Final Training at Lisleby

The U.S. team had its final training today at the quaint Lisleby FK club, which has hosted the team for training during its brief stay in Norway. A special thanks for the hospitality to the kind folks over at the club, which apparently has some history, having hosted top Norwegian men's matches as long as 40 years ago. The U.S. team had about a 100-minute training which ended with some small-side games and will practice tomorrow evening at the Fredrikstad Stadium, which will host the match vs. Norway. The weather has been perfect, but according to the locals will get even better for the game. Probably not possible, but apparently there will be a little less wind and temps in the 60s.

Spanish Triumph

The U.S. staff and a few players went to one of the pubs on the Glomma River last night to watch the final of the European Championships. Perhaps not the best match of the tournament, but certainly exciting and tension-filled, and happily, the best team won. The place was packed with Norwegians, all of whom seemed to be rooting for Spain. Oddly, aside from the U.S. players and female staff, there were hardly any women watching the game, which is perhaps why this jolly Norwegian wanted his picture taken with Hope Solo and Kacey White after the match. It was taken around 10:45 p.m. and you can see it's still light enough out to play soccer. And no, Kacey hasn't shrunk. Like many of the Norwegian men, he was quite large. The players who didn't go to the pub watched in their rooms and it seems that all (except Germany women's Bundesliga player Ali Krieger, who plays her club ball for European champion FFC Frankfurt) were rooting for Spain as well. Long story short, it's fun watching a European Championship Final anywhere, but even more so in Europe.

Flying the Colors

Check out this boat we saw on the Glomma River here in Fredrikstad. Yes, we'd like to think this person sailed around the world to catch the USA-Norway game and Seattle resident Hope Solo, but even for the most avid fan, that would be a long trip. Could this hearty sailor have sailed around South America (but that's an really small boat to have navigated the perilous waters of Cape Horn), then up the east coast of Brazil, maybe a few weeks in the Carribean, then across the Atlantic Ocean to Iceland, past England through the Channel, and up to Fredrikstad? Nah. They probably bought the boat in Norway and just really likes the coffee in Seattle. At least we know there is one American here. Hopefully, they'll come to the match...and bring the flag.

Ali Arrives

Defender Ali Krieger and asst. coach Erica Walsh arrived this morning after some serious travel snafus. Both were flying out of Washington, D.C. and boarded their domestic flight on June 27 to Newark International to catch the USA's team flight to Oslo, but it never left the ground. They had to sit on the airplane on the tarmac for four and half hours (ouch!), only to eventually have the flight cancelled. They returned to the airport the next day, but that flight got cancelled as well. They decided enough was enough got to the Newark Airport the old-fashioned way...by train. Tthe duo hopped on the choo-choo from D.C. to Newark and were almost there when -- you guessed it -- the train broke down in Trenton, N.J. They had to get off and wait for another train, but finally got to the Newark airport and made the flight to Oslo, then bussed down to Fredrikstad to join the U.S. team. Anyway, they are here and that gives the USA it's full compliment of 22 players, 18 Olympians and the four alternates. Once Krieger recovers a bit, we'll try to catch up with her on the WNT Blog and chat about her German club team FFC Frankfurt winning "the treble" this year.

Rip Hamilton or Carli Lloyd?

You may recall that U.S. midfielder Carli Lloyd broke her nose at the Peace Queen Cup. She played in the two games following the injury, but she had to wear an "off the rack" protective mask. We are not sure how she played in that thing as it severly limited her peripheral vision as well her ability to see the ball at her feet (whatever that kind of vision is called). This just in: It helps to be able to see the ball when you are shooting or hitting a long ball, which as we know, Carli does as well as anyone in the world. When she went home after the Peace Cup, she got a custom mask made that fits much better to her face and she'll be ready to rock against Norway on Wednesday night. Needless to say, Carli is relieved to be able to get rid of the old mask as it was quite frustrating to play with. We're thinking that she may even be able to head the ball further as it bounces off that plastic forehead.

Welcome to Fredrikstad

The USA has settled into Fredikstad, which we see as a beautiful little town, but with its neighboring city of Sarpsborg is actually the fifth largest city in Norway! This is a very old town, originally founded in 1567 by King Frederik II (man, we would love to have a city named after us...WNT Blogsburg, maybe?) and got some sort of cityhood in 1838. The city straddles the river Glomma where it meets the North Sea and it's extremely picturesque, with old boats mixed with small yachts sitting at the docks, green parks and rolling, tree covered hills. The team will go on a short sightseeing trip tomorrow to see the oldest part of town, which should make for some nice pics, but here are a few of the area around the team hotel. The Glomma River is above.


Not sure what this sculpture is, but it's in a local park. We'll call it art.


The local church. The weather has been fantastic. The sun is out, but it's been fairly cool.


An old boat. In the mid 1900s, Fredrikstad was a main harbor for timber export and shipbuilding.

Birthday Boxx

Happy Birthday to U.S. midfielder Shannon Boxx! The Torrance, Calif., native turns 31 today, and like many a WNT player, is celebrating her B-day on the road. She did get an impromptu rendition of Happy Birthday on the bus ride from training today, but no word if she's gotten any cool Norwegian-themed gifts from her teammates yet. (We hear they've got some great smoked herring here in Norway, though). Boxx broke into the National Team in 2003, so she's only been playing for her country for five and half years, but in that time she's piled up 92 caps and will likely get her 100th sometime during the 2008 Olympics. How many of those 92 games has she started? 87. Pretty impressive for a player who didn't break into the WNT until she was 25. Primarily a defensive midfielder, Boxx impressively finished third in the voting for FIFA Women's Player of the Year a few years back. Above Angela Hucles and Natasha Kai helped her celebrate during team lunch... and there was cake for all. (Well, not a birthday cake but a delicious chocolate thing with some sort of cream filling. Not like the WNT Blog had a big piece or anything... we HEARD it was good). The real birthday cake will probably come out tonight. That necklace Shannon is wearing was given to her as a B-day present by Rylie Rampone. We're thinking her mom Christie probably helped make it.