mom. She came for a few weeks and was able to see me play a few games. I was sad to see her go home, but we had a really good time in Oslo together. I think things will calm down a bit now over the next couple weeks and hopefully I’ll have a chance to update the blog a bit more often. I will post some game pictures soon.

Robbie.

League Table & Fixtures

It's a good feeling to be back training again. All the players are raring to go and we're all looking forward to the second half of the season. Thought I'd share with you the current league table, as we head into the second half of the season; as well as our remaining fixtures. As you can see, we currently sit in 9th place in the league, but with a couple of wins we could easily climb into the top half of the table.

My Summer Break

Fishing in the Trondheim Fjord!

At the Rosenborg Vs Stabek game

At Harry Potter with some old teammates

My summer vacation is coming to an end and it feels like it just started! I've had a great two weeks off and managed to fit quite a bit in over the last two weeks. After our last game against FK Senja, I just relaxed at home in Oslo for a few days. I then travelled to a city nearby called Hamar, to watch my old team (FK Bodø/Glimt) play in a tournament. Hamar is about 2 hours away from Oslo by train. It was really nice to see the guys again, since I hadn't seen any of them since last October. I was only planning to stay for the day, but they asked me to stay with them at the hotel, so I ended up staying a bit longer. We went out to watch the new Harry Potter movie in 3D, which was fun. Most of all it was just great to see everyone again. I also joined the team for training one day, it was really nice to train with them again.

Once my old team got knocked out of the tournament, one of my friends from the team came to stay with me for a few days and a few of the other guys stayed with relatives in Oslo. We had a fun couple of days hanging out in the city; we went into the city centre quite a few times, trained a little bit and went to watch Stabek Vs Rosenborg. After my friends returned to Bodø, I travelled to Trondheim to visit my family there. The couple of days I spent there went by really quickly, but I had a really nice weekend. I was able to see another one of my good friends from last season, who lives in Trondheim. It was also my 21st Birthday this weekend and my family had a party for me, which was really nice of them. After the party, my cousin took me out on his boat and we went fishing in the Trondheim Fjord. I managed to catch a Cod, which I was pretty happy about, it was a great ending to a fun weekend and birthday. I'm back in Oslo now and we start training again tomorrow. I'm looking forward to getting back to training and seeing the team again. Our first game back is scheduled for next Monday.

RedNation Online

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Canadian soccer website, RedNation Online. In the interview, I talk about my development as a player growing up in Canada, the last three years I've spent in Europe and recently signing with my new club in Norway. You can check out my interview with RedNation at: http://www.rednationonline.ca/RedNationInterviewSeriesRobbieTice.aspx

Trip to Tromsø

I made my first trip to the Northern city Tromsø on the weekend. We had a game against FK Senja, a team located on a small Island near Tromsø. It was definitely a long travel day for us. Some teammates picked me up at around 7 am on Saturday and we drove to Oslo Gardermoen airport. The flight left at 8:50 am and is normally a 2 hour flight, but we arrived a bit earlier than expected. Once we landed in Tromsø, we drove for about 2 hours and stopped for a pre-game meal at a restaurant pretty much in the middle of nowhere. But the food was quite good; Chicken, rice and salad. After lunch we drove for about another hour and we finally reached Senja. It was surprisingly quite hot, not what you would expect when traveling North of the Arctic Circle.

We won the game 4-3. It was a really exciting and back and forth game. Overall a great result for the team, it’s never easy to travel that far for a game. We scored the winning goal in injury time and everyone started to celebrate like mad, when the ball went in. My team was pretty pumped and following the final whistle, all the players ran out of the stadium and I wasn’t to sure what was going on. The sea was right beside the stadium and I guess someone had mentioned before the game that if we won, we all had to swim in the Norwegian Sea. So the whole team went for a swim, everyone in full kit. The water wasn’t actually that cold and it felt great, because it was so hot out! I think it was 92 F, which is very uncommon there. Following the game we drove straight back to Tromsø and checked in at our hotel. We stayed at the Thon hotel downtown and it was really nice. Because this was our last game before our summer break (3 weeks off), we went out for pizza and then went out in the city as a team. It was a fun night and a good chance for me to get to know my teammates better off the field. In Tromsø, they have 24 hours of sunlight in the summer, which I experienced living in the North in Bodø last year. But it’s still a shock everytime you see it. We came outside at 3 am and it was completely light out, it’s really a weird feeling. It’s pretty unbelievable how far North Tromsø actually is. Its about 560 KM further North, than Bodø is. If you were to draw a line across the world to Canada, you would find yourself North of the Yukon Territories in the Beaufort Sea. Check out the map of Norway below:



On Sunday morning, we had a great breakfast at the hotel and I walked around the city with a few teammates, before we caught a taxi to the airport in the early afternoon. I got home at about 7 pm on Sunday and I was completely exhausted. It was definitely a long weekend. I’m really glad I got to check out Tromsø though, its always exciting to check out a new place. We now have the next two weeks off training and three weeks without any games. I’m looking forward to my time off, but I would rather continue training and playing! I’ll be looking to establish myself in the team when the season resumes and I’m looking forward to getting back to training already.

Robbie

Kjelsås IL

I have some very good news to report today. I signed with Kjelsås this week, the team that I have been training with since I arrived. The team plays in the Norwegian Second Division. I'm very excited about this opportunity and really happy to be joining the club. Since arriving I've been impressed with the quality of training and the way everyone at the club has treated me. All the players have made me very welcome and I'm hoping to play a lot of games for the club this season. It was my goal to sign with Second Division team this season, so I'm thrilled that I have done that and I'm looking forward to playing my first game for the club. I'm also really happy to be in Oslo, it's definitely a great place for me to be. Overall it's just a fantastic feeling to be signed with a Norwegian club again and to be back in Norway. I'm hoping to make the most of this opportunity.

Day in the city

I had the day off training today and decided to go into the city centre to have a look around and check things out. It was a really nice day today and I ended up going all over the city. I have the transit system all figured out now I think, but having said that next time I go into town, I’ll probably get lost! Anyways it was a good day, nice to relax and enjoy the beautiful city of Oslo. I walked around all the main shopping area and went in some of my favorite stores and FINALLY got my phone sorted out. For some reason my phone stopped working when I arrived in Norway and it’s been a huge hassle trying to get it sorted out. So I’m very happy to have it finally working again. After lunch, I walked up to the Royal Palace. It’s always exciting to see the Royal Palace and walk around that area. Then I went to a few random places I’ve never been to before and just walked around to try and find something exciting. In the summer in Norway, they have ski races on the streets, where the skiers have wheels on the skis. Not sure what this is called, but I randomly came across one of these races and watched for a bit. Looks fun, but like a lot of hard work. After that, I went to the Opera House. It was really nice there today, the weather was great and there were a lot of people walking around. I was hoping to get to Vigeland Park today, but I didn’t have time, so that will be my next day trip I think. Check out my photos from today below…

Vålerenga Vs Sarpsborg 08

Last night I went to a Tippeligaen (Premier League) game in the city, Vålerenga Vs Sarpsborg 08. It was at Ullevaal Stadion, home of Vålerenga and the Norwegian National team. It was a fun game to watch and it was nice to sit at pitch level behind the goal. Vålerenga won the match 2-0, it probably should have been more though. I really enjoyed watching Vålerenga play, the way they passed the ball around was great to watch. Lots of short passes and good movement from all the players, they rarely played a long ball in the air the entire game. Although the stadium was pretty far from full, the atmosphere was fantastic (I was sitting with the Vålerenga supporters). It was a good night overall and I'm sure I'll go to watch them play again soon. Check out my photos from the game below.