Under the Knife

There were supposed to be 37 players in training camp, but 2007 Women’s World Cup team defender Marian Dalmy had to drop out, deciding to have knee surgery to repair some articular cartilage issues. Meanwhile, midfielder Aly Wagner recently underwent a double sports hernia surgery – ouch! – but the procedure went well and she is resting comfortably on her couch in Los Angeles. For more info on Wagner’s surgery, check out ussoccer.com a bit later and we’ll try to get an update on Dalmy at some point as well.

Groundhog Day

The WNT Blog is back! And what better day than Groundhog Day, because in an homage to Bill Murray’s classic film “Groundhog Day,” life at Women’s National Team training camps (with no international matches during or at the end of camp) is pretty much the same day after day after day…However, the difference this week is that this is a “Mega-Camp” with 36 players trying to impress head coach Pia Sundhage. The camp is actually being run as two camps simultaneously, with 12 veteran players training in one group and the remaining 24 players, mostly young players and a few veterans coming off injury, in another. With practices at different times, it makes for some busy days for coaches and support staff, but it’s always exciting to see new faces in camp. Many of the first-time call-ups have had extensive experience with the U.S. U-19, U-20 and U-21 National Teams, but several are getting their first looks with the full team. U.S. Under-23 Women’s National Team head coach Bill Irwin is in town for a few days to help evaluate, having coached many of the players on the U-21s, and new WNT assistant coach Jillian Ellis is at her first camp since joining Sundhage’s staff. After coaching the U.S. U-21s, the U.S. U-20s and in college at UCLA, Ellis is also well-versed in the talents of the sub-23-year-old players in the USA. This afternoon, the younger group gets to show its stuff in a full-field scrimmage. We’ll try to get a report on the match.

 

Blog Break

The WNT Blog will be taking a break now. It’s been a great start to the new year, a great start for U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage and there is much more to come in 2008. The team gets back together for a training camp in early February and the next competition is the annual Algarve Cup in Portugal in early March. Could the Algarve Cup see the first meeting between the USA and Sweden with the Swede Sundhage in charge of the USA? Stay tuned. As always, thanks very much for following the team on ussoccer.com and especially to those who figured out how to watch the games on the internet, and then stayed up in the wee hours of the morning to see the games. Hopefully, come this spring the team will be coming to a U.S. city near you and your dedication will be repaid with the opportunity to watch the players in real life rather than on a 3x5 inch screen. (Although mini-Tarpley, mini-O’Reilly and mini-Rodriguez are pretty good in miniature as well).

Blog ya later.

Four Nations Champs

Congrats to the USA, the 2008 Four Nations Champions! The game against China was definitely a “tight” match, even though the Chinese didn’t create too many dangerous scoring chances. Still, anytime it’s 0-0 anything can happen. Fortunately for the USA, Shannon Boxx happened. Her goal was similar to several she’s scored for the USA in the past (remember her header against Sweden in the 2003 Women’s World Cup? Sort of like that, but not from such a sharp angle) and certainly a clutch play as China was definitely making things difficult. The USA has three or four chances more that could have produced goals, but needed some sharper finishing. Still, anytime you can come to China and beat China, it’s a great result. Remember this: China gave up just one goal in three games.

Pizza, Pizza, Pizza

The team got out of the hotel today for dinner, going to pizza at an American fast-food joint. The players definitely enjoyed getting out of the hotel, and partaking of the cheesy stuff, downing quite a few plain cheese, Hawaiian, veggie and a pie they called, “The American,” which of course, was cheese and pepperoni. After returning to the hotel, the team had its pre-game meeting and the mood on the team heading into the China game is one of anticipation and excitement. Tournament finals are a rarity in international soccer, so any chance to play in a match with first place on the line is one to be cherished. While the crowds have been small, the games have generated much media interest in China, especially considering Pia Sundhage’s job as an asst. coach for China. Sundhage held an informal press conference with nine Chinese journalists for 45 minutes in the lobby of the team hotel today. She spoke on a wide variety of topics, including her adjustment to the Chinese and American cultures, her experience with the Chinese team and players, the growing number of female coaches in the international game, and the upcoming clash with China, among others. Abby Wambach, who made a name for herself in China with a six-goal performance at the Women’s World Cup, spent about 15 minutes chatting with the media as well.

A-Rod and A-Dub

On the surface, Amy Rodriguez and Abby Wambach couldn’t be more different. One is a blond 5-foot-4 20-year-old from Orange County, Calif. (that’s right, the O.C.) and one is a brown-haired 5-foot-11 27-year-old from upstate New York (that’s right, the M.C…well, no one’s made a reality show about Monroe County, but we digress). However, they have been rooming together in China and sharing quite a few jokes and laughs in their downtime. On the field, the two have been working on developing a chemistry as well, starting together in the 4-4-2 formation in both games. Like Mia Hamm mentored Wambach on the National Team and with the Washington Freedom, Wambach is working to help A-Rod (as well as Lauren Cheney, the USA’s other young striker) with her transition to the highest level of women’s soccer in the world. Tonight, they were playing a mean round of the two-person card game “War,” where each person throws down a card and the one with the higher rank wins both cards with the object of winning all of your opponent’s cards. According to Rodriguez, the game was going “back and forth” which is not a surprise in a game where both participants have the same chance of winning. On the field, Wambach and Rodriguez are working hard to make sure exactly the opposite happens.

Scavenger Hunt

With no training today, the U.S. team did another pool workout in the late morning (quite freezing again, but with less wind today, it was apparently bearable), then had lunch. In the afternoon, to get out of the hotel and get the legs moving, U.S. asst. coach Erica Walsh designed an ingenious scavenger hunt, except instead of collecting things, the players had to take pictures of about 40 items or tasks that they could find or accomplish in and around the team hotel. (Almost every U.S. player has a digital camera). Needless to say, in China this hunt turned out to be an adventure.

A few examples of the pictures needed:

Take a picture the Olympic rings a teammates doing headstands in front of it
Take a picture of someone squatting on the ground eating lunchMake a cab driver laugh with one teammate.Take a picture three women smoking
Take a picture with a security guardGet them to give you their hat, put it on and take a picture with it
Take a picture in a Chinese garden
Take a picture of a street-side aquarium with fish in it

It took most of the four-person teams about two hours to polish as many items off the list as they could, and amazingly, most groups got almost all of them done. (Although several groups stumbled into a local meat market where they saw some things they wish they hadn’t). Leslie Osborne reports that her group which included Cat Whitehill, Carli Lloyd and Stephanie Lopez thinks they won, but as of post time, the final results had not yet been tallied.