There’s No Place Like Home

The U.S. team was certainly in familiar surroundings for its final match in the 2007 Send-Off Series. The USA got to play Finland at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the USA’s virtual home-away-from home for the past two years, both of which have featured Residency Training Camps, meaning the U.S. players have spent countless hours at the facility getting ready for the 2007 Women’s World Cup. Same streets to the stadium, same locker room, same training room, same tunnel to the field, same security guards, and as it is Southern California, same weather. (However, although it looked the same, it was a different field, put in just a week ago after all the X-Games dirt was removed. Kudos to the HDC grounds crew, by the way, as the field looked and played very well). All that sameness certainly paid off as the U.S. team rolled over Finland, out-shooting them 28-2 in winning the eighth consecutive match the U.S. women have played at The HDC. All that sameness will now be contrasted with a whole lot of differences, as the USA team heads to China on Monday.