CBC-Sports

Our quest for the Gold Cup begins

June 29, 2009 04:06 PM | Posted by   Greg Sutton  

Canadian national team goalkeeper Greg Sutton will be blogging for CBCSports.ca during the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which runs July 3-26 in the United States.

Well, we’re back at it again. Another camp begins in preparation for the Gold Cup. Me and 19 other players have come together to get ready for this exciting tournament that, for some teams, will run the entire month of July, and for others a week or two.

Our goal is to be playing in the final game, something we almost achieved two years ago and a feat that was accomplished in 2000, when our team brought home the trophy.

It’s been a good first couple days. Everybody is here now after flying in from all across the world. Some guys have been taking their time off between seasons and others are coming in from their current seasons.

We’re starting our camp here in Oxnard, Calif., staying at the Embassy Suites, a nice hotel located right on the beach (don't tell my wife). It’s nice to wake up in the morning and able to look out at the big Pacific Ocean.

Mood is good

We had our first two training sessions and the guys are looking good (after getting the jet legs straightened out). Stephen Hart, our coach, has a good mentality going into this camp, as he always does, in that he wants us to enjoy ourselves and play free, which I feel always brings out the best in guys when we are playing for our national team.

We have a good mix of young and older guys and the mood around camp is good.

Our first friendly match before we take on the Reggae Boyz from Jamaica in the first round is against Guatemala here in Oxnard at Oxnard College on Tuesday. It will be a good warm-up game for us in an effort to help prepare the team.

My roommate, Will Johnson, who plays for Real Salt Lake, is a good kid and probably thinks I'm a bit nuts, after he walked into the room and caught me making baby sounds towards my computer. On the other end was my baby girl Maya, who some of you may have seen about nine months ago on CBC before a TFC game. Anyway, she was on the other end laughing at the crazy sounds coming out of my mouth. Thank goodness to whoever created Skype!

Family support

That's one thing that is tough about being away for so long, you miss your family, but that's part of the price you pay. I thank God everyday that I have a great wife who is there every step of the way; she truly is the rock of our family.

It’s good to be back training again, especially with the national team. It’s always an honour to represent your country and I'm privileged to be able to do that right now.

One thing I will say about our team is that these guys are true professionals and more importantly every single one of them is a good guy!

It’s also nice to see some of the people that you haven't seen in a while. That's another great thing about these tournaments. You get a chance to hang out with some of the guys who are usually at the other end of the field playing against you.

Well, it’s time to put my head down - East Coast time is killing me!

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