Two words: Sand Castles

The U.S. team competition continued today in a unique fashion at the Algarve Cup with a sand castle building contest. As a reminder, the players are competing in a series of on and off the field games during the Algarve Cup, earning individual points with a grand champion to be crowned at the end of the tournament. Today's winning team members got a whopping six points each. The teams were divided into groups by positions: goalkeepers vs. defenders vs. midfielders vs. forwards with three judges -- goalkeeper coach Paul "Simon" Rogers, Erica "Kara" Walsh and Pam "Paula" Durant rating each creation on the its theme, creativity, overall architecture and team work. In the end, it was the defenders who took top honors in a very, very tight race. While this competition has been settled, we are willing to open up the vote to the fans. Keep in mind, the pics do not do these sand castles justice as several (we won't say which) were quite creative and eye-catching. In fact, a few old English couples sauntered up to take a few pics and we think they thought a professional sand sculpture contest was underway. (Ok, not really). Vote away.


THE FORWARDS: We wish we would have gotten a better aerial view of the Castle of Love, but suffice it to say that this could be the prettiest castle, with excellent utilization of flowers and (claimed Amy Rodriguez) 600 rocks.


MIDFIELDERS: We swear this castle looked better in person. It was wedding theme. You can see the wedding cake to the left and the bride and groom on the right. There is also a huge church built around it. Carli Lloyd even found a really nice rock that served as a wedding ring. Said the middies: "You have to appreciate all the nuances." We're not sure the judges did.


DEFENDERS: They called this masterpiece Destiny and utilized fresh kelp, flowers and bamboo looking sticks, as well as castle turrets, sand drips and shells. Well played defenders, well played.

GOALKEEPERS: With just two goalkeepers, Hope Solo and Nicole Barnhart created this "Under the Sea" sculpture that was formulated by Barnhart. We're not sure if it was a seal, mermaid or walrus, so we'll just call it a MerHopeRus. It also had little sea creatures around it: a turtle, a seahorse and a fish.