History as Cascadia train for the first time ever
Gallery of Cascadia’s first training day
A football team representing the bio-region of Cascadia took the training field for first time ever today at 12.30 BST at Barnet FC’s Hive Stadium. Captain James Riley and coach James Nichols were joined by the rest of the squad, as well as representatives of the Cascadian FA.
Jet lag was apparent on some of the North American based players who had just flown in the night before, but many of the London based players looked chirpy and eager.
The field’s white lines were newly painted for Team Cascadia but while the painter was on form, a pothole in their training field had been missed by the groundsman. Luckily, team liaison officer Alastair Knell spotted it before the squad arrived and summoned the Hive groundsman to fill it in.
A very dangerous pothole had been missed by the Hive Groundsmen but not by CAFF Liaison officer Alastair Knell
The session started gently with some dribbling around cones as players loosened up. Then the triangle and passing routines took place as coach Nichols assessed his squad for the first time. Finally, the traditional end to any training session took place with the blue bibs taking on the red bibs.
By then Captain Cascadia James Riley was in blue and there was some speculation that the blue bibs might represent coach Nichols’ current thinking on his starting eleven. The session was not really long enough to give him too many pointers and as he admitted later, he may have to select his opening eleven “by reputation alone.” That augurs well for players like Corinthian Casuals Max Oldham and Josh Doughty.
By no means was Nichols talking it easy on the players though. After the initial passing and marking session, he stopped them and began his team talk with words that seemed to be aimed at the London based players:
“Some of you have traveled 5,6 or 7000 miles to be here, and they deserve better than to have you ……” – let’s just day the rest was inaudible.
As the team left though, there were smiles all round. Kitsap Pumas Hamza Haddadi expressed his delight at being here to represent Bremerton and the Kitsap Peninsula on the team
Kitsap Pumas Hamza Haddadi
There had been Captain James Riley doubts about an ankle issue with skipper Riley and he arrived with it secured inside a tight compression sock.
He trained gingerly at first but explained it was more to loosen up from the flight and very soon he was moving freely.
CAFF President Aaron Johnsen restated that Riley’s addition to the squad had been an enormous boost to Cascada both on and off the field, and Riley confirmed he was ready to play in tomorrows first game against Ellan Vannin.
In the end, none were prouder than James Riley who seemed to revel in being back in kit and out of the suit.
He talked of his time spent with younger players after retirement and to his credit, looked very fit, possibly even 2-3 pounds lighter than his MLS days.
Prost will be live tweeting all Cascadia’s games from London. Please follow us here.
Captian Cascadia James Riley
