IWU Women's Soccer Travels to Europe

Titans and FC Puchheim (Germany)

IWU soccer team at fortress in Salzburg

Titans and Sparta Prague

Titans and USK Hof

June 8 - Email from Caroline Leighton, IWU team co-captain
Before leaving the Czech Republic, we stopped at the Pilsner Urquell Brewery for lunch and a tour of the brewery.  It was neat to see how the whole process works.  In Germany, we stayed in a nice little village about half an hour outside of Munich.
On Friday, we toured Munich with a guide so famous that he was actually in the travel guide that one of the girl's fathers brought on the trip!
After lunch, we went to the Allianz Arena, which is where FC Bayern Munich plays.  All of the girls were really excited about getting a tour of the arena, including seeing the locker rooms and coming up the tunnel that leads to the field.
We were all excited to sleep in a bit on Saturday, not having to leave for a tour of a concentration camp until 1 pm.  Dachau was the first German concentration camp, and I think that it is safe to say that walking around Dachau put some things in perspective for us.
From Dachau, we headed to Puchheim for our last game.  We ended up winning the game 3-1!  We were all very happy to end our trip with a record of 2-1.  After the game, we spent some time with the other team, eating and socializing.  The atmosphere was very similar to that of the one after our first game.
All in all, it was a great trip: we played some soccer, toured some fantastic sites, ate some delicious food, and made some great memories!

June 4 - Email from Tina Rodriguez, IWU team co-captain
Our trip abroad is going well.  We are currently in Prague and we head tomorrow to Munich, where we will be for three nights before heading back home to Chicago.

We spent three nights in Salzburg where we played against USK Hof.  We beat them 4-3!  The team played really well and we had a lot of fun.  Our first European game was great and we were able to socialize with the team after the game.  We asked them what they liked to do and how long they have played soccer.  They spoke very little English.  Our tour guide translated most of the conversation.

We traveled all over Salzburg, with tours of the city and we took a day long "Sound of Music" tour.  That was personally my favorite part of the trip.  We were able to see many of the sights where the movie was filmed.  The girls had a great time and so did the parents.

We arrived in Prague on Sunday and yesterday we went to the Prague Castle, the largest ancient castle in the world.  We took a tour around that and went all around the city.  Last night we played against Sparta Prague, the best women's soccer team in Czech.  We played hard but lost 8-0.  They were really good - they had six or seven national team players on that team.  It was a good learning experience for all of us and we had fun, even though they were really good.

Today, we had a free day and we did a lot of shopping around the city and saw some sites, including the Jewish quarter of the town.

We are heading to Munich tomorrow - a six-hour bus ride.  We are stopping at the brewery on the way which should be very cool.  Everyone is having a great time.  We play our last game on Saturday night against a Munich club team.  Hopefully we can come out with two wins on this trip!

May 31
The Illinois Wesleyan women's soccer team defeated USK Hof, 4-3, in Salzburg, Austria, on May 31 as part of a tour of Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. IWU goals came from Tori Samson, Elizabeth Sinclair, Alyssa Fuelner and Beth Talentowski.
USK Hof is a team from the German Second Division.

May 29-June 8, 2008

The Illinois Wesleyan women's soccer team will travel to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic to play three exhibition games from May 29-June 8.
The Titans, who last traveled abroad in 2005, will play USK Hof in Salzburg, Austria on May 31; Sparta Prague in Prague, Czech Republic on June 3; and FC Puchheim in Munich, Germany on June 7.
In addition to the games, the women will enjoy sightseeing in the Bavarian Alps, take a "Sound of Music" tour, guided tours of Prague and Munich and a visit to Dachau, the former Nazi concentration camp.