July 23, 2008

LMU goalkeeper Patrick Lane is spending the month of July in Europe, training with Cercle Brugge of the Belgian Jupiler League (the country's top level). He will check in periodically throughout his training.

I am currently in Brugge, in Belgium, training with Cercle Brugge, a team in the top flight of Belgian soccer. Things are going well. At the beginning of July, I flew from LA to England, where I met up with the team in Blackburn. I spent a week of two sessions a day with them last week in Blackburn, and they asked me to travel back to Brugge and spend two more weeks training with them.

Training has been different than it is in the United States. The sessions are hard with a lot of running but also plenty of time is spent with the ball in order to develop technical ability. The players are all friendly and all speak very good English, which is very helpful for me. The level of play is very good with some quality players but I feel like I am keeping pace. All the people are friendly and have made my experience so far very enjoyable.

I am staying with a guest family at the moment. Both of the parents are English teachers so their English is also very good. Everyone in the family is a huge Cercle Brugge supporter so having a player who is training with the team, especially an American, living with them is a huge honor for them.

My legs are tired from the training but I'm learning so many new things. Some things I would love to take back to LMU to share with the program and others that will forever stay in Belgium, for the good of everyone. I'm definitely looking forward to the preseason back at school and hoping that everyone is training and keeping in good shape because I want big things this year for the Lions.