Oslo

I’ve arrived back in Norway and it feels great to be back. Hard to believe I’ve already been gone for a week, it’s flown by. Right now I’m in Oslo (Capital city of Norway) and I really like it here. Anyways, I guess I will start from the beginning of my trip. I flew from Vancouver to Manchester and had a pretty good flight. Over the years I’ve had many LONG trips with lots of flight connections, so it’s always a treat to fly directly to Europe. I flew Air Transat and there wasn’t a great deal of room and unfortunately my TV screen didn’t work, but those are my only complaints. Luckily I had some DVD’s with me and I watched Braveheart, one of my favorite movies. I hardly slept, maybe 45 minutes all together, so I was pretty tired when I arrived in England. Of course as soon as I landed it started to rain and I hopped on a train to Crewe. I lived in Crewe for around a year and have also spent a lot of time there over the years. I used to spend most of my summer holidays training with Crewe Alexandra FC, so it was nice to be back there. I stayed with one of my friends and former teammates and it was great to see him and catch up a bit. It was a short visit though, as I was heading back to Manchester airport early on Tuesday morning, to catch my flight to Oslo.

It was a really nice feeling to get back to Norway. I got dropped off where I’m staying and was told I had about 45 minutes until I would be picked up for my first training. I was exhausted and fell asleep for about 20 minutes, before going to train. My legs were heavy and I felt pretty jet jagged, but it was good having my first training session with the team. Throughout the week I started to feel better and better, and I think its safe to say I’m over the jet lag now. Training has been good and everyone at the club has been very welcoming, I really like it here. I remember last year, when I arrived for my first session with a Norwegian club, I felt so foreign and I had no idea what was being said on the field. Of course, I still feel like a foreigner and I don’t know much Norwegian, but I noticed right away this time I knew exactly what was going on during training and for the most part what the players/coaches were saying. This was definitely a good feeling for me, because it can be very hard when you're trying to translate in the middle of a training session.

In my spare time this week, I’ve been doing a lot of resting. I have gone into the city centre a few times. Oslo is a beautiful city and I really like it here. I visited here for a weekend last year, so I know my way around a little bit. I haven’t gotten very lost yet and luckily the city centre is only about 6 train stops away from where I’m staying. It’s very easy to get around with trains, busses and trams all over the place. One thing about Oslo, that has been very nice for me is the amount English is spoken everywhere. When I was up North in Bodø last year, it was a much smaller town and everyone spoke good English for the most part when they needed to. But it was rare to see anyone speaking English, unless they were talking to me. But with Oslo being a bigger city, people seem to be speaking English everywhere, which is really helpful for me. I really hope to learn more Norwegian this time around though. I can understand a lot of the very basic things and most things on the soccer field. But it would definitely be nice to be able to speak some more of the language and get a better understanding of it. So I’m going to have to work hard at it. I’ll write another update in the next couple of days & try to get some pictures up at some point.

Robbie

Returning to Norway!

Okay, so its been a while since I've updated this... But I finally have some exciting news to report. I'm heading back to Norway this weekend! I'm flying to Manchester on Saturday and will spend a few days in Crewe (Where I used to live), before flying to Oslo on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to getting back to Europe and especially returning to Norway. I have some great friends there and really enjoyed playing there last year, so I think its going to be a fun summer. I can't wait to get to on the field there again, will write again soon with an update.

February 2011

The last month or so has been pretty busy for me. I’m still home in White Rock and keeping myself fit and ready for future opportunities. In January I spent some time on trial with North American Soccer League club FC Edmonton. It was a good experience and I had a good trial. It was my first time in Edmonton and the weather was challenging at -27 degrees C, but luckily we were training indoors. After my trial I headed down to Ventura, California where I attended the Portland Timbers Invitational Player Combine. It was another good experience and a good chance for me to test myself against other North American players. Again I felt like I played well and was happy with my performance. I feel positive about both of these experiences.

I thoroughly enjoyed my experience of playing and living in Norway and I feel certain that playing in Europe again is definitely something I will pursue in the future. I may play in North America this season, because as the game continues to grow, there are more and more opportunities here for young players like me. It would be nice to play a bit closer to home for a while after spending a few years overseas, for a while anyways. Having said that, if a good opportunity was to come up in Europe, I would get on a plane tomorrow. So the main thing for me right now is to try and keep all of my options open and keep myself fit and ready to go, for when the right opportunity comes up. I am certainly looking forward to getting into pre-season with a team soon and getting back into that routine of training with a pro club everyday.

Other than training, I have continued to keep busy coaching for my old club, Peace Arch SC. It’s a really fun job and I love being out on the field everyday. There is a lot of excitement around the club these days, because as some of you may know, the club has applied for a new HPL (High Performance League) Franchise. If the club were to get one of the eight franchises, it would be huge for soccer in this community. The club would be called South Fraser Soccer Club. So fingers crossed that they are selected.

Will write an update soon,

Robbie

Home in Canada

I am currently home in Canada and enjoying a nice break from playing. Hard to believe that my season ended about two months ago, time is flying! It’s been so great for me to be able to spend some time at home and be with my family/friends. I have spent most of the past two and half years in Europe, only getting home for a few weeks at a time for the Christmas and Summer holidays, so its been a really nice break for me so far. I have been coaching for my old club, Peace Arch SC almost everyday which I’m really enjoying. I love being out on the field everyday and working with different youth teams, especially since it is the club I used to play for. I have also been training with my old team, which has been fun. I have mainly been focusing on getting myself into the gym on a regular basis and trying to improve my strength. I have been doing well with it since I got back and have been going at least 4-5 times a week. As we approach the New Year, I plan to keep training hard to get myself ready for next season.

I can’t believe Christmas and 2011 are just around the corner already. There are some really exciting things coming up for me in the New Year; I can’t write about them yet but keep checking back for updates. I will try to update the blog a lot more often from now on.

I have been receiving a lot of questions lately about what it’s like playing in Europe and I am more than happy to answer your questions. So if you’re a young player out there and you have any questions for me about playing abroad or soccer in general, please send me an email at robbie.tice@mac.com I will do my best to answer your questions! Also feel free to leave some comments on the blog, its always good to hear from my readers.

Robbie.

End of Season

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me, the season is now wrapped up and I’m writing this while sitting on a plane heading back to Canada. I can’t believe how quickly time has gone by and that it’s now October. By the time I post this on the blog, I will be sitting in my own room!

We ended up finishing in 2^nd Place in our division, one point behind the top team. It was disappointing because we had it in our hands two weeks ago; all we had to do was not lose any of our remaining games. But unfortunately that's the way it goes sometimes. In my final game for the club, I had a great game. We were away to Meløy FK and I started at right wing. I started the game strong, setting up a few chances before getting an assist from a cross. In the second half, I scored my first goal for the club. It was a great feeling to finally get my name on the score sheet. The game finished up 10-0, which was a totally deserved result for the team. I was named as the game’s second best player in the newspaper the next day, so I was pretty happy. After I scored my goal, my teammates were happy to remind me of a deal, that I made with them when I first arrived. I made the mistake of saying when I scored my first goal for the team; I would sing the Canadian national anthem for everyone. They were very quick to point this out to me after I scored! So on the bus trip home, I had to stand in the middle of the bus and sing “Oh Canada” for everybody. It was pretty embarrassing!

Following the game vs Meloy, I had a couple more days in Bodø of training and I tried to enjoy it as much as possible. I had a really good time with some of my friends from the team and a great final night in Bodø on Saturday. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, because I ended up making some great friends on the team, who I hope to see again soon. The experience overall was a great one and I would probably say my favorite experience of playing in Europe so far. Norway is a great country and I felt very at home there. When I got on the train to leave Bodø on Sunday morning, I felt a lot of different emotions. I was happy and excited to be heading for home, but at the same time I was sad to see the end of my season and to have to say goodbye to my friends there for now.

It’s going to be great to spend some time at home now during the off-season. I feel happy with what I have accomplished this year. There is no doubt in my mind that the time I spent training in Bodø for the last 5 months has helped me improve as a player a great deal. Now that I have some time off, I don’t plan to sit around and do nothing. I will probably take a week or so off before getting back into training. I want to return for pre-season next year stronger and more prepared then ever.

I will continue to update my blog while I’m home and write about what I’ve been doing while home, as well as stuff that I didn’t get a chance to write about while I was in Norway, so keep checking back. It has been a great year for me in Norway and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

Robbie.

Update

The last couple of days here have been pretty good. We had the day off today, as we usually do Sundays, which was nice. I had a pretty relaxing day and then went to watch the First team play against Sandnes ULF tonight. I thought Bodø/Glimt was easily going to win this one, but they ended up losing 2-1, after going up 1-0 in the first half.

We had pretty light training yesterday (Saturday morning) and Friday afternoon. On Thursday night we played against Fauske/Sprint. It was a big game for us because we had the chance to get a lead in the standings, but unfortunately we lost 3-1. Fauske were a decent team, one of the better teams we have played this year and they had some good players. In the end they finished their chances and deserved to win the game. We are now sitting in Second place, one point behind Stålkameratene; with 3 games each to go. It's going to be a close and interesting end to the season. We were supposed to play a game tomorrow night, but I've been told it is now postponed until Wednesday, because of a problem with the lights at the other teams field.

Below are some pictures I took from the First team's game tonight VS Sandnes ULF.

Game Vs. FK Herøy/Dønna

Yesterday we beat FK Herøy/Donna 5-0 at home, to stay in first place in our division. It's a good result for the team and we now have only four games remaining this season. We have a busy week coming up, with our last away games of the season. We play Thursday against FK Fauske/Sprint and also Monday against Meløy FK. Fauske is pretty close to here, about an hour away; but Meløy is a bit of a long trip, a couple of hours each way I think.

It is also a busy week for the first team, they have home games on Wednesday and Sunday, which I'm looking forward to watching. They also won tonight, 1-0 to stay in 5th place and inside the playoff zone in the First Division. I just found out we have an early morning training session tomorrow (08:15), so I better wrap this up. I'll write again during the week and try and get some more pictures up...

Robbie.