Apropos of nothing, the boy and I are back from Madrid. Beat a first division club from Argentina (Argentinos Juniors) and a local team from Madrid (Alcobendas Levitt), drew the mighty Krasnador from Russian premier league 0-0 (they had at least four 6-footers on a U14 team, lost to Atleti 3-0 (a heroic result) had narrow 1-0 defeats to Stabaek (Bob Bradley was not there) and IFK Lidingo (many, many large Swedes) and when the boys were mentally and physically spent got blown out by a club team from Montreal (True North Soccer).
The starters walked out for each game to the Champions League music and I've attached a picture of my son (#9) getting what he described as the hardest high fives of his entire life from the Atleti boys...