On to Chengdu

After one last training in Shanghai (although the team will return here for its final Group B game), the U.S. team spent the evening packing up and getting ready to move to Chengdu, which will host the USA’s first two matches of the tournament. Almost all the players chose to go out to dinner tonight, in what will be one of the last nights of the tournament that won’t include team meetings or rest in preparation for matches. The team will definitely miss its hotel and hotel staff in Shanghai, one of the nicest hotels and some of nicest people the team has encountered in its travels, but hopefully will return with a nice helping of points from its first two matches. We’re not sure if the players will miss this, but the WNT Blog will also miss the largest crystal staircase in the world. It spirals up three floors from the lobby into the atrium, and changes colors every night starting at 5 p.m. It’s hard to describe, but it looks like something out of a Disney movie.