First off, in response to several requests, here is a website for my club, http://cbalcobendas.es/20a/ All of the information is in Spanish, but google will help you translate it into something a bit more legible.
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, each one of these days during the past week shares something in common and that something is GAME DAY! Yes, we had 4 games this past week, 2 practices and a day at the spa;)
Wednesday’s game took place in Madrid against a team called, Rivasecopolis. If you are so inclined to look them up you can find them at www.basketrivasecopolis.com/plantilla.htm. Anybody remember a player named Crystal Langhorne? She is my age, played at Maryland and now plays for the Washington Mystics, anyway, this is her team but unfortunately she wasn’t present due to her responsibilities in the WNBA. I am proud to report that the final score of the game was Rivas 69 and Alcobendas 67. We were down by 10 pts at the half and came back in the second half to win both the 3rd and 4th quarters, coming up just short. One big difference between teams in the first division and those in the 2nd division is height. Madre Mia (mamma mia en espanol), I walked into the gym and was confronted with some tall timbers. Almost every player was between 6’1 and 6’5 and the post players were not just there for their height. No, they could dribble, move with ease and shoot from not only midrange but also comfortably from 3.
Game number two ended in our favor, but against another D2 team. Nothing too exciting occurred during this game. There were no yelling matches between coaches and referees or cheap shots given. My coach this year, Charly, is a complete 360 from my first coach in Switzerland. Sure, he yells and swears and even has some physical gestures of his own, but he is a great coach and runs a very professional ship.
I am still in shock from game number 3. The final score was 91-45 and we were on the losing end. How did we lose by a margin of 46 points, I will tell you. Going into the game I knew who we were playing, Perfumerias Avenida Salamanca. I knew that they play Euro League, which is the most competitive league in all of Europe. I knew that they played in the championship game of Euro League last year against Spartek, but lost by about 25pts. However, do you know who plays for Spartek? http://www.eurobasket.com/team.asp?Cntry=RUSSIA&Team=7635&Page=4 Here is a link with past players, some of whom are the greats, Lisa Leslie, Tina Thompson, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, and Tamika Catchings. So, we were up against some serious players. I honestly felt like a little girl playing amongst women. They were so much bigger, faster and stronger than each and every one of us. They beat us on backdoors, they hit pull-up threes in transition, their shake and bakes left us standing out around the perimeter while they scored time and time again, in truth, they sliced through our defense like a hot knife through butter. I am not sure what my stats were, I think I had 9 or 10 pts, several TOs and a few boards. Even though we got spanked, I thoroughly enjoyed playing against these women and wish that I could compete against them more often. One could only learn and improve from watching and competing against athletes such as these.
 |
| My teammates in the stands. The 4th game was almost a bit more encouraging. We played another D1 team called, Celta. After my teammate Ali swished a half-court shot to beat the buzzer, I looked up at the score board and smiled as I saw that we were tied, 35 all. Basketball is a tale of two halves, no? I am not too sure what came over my team during the 2nd half, but whatever it was, it was not good. Our starting pt. guard, my roommate, Sara Castrillo went down with what seems to be a minor knee injury and we started to turn the ball over at an alarming rate. The final score was around 83 to 54, an improvement from the day before, nonetheless. I played pretty well during this game. I am not sure what my stats were exactly, but they were definitely better than the previous day. |
 |
| Sarah and I with Amya. |
After our game, we stayed and watched the championship game between Salamanca and the team we played during the week, Rivas. Salamanca won. Since it was a friendly tournament, that we were hosting, there were tapas being served throughout the course of the day. I joined my teammates for a few tasty treats and then had the pleasure of meeting a woman named, Amaya Valdemoro. Amaya played for 5 years for the Houston Comets and now plays D1 for Ros Casares Valencia. She is the best player in Spain. After meeting Amaya, I was relaxed and having a leisurely conversation with one of my teammates when all of a sudden our team president takes my arm and introduces me to a man with a tape recorder. The next thing I knew was I being interviewed and there was no where to run and no one to help me! I furrowed my brow and turned on my selective hearing so that all I heard were the stream of words flowing from the stranger in-front of me. I more or less answered each question and came out of the situation unscathed, alive and breathing;) Perhaps I should view this surprise attack that was well executed by my president as a compliment, ha.
 |
| Left to right, Angie, Marta, Sheila, Alicia, Sarah Crooks, Vicente (president), Ana, Me, Sara Castrillo. |
Anyway, that about does it for this week. I do, however, have a couple more details for you. Perhaps I should start calling this part of my e-mail, “Leslie’s Loose Ends?” Any other name suggestions will be highly appreciated and given much consideration.
-Spanish weddings do not include brides maids who are all wearing the same, uniform dress. Instead, color and variety are highly encouraged.
-The spaniards who I have met have a difficult time with pronouncing the letter Y. So, when my teammate was calling me a Junkee, all I could say was “Ha, do you know what a junkee means in my language? Someone who does drugs.” Well, then we figured out that what she was trying to call me was a Yankee! Hahaha, I laughed pretty hard over this one.
-The European Championships are going on right now for Men’s basketball and so I have had the opportunity to watch teammates Ricky Rubio, Paul and Marc Gasol play against Turkey and Turkoglu and tonight in the finals against Serbia. Let me tell you, there are some Spanish announcers that could give Dick Vitale a run for his money. When anyone hits a 3pointer the announcers unload a series of short, boisterous sounds, “tra tra tra tra tra tra tra tra!” I asked my teammate what the meaning of this was and she told me that this sound is supposed to resemble that of a machine gun, I still don’t really see the connection. The shooter is on fire? It’s raining 3’s?
-I ate something interesting this week during tapas...Orejas de cerdo, otherwise known as, pig ears. Many people like them, but I have come to the conclusion that cartilage is not my thing.
-Spa day was fun. We spent the afternoon walking on stones, wearing swim caps, riding water slides and sitting in steam rooms.
I’ve only seen men playing it, but they hit a tennis ball against this enormous wall that is like a carbon copy of the Green Monster. It’s like a combination between that game we all played when we were kids, wall ball, and tennis.
Ok, he terminado!
besitos (kisses, everyone says this in Madrid right before hanging up the phone or parting ways),
Leslie
No comments:
Post a Comment