🇳🇱🏑 SOUTHGATE JUNIORS TAKE ON AMSTERDAM!
25 of our Southgate juniors and their parents have headed to Amsterdam for a hockey-packed few days at the World Cup, led by Director of Hockey Chris Pearce and one of our Junior Lead Coaches, Alex James!
✈️ FRIDAY | AMSTERDAM ADVENTURES
The group kicked off the trip with a canal boat tour, a walk through Amsterdam and dinner at Foodhallen.
🏑 SATURDAY | WORLD CUP DAY
Saturday was all about the hockey, with three World Cup matches and 15 goals!
🇵🇰 Pakistan 4–3 Japan 🇯🇵
🇳🇱 Netherlands 3–1 India 🇮🇳
🏴 England 1–3 Argentina 🇦🇷
There was also a special Southgate reunion as former Southgate player Will Calnan caught up with our juniors after the game. The group also got the chance to meet, chat to and collect autographs from a number of the England and Argentina players.
🏑🎢 SUNDAY | TRAINING + THEME PARK
Sunday started back on the pitch with a brilliant training session coached by Kasper, Head Coach at Pinoké, alongside Yves from Goalieworks.com.
Then it was sticks down and rollercoasters on for an afternoon at Duinrell theme park, before rounding off another great day with an Italian dinner!
🔥 MONDAY | A BIG DAY AHEAD!
Another huge World Cup day for our Southgate juniors — and another Southgate connection on the world stage!
🇳🇿 First up, New Zealand!
The group were cheering on recent Southgate player James Hickson, who helped New Zealand to a brilliant 4–2 win over Pakistan. Even better, James came over to meet the Southgate group afterwards for a catch-up and photos.
Next up was another goal-filled game, with Argentina coming out on top in an eight-goal thriller.
🇦🇷 Argentina 5–3 India 🇮🇳
Then came the big one — England against the hosts!
🏴 England 2–2 Netherlands 🇳🇱
An amazing atmosphere inside the stadium and a brilliant game of hockey finished 2–2, with the Southgate contingent right in the middle of the action supporting England.
And, of course, no World Cup day would be complete without some serious autograph hunting and plenty of photos with the players afterwards!
Another pretty special day in Amsterdam — world-class hockey, brilliant memories and a Southgate face on the pitch too.
And just like that, an amazing few days in Amsterdam came to an end! ❤️🖤
🏑 ONE FINAL TRAINING SESSION
We finished the trip exactly as you’d expect — back on the hockey pitch!
Our juniors headed to Hockeyclub AMVJ for their second training session of the tour, where we were brilliantly hosted by Bloemendaal 1st team goalkeeper Sofie and Pinoké Junior Director Steven.
A fantastic opportunity for the group to learn from some brilliant hockey people and squeeze in one last session before heading home.
🧳 THEN IT WAS HOME TIME…
After checking out of the hotel at lunchtime, there was time for one final team meal together before heading to the airport and back to London.
What a trip!
World Cup hockey, training sessions, international players, Southgate reunions, autographs, rollercoasters, sightseeing, team meals and plenty of memories along the way.
A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the trip happen, and especially to Chris Pearce and Alex James for leading our group of juniors and parents throughout the tour.
