Full House

The team's hotel is busy tonight as Jamaica and Honduras both arrived this afternoon ahead of Friday's Group A games. The lobby is even more raucous now than it was before, but everyone is getting along just fine.

Have we mentioned that the lobby is the only place to get the wireless signal? It's also the only place we know of that has three songs on constant repeat. All. The. Time. Beware that if you're online for hours at a time (the YNT Blog knows a little something about this) that you will hear the same three island songs on repeat for the duration. We have absolutely nothing against island music, quite the contrary, we rather enjoy it. But we just know that there are more great songs than these three!

Small Complaint

When your meal room looks like this.....

....it's hard to complain when small birds take a liking to abandoned food. Can you see him in that picture below, just perched up on that chair? He's waiting to take a drink from some fruit punch or pineapple juice that an unsuspecting member of our delegation left on the table when he returned to the buffet.

Well Taken Care Of

Since the U-20s have returned to the same hotel we stayed in about six weeks ago, we have been greeted by many of the hotel staff like old friends. Everyone from the waitstaff in the meal room to the people at the front desk and the bus drivers have all made us feel at home. It's nice to feel like that when we're so far from home and we very much appreciate the hospitality.

Training in Tobago

Today's training was quite... interactive? Some local residents were very curious about the U.S. team and stayed to watch training. Overall, training was lively in the warm, humid evening...

Coach Mulqueen gives some goalkeeping tips to kids


Coach Maisonneuve leading the warm up run


Another small-sided game broke out on the sidelines


Players listen intently to Coach Rongen


Davies showing good form


Dusk hit the field...


....Right at the same time as the sunset




Mookie laughs at some of the younger kids we met today before playfully squirting them with water

Sorry to our Fans in the Northeast...

We know that a lot of you are experiencing some harsh winter weather, and for that we are sorry. But we have to share the beauty of Tobago. The beach is really, really close to the hotel, so close that we can practically jump into the ocean from the balconies in our rooms. This picture is from our balcony...

This morning, to shake out the tiredness that sometimes comes with a day of travel, the team went for a scenic jog and stretch on the beach.

The highlight of the morning was assistant coach Dave Dir randomly deciding to tackle his roommate, assistant coach Juan Carlos Michia, into the water while he was stretching. Even though Dir took a running start, it was a friendly tackle and no one was hurt:

Tobago's Dry Season... Not So Dry

Well, it’s technically the dry season here in Tobago, but we woke up this morning to some light rain that seemed to have been a continuation from some overnight rain. The rain actually felt nice in the humid climate and it was gone by 10 a.m., clearing the way for sunshine and heat that seems as though it's going to stick around for the rest of the day...

Second Opponent Set

The U.S. has learned its second opponent for the CONCACAF U-20 Championship after Honduras topped St. Vincent & the Grenadines 3-1 in Trinidad this evening.

St. Vincent took a surprising 1-0 lead on a penalty kick, but they couldn't hang on. So now, the Group A Schedule looks like this:

Friday, March 6
USA vs. Jamaica
El Salvador vs. Honduras

Sunday, March 8
USA vs. Honduras
Jamaica vs. El Salvador

Tuesday, March 10
USA vs. El Salvador
Jamaica vs. Honduras

Not a Bad Ad

We came across this ad for the CONCACAF U-20 Championship - With T&T playing in Group B on the island of Trinidad, we're hopeful that the local Tobagoans to come out in support of the U.S.!

Close Quarters

The U.S. team in its ever-present search for internet, might just make some new friends in Tobago thanks to the wireless that is limited to the lobby area of our hotel. Americans apparently aren't the only ones reliant on being connected - Nearly 100% of the El Salvador players have congregated in the lobby to get online. It's quite the sight, as 40 players are filling every chair trying to reach out.

Ownby's Travel Day

We asked forward Brian Ownby to take us through what turned out to be quite a travel day from Miami to Trinidad to Tobago.


We woke up early and therefore we were all very excited to sleep on the plane. Once we hurried to check in all of our bags, the team bags and all the people, it was time to… wait in the terminal for a little while.

We finally got on the plane to Port of Spain and sat there for a while. I don’t know what happened because I fell asleep as soon as I got to my seat. Then when I woke up we were still on the ground. That’s when I knew it was going to be a long day.

I didn’t sleep the rest of the flight. My neck was sore from the chair and I just could not fall back to sleep. I tried everything – listening to music, everything.

So, I turned on my computer to watch a movie and realized I didn’t charge it all the way. Ten minutes into Stepbrothers my computer shut down. So then I went to my back up plan and pulled up my PSP to play FIFA.

Shortly after that, they came around with drinks and food. I was soooo hungry, so this was good news. Much to my dismay, I found out that the food cost money. We ended up not eating anything for the four-hour trip. I don’t think we realized that it would be so long before we got to the airport in Trinidad.

We landed and went through immigration. That took forever and we weren’t sure if one player was going to make it through because he had left his passport on the plane. Finally though, we were all legal visitors in Trinidad & Tobago.

Now, I had filled out my immigration form in pencil because I had given my pen away to someone else for their form. I had been so excited to be at the front of the line only to find out I had to go all the way to the back to re-do it in pen.

We found out we missed our original flight because of our delay, so we sat around for about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get to Tobago… it was so hot and muggy at the airport we were just sweating. Once we figured out our next flight we went to get food and I went straight for Church’s Chicken. It took forever to get that meal, and by then I was starving.

I didn’t think I’d get on the next flight because my name is low in the alphabet. But all of the sudden Marcus came over and told me I was on! I looked at the boarding time on my new boarding pass and panicked! I thought I was going to be late so I gave some of my food away to other players. I went through “security” in the “domestic terminal” and it was kind of funny. I kept my drink – the guy made me take one sip to prove it wasn’t a deadly liquid and then let me through. Needless to say it was much faster than U.S. security.

I sat down on the tiny plane and I was in row 14, which I thought would be all the way in the back so I walked through the entire plane. I got back there and realized that it only went up to 13 and that for some reason I had the very front seat. It was odd because I was facing backwards and staring at everyone the whole flight. It was a little awkward sitting and directly facing this guy who just kept talking.

The flight itself wasn’t bad. I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t lean back and the guy across from me couldn’t stop talking, but, it must have been the shortest flight I’ve ever been on – 20 minutes is a pretty quick trip.

We finally arrived at the hotel, and it is beautiful. Unfortunately there is no internet in the rooms, so that’s unfortunate. I tried calling the front desk to ask about it and then my phone stopped working halfway through the call. So, then we had to get that fixed. Overall though it’s a beautiful hotel and we are excited to be here.

By the time we settled in and ate dinner, I was so hungry. All I wanted to do was eat. I was having a nice time, enjoying meal and next thing we knew there was screaming and chanting coming from the pool nearby. Apparently El Salvador has settled in nicely and they were quite loud. But now that we’re here and unwinding, we are getting rested up and ready to go.

It's Cold in Miami (Not Really)

You can tell we've been spoiled when 60 degrees is enough to make us shiver... those were the harsh conditions we faced today during a scrimmage against Canada -- 60 degrees, windy and cloudy. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Yea, we know, we're just rubbing it in....

Nice Close Ups

As you can see, we are staying quite close to the Miami airport and there are a LOT of big planes flying around these parts. Inside the hotel we can't hear them much at all, but once we step outside it looks and sounds like they're heading right for us. The above picture was taken from the hotel's pool deck (we didn't use a zoom lens or anything!)