Welcome to Mexico

The U.S. team has arrived in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The team flew from Los Angeles to Phoenix to El Paso, Texas, then hopped a bus for a 45-minute ride that took the team over the border with a police escort and to their hotel. Some confusion as to what time it actually was in Juarez (El Paso is MT, Juarez is currently PT, but changes to MT in a few days) caused the players to have to wait a while for the team dinner, but not one seemed to mind as Heather O'Reilly and Natasha Kai kept everyone entertained with a spirited game of charades. It was a pretty easy day of travel, although with the Los Angeles flight a bit delayed, the team had to hustle to its gate in Phoenix, only to find out that the flight to El Paso had been delayed as well (probably to get all the U.S. team gear on board...whoops! Sorry). The team got a nice reception in El Paso with a few reporters, photographers, fans and the local ABC affiliate, and you can feel a bit of a buzz here in Juarez as there is prominent signage along the main road to the hotel hyping the games. As this will be Mexico's first-ever game against the USA in Mexico, the media is certainly intrigued by the match. But first, Mexico must face Jamaica on April 2 followed by the USA-Jamaica game on April 4.