Wisconsin Soccer Central

University of Wisconsin men's assistant coach Stan Anderson (UW-Parkside) is the goalkeeper coach for the Chicago Fire Academy, which is in Qatar for the third annual Al Kass International Cup. He will be writing a blog for Wisconsin Soccer Central during the event. Here's his first installment:

Hello United States.

After a long day of traveling via Qatar Airways from Chicago to Doha, Qatar we have all settled into the Ritz Carlton Doha. Let's explain the event and recap the day.

The Chicago Fire 16s, or birthdate 1998s, have been invited to one of the most prestigious youth tournaments in the world: The Al Kass International Cup in Doha, Qatar, site of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Thanks to Fire owner Andrew Hauptman for putting the Chicago Fire Academy in this situation.

Remember we are 9 hours ahead of Central time, so our game against Aspire Qatar on Tuesday at 5:35 p.m. Arabic time will be at 8:35 a.m. Central. Live stream

Twenty players and eight staff met at Toyota Park at 3:30 p.m. Saturday for the journey to O'Hare. Kudos to Kyle Retzlaff (Brookfield East), the CFA player development manager and staff coach, for organizing the 15 massive bags of gear we will need during our nine- to 13-day stay in Doha. Kyle and CFA head coach Larry Sunderland, a Milwaukee Wave alum, traveled here a day early for technical meetings. Once we loaded the gear on to the bus, we headed to O'Hare to check in for our 8:10 p.m. flight.

At O'Hare, the traveling staff had a good dinner at Chili's, shared some good Dr. Munoz stories and charged our phones for the long trip ahead.

Once we got to the gate, I realized 'This is unreal! There are this many people traveling to Qatar on a daily basis out of Chicago?' We had an American Airlines 777 that was full of people from around the planet ... luckily this guy had a front-row bulkhead seat for the flight!

I will say that Qatar Airways went out of their way to make our trip seamless: dedicated check-in, business class boarding and more. Once on board, I started my clock to see how long the trip would take. The two people I shared a row with are from the Madison area, own a landscape nursery and were headed to Singapore. They were simply cool – they have a relationship that I hope to have with my wife Mary later on in life. A good example!

The guys mostly slept or had their heads in this or that "i" device. I watched "Elysium" and half of "Enough Said." I am a huge James Gandolfini fan. The plane landed 12:31:24 into the trip, so under the 13.5 hours I was told the trip would be – a win.

We de-planed, boarded a shuttle to baggage claim and awaited our bags, which all came out and were on time! Now we go through immigration and I find out that I have two visa numbers under my name. I am thinking Steve Sperl or Anthony Colaizzi have pulled a joke, but it was all sorted. We now headed out into Doha for the first time to board our bus. It took three vehicles to transport our 28-person party – one shuttle just for luggage – and then our personal driver.

As we drove from the airport, we drove right past the skyline that everyone has seen – stunning and beautiful. We finally pulled into the Ritz Carlton and made it into our a rooms. BUT no time to nap, as we then headed down to dinner – outside and under a tent that is nicer than most homes in the West? Yes, a tent. The food was great and the guys had plenty to eat. FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain shared the tent with us.

The last two items of the day were the staff preparing for training tomorrow and the guys getting a quick swim in, in a beautiful indoor pool.

Currently, I am in bed and the bed next to me has a snoring Victor Fernandez. That's OK because I snore worse!

On Twitter: @soccer_coach @ALKASSIntlCup

More information about the Al Kass International Cup