After a long day of travel, we are in El Salvador now and the team is getting ready for the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League metting with Metapan Tuesday night.
The day on Sunday started with a flight from San Jose to Houston, where we met up with more members of the support staff. The team was still pretty exuberant over their 1-0 win over the Earthquakes on Saturday. They are now in playoff position at 7-8-4. Who would have thought 3 weeks ago that they'd be sitting in this position? But they are after going unbeaten in their last four league matches and their last six overall.
On the field, you likely saw how Blaise Nkufo and Alvaro Fernandez mixed with the team. Off the field, it's been even better. Nkufo has spent a good portion of his time cracking jokes with teammates and seems to be making a great transition into the team. Fernandez has, naturally, been spending much of his time with the Spanish-speaking players, primarily Fredy Montero, and looks like he is getting comfortable even after just a few days with the club.
Now, after a 2 hour layover in Houston, the team took off for El Salvador. After what turned out to be a quick flight, we were greeted at the airport by several members of ECS who flew in earlier through Miami. It's always nice to hear the supporters in full song before we can even see them while we are waiting at customs. Pretty remarkable. Not sure any other team in the league has that kind of support.
We took a short bus ride to our hotel, where there is an armed guard out front ... only made me a little bit nervous.
So far, it's been pretty cool, though I don't plan on venturing out of the hotel too much. We'll see.
