Must...Move...Legs

The U.S. team had a very short training at 6 p.m. on Saturday after arriving in Norway, just to get a sweat on and the legs moving. It lasted about 45 minutes. Just some passing patterns, some finishing and some 5 v. 2. It cannot be underestimated how big a difference it makes to get in some light running on the day of a transatlantic jaunt. The training field was at a small club set in the middle of a very cozy neighborhood just 10 minutes from the hotel (It seems everything is close to everything in Fredrikstad). The field was covered in feathers for some reason (we're not sure what kind...too white for pigeon, too small for seagull) and evoked images of a venue in which the U.S. U-23 WNT might play a Nordic Cup match, which is a pretty obscure reference, so sorry for that. To prove the U.S. team is in Fredrikstad, see Lindsay Tarpley above, giving some free advertising to Bil & Bat (we have no idea what that is but hope Lars Jorgensen gets a bump in his business from the WNT Blog).

Good Norgen

The U.S. team has arrived in Fredrikstad, Norway and this is surely beautiful country. The team touched down around 2 p.m. Oslo time and bussed 90 minutes south. Rolling fields, endless trees, quaint houses and some classic architecture mixed with modern touches characterize this part of southeast Norway (and heck, almost all of Norway that we've seen). There are only 5 million people in Norway and 75,000 in Fredrikstad. 75,000? Four times that many pass by the USA's training base at The Home Depot Center every day on the 405 Freeway! It will be a very nice place to spend five days before the team heads to Sweden. Fredrikstad Stadium, which will host the USA-Norway match on July 2, is just walking distance from the hotel, which overlooks a canal off the Glomma River. We are told the Glomma river is one of the longest in Norway and you just can't say Glomma enough times. The U.S. team will take a stroll to a Norwegian men's premier league on Monday night featuring the local side vs. Valerenga of Oslo, but they'll bus it to their own match. (Although the site of 22 U.S. players walking through the streets of Fredrikstad as if they were moving from Field 1 to Field 12 at a youth tournament would be a site to see). The U.S. team is minus one of its 22 player roster as defender Ali Krieger had domestic flight issues and couldn't make the Newark to Oslo flight. Poor Ali spends almost a year playing in Germany, then comes home for a week, and then misses her flight back to Europe! The flight to Oslo was delayed almost two hours as well, but the Americans finally boarded and most players got some airplane sleep (read: not the deep kind). The players are now just trying to stay awake for a bit so they can adjust as soon as possible. America to Asia to America to Europe in less than a month ain't easy. The fact that the sun sets at around 10:30 p.m. and rises at 4:30 a.m., giving about 18 hours of daylight here, does not make it easy to nod off. Pull those curtains closed tightly.

Peace, Out

To put it simply, the Peace Queen Cup rocks. We'd be hard pressed to find anything at this tournament that wasn't done in a first class manner. The hotel was phenomenal (we could write a whole post on just the food alone - delicious!), the transportation excellent, the security perfect, the stadiums excellent, the game logistics World Cup-like, the opening and closing ceremonies were glamorous and well produced. The games were extremely competitive and played at a high level, the refereeing was excellent and the fans had a lot of fun. Everyone the U.S. team came in contact with was extremely friendly, helpful and gracious and the theme of tournament, Peace, well, that says it all. You can understand why the 2002 FIFA World Cup was such a success. (We could go on...great shopping, fun excursions, great weather, major prize money, etc., but we'll stop as we have to catch a plane back to the USA). So, A+'s all around for the 2008 Peace Queen Cup, all the organizers, staff and volunteers. Thanks for two great, fun-filled weeks in South Korea and hopefully we shall all meet again. From Seoul...Peace, Out.

Hucles Doubles Up

It was a fine tournament for U.S. midfielder Angela Hucles. Not only did she earn the MVP and score the winning goal in the championship game, but she also represented the USA in the Andre Kim Fashion Show at the Peace Queen Cup Opening Ceremony...thus completing the first Model/MVP performance in U.S. history. She was probably pretty comfortable stepping up on the red-carpeted podium to get her trophy as she had plenty of practice walking the runway a week or so ago. That's what we call versatility. Well done Ang!

Thanks Boys

Almost always when the U.S. team plays overseas, the local organizing committee provides a team liaison to help with the organization of logistics, translation and many other small tasks that need to be taken care of in order to smoothly run a team at a major tournament. The U.S. team scored on this trip to Korea. So we would be remiss if we didn't give a WNT Blog shout-out to our two fantastic team liaisons for the 2008 Peace Queen Cup, Weon (left) and Steve. The boys were tremendously organized, always helpful with everything the team needed, and did it all with a touch of humor, which is not easy when English is your second language. Weon recently finished college in the United States (Bridgeport in Conn. to be exact) and will be returning to the U.S. soon to attend law school. Steve, who studied English in Canada, is going to be an intern with Korea Football Association, but soon after will report for his mandatory 20-month stint in the Korean Army. So, thanks guys for all your hard work and for doing it with a smile. Job very well done.

We Love Happy Suwon

"Happy Suwon" is the slogan for the Seoul suburb of 1.1 million people and it certainly applies. Everyone the U.S. team met, including the mayor, was very, very nice, gracious and yes, happy. U.S. Soccer is now 4-0-0 in the Suwon World Cup Stadium, which includes two wins for the U.S. women at the 2006 Peace Queen Cup, the win in the final today, and the U.S. men's glorious victory over Portugal at the 2002 World Cup. That game is commemorated in the tunnel of the stadium that leads to the locker rooms and the field.

Now That's Fair Play

After Abby Wambach and Christine Sinclair cracked heads early in the match, the Canadian captain had to go off to receive medical attention for a gash on her head. (Usually, it's Abby that is bleeding, so although we are big Sinclair fans, it was nice that the U.S. forward came out unscathed this time). The Canadian training staff stemmed the bleeding, bandaged up her head and sent her back out on the field, but the wound did require stitches at halftime. With no doctor present with the Canadian team, the U.S. training staff took care of Sinclair as U.S. team doc Dr. Daniel Lamar gave her a shot of pain killer and inserted six stitches. Sinclair missed just the first five minutes of the second half as they cleaned her up (Doc, did you have to sew so quickly? We're kidding) and would get two good chances to score before the final whistle blew. So Kudos to the U.S. medical staff for adhering to the Hippocratic Oath (quite honestly, the WNT Blog doesn't exactly know what that is, but it sounded good) and for doing a good deed that surely took FIFA's dictum of Fair Play to another level.