Thursday 19th April

Today we visited the electronics market in the morning. The boys found some bargains with almost all of them buying some Beats – by Dr Dre headphones which were a lot cheaper than back home. The electronic markets are a few buildings full of every sort of electronic product you can think of.

Our host Li Jing and myself found ourselves being whisked away to a secret back street location for some DVD shopping! So I ended up with a few bargains myself. Fingers crossed they actually work.

After our morning shop it was time to head out to the stadium for a round robin competition with 4 other Chengdu teams. There was a purse of 600RMB (about $100AUD) up for grabs but it wasn’t to be our day with the Chengdu teams again proving too strong. Our first game was against the university No.1 team. We had employed some new tactics and were defeated but there was a definite improvement on the last two days games.

We lowered the margin again vs the 2nd university team this time going down 4 to nil. Finding scoring chances against such quick and smart opposition was proving difficult especially since a lot of our focus has been on our defence. Then finally we had a win! Beating the referee representative team 2 to nil. If felt good to finally put a couple in the back of the net.

The last game was against the police team where we went down 3 to nil. By this stage the boys were feeling the pinch of 3 tough games previous but all put in a valiant effort to keep the deficit so low. After returning home it was time to head out for dinner.

Those of us who were brave enough did as the Chinese do and ate at a local restaurant. With no English in the menus and no English speaking staff it was a case of point at the picture and hope for the best!! There were some delicious flavours in what we got but it was spicy to the max. With two of our dishes we also had no idea what the proteins were in them so I guess you could say we really did have an authentic China experience tonight! Needless to say we were all feeling the spice a little and enjoyed some much needed ice cream after to soothe the burn.

Friday 20th April

Today started with a visit to some alternative souvenir markets. The first ones we went to on Wednesday were a little more up our alley so we finished up there early and went to some local sports stores instead before heading back to the hotel before another big afternoon of Futsal. This afternoon the university team and police team were back to take us on. Again focusing on our defence and trying to employ some tactics to slow the teams down and take out the speed in their attack we had some promising signs throughout the first game managing to put away a couple goals.

The fitness and speed of the university team got over us by the end going down 2 – 4 but it was by far our best performance so far using some better rotations and looking more dangerous heading towards goals. Our second game was vs the police team who beat us 3 to nil yesterday. Today the margin was the same but it was a totally different game. Half way through the game we were level pegging at 2 all and we were creating more and more chances to score. Even though we lost 5 – 2 in the end this game was the best of the tour so far and today we had the best results which will see us move toward the Foshan Cup in Guangzhou knowing we can convert our chances and defend well for long periods of time.

For dinner it was a case of eat where we’d fit as Friday nights seem to be a little busier in town we couldn’t all fit at any one place. The majority of the boys hit up Pizza Hut but Daniel, Caleb and myself were on a mission to find some real Chinese food that wouldn’t burn a hole through our stomach lining. Hallelujah! We found just the place. It was the best Chinese I’ve ever had. Tasted like back home but better. Delicious flavours and the perfect amount of spice, we’ll definitely be going back there! It’s off to a theme park tomorrow. The boy are all looking forward to that.

Stay tuned for further updates.