Offical - Columbus Crew

It has been a busy last week weeks. Sorry I have not written in a little over two weeks. I have been all over the east coast and have even switched teams. I will talk about that later.

A few weeks ago we (the Cleveland City Stars) went on a long and grueling road trip. We started in Charlotte, NC for a night with a host family and then left the following morning to Wilmington, NC for our game. We tied 2-2 and we could have totally score more. It was frustrating. The same night as the Wilmington game we drove back to Charlotte because we had a game the very next day.

After checking into our hotel at 3 am we were able to get a little bit of sleep. Before our game we had an unusual thing happen. We had chapel with the Charlotte Eagles the team we were playing. It was a unique experience as I had never done anything like it before. The game did not go as planned we totally dominated, but we lost 1-0. After the game I was able to meet up with a few friends, Lulu and Julia.

The Charlotte game was on a Saturday and we had an Open Cup game on Tuesday again the Richmond Kickers possibly the best team in our league. We happened to lose that games as well. It means we are out of the open cup.

In a week we drove 2200 miles in total. On Wednesday of this week I decided to switch teams and move to Columbus, OH and play for the Columbus Crew. It is a good opportunity for me. I arrived in Columbus on Wednesday night and was able to practice with them on Thursday morning. I have now signed everything I needed to sign and should be added to the roster on Tuesday July 3rd.

Overall, things are going really well. I would however like to ask for prayer requests. I need to find a host family down in Columbus in the next two weeks. I am getting paid more in Columbus than in Cleveland but I want to be able to interact and impact a family. So please pray that I can find on in the upcoming days.

Chicago

This weekend I was presented with a special offer as many of you have heard. I was put on loan to the Columbus Crew for a game against the Chicago Fire. I will start however, with what happened during the week leading up to the big weekend.

During the week I was able to work hard to earn a possible starting spot on the team. In practice I tried extra hard to make sure my coach saw a reason why I came to play in Cleveland.

My team also saw our reserve team leave for Haiti this week. I have been praying for a guy on the team who is struggling to find himself. He is hoping God will show him awesome things while down there. I am anxious to see how his life has change while in Haiti. It used to be the richest country in the western hemisphere at one time in history.

My team also went to Harrisburg, PA, which is about five hours away. We played a game on Saturday and I was able to start. I played 75 or 80 minutes and even had an assist. After the game we left to go back to Cleveland and got in around 3:30 am.

I left for the airport at 8:30 in the morning on Sunday to fly to Chicago to play for the Crew. Alissa and I went to the Columbus Crew vs. Chicago game and I had an all access pass to anywhere in the stadium.

Monday morning was the big game. I was not expecting to play a whole bunch. The coach called on me to start. I played the whole game at left back. I thought I played alright but new I could play a whole lot better. After the game the coach asked if I would be interested in coming and practicing with them or basically tryout. I said I would love to - so pray for me that when they watch the game tape they will see that I actually played really well. Oh yeah, Alissa was able to attend the game as well so we have some pictures if you would like to see.

It is amazing how up and down I could feel in just a few weeks. Until next time.

Andrew