Sunday, March 9, 2008
Export to Algarve
It's nothing new for American female soccer players to take advantage of duel citizenship and/or shared ancestry to play for another country. Mexico, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Greece are some of the countries that have taken advantage of FIFA rules to naturalize American players for their Women's National Teams. At the Algarve Cup, you can add two more countries. Italy's back-up goalkeeper is Anna Picarelli (listed as Anna Maria Picarelli in the tournament program), who hails from Downey, Calif., and was All-WCC at Pepperdine University during several excellent seasons for Waves. Portugal's Kim Brandao (Rahway, N.J.), who has played all 180 minutes so far the Algarve hosts, was a teammate of U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd for two years at Rutgers University. We heard rumors that Ireland wanted to steal Heather O'Reilly from us, but sorry lasses, too late. She's already played in a FIFA youth world championship, an Olympics and a Women's World Cup. (Note: We made that up about Ireland. Heather has never even been to Ireland).
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When we're talking about Americans abroad, it's worth mention that Michele O'Brien, a Plainview, NY, native with Irish roots, plays for Ireland. Following 4 impressive years at FIU, she played for Arsenal Ladies in England, the Lady Riders W-League team, and then in Sweden. For her 2005-2006 campaign, she was named the Irish International Player of the Year. She's now back in England playing for Watford. I'd be interested to hear about more American women playing abroad for different nations...
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