Slingbox

North Carolina alums Cat Whitehill and Heather O'Reilly spent a few hours tonight on the 10th floor of the hotel in the team's meeting room watching the UNC-Boston College hoops game live on Whitehill's slingbox. The two Heels were pretty excited to see UNC come back from 18 points in the second half to win, and perhaps earn the #1 ranking. They were, to put it lightly, a bit rambunctious. The upcoming Duke-UNC game is on at 2 a.m. Portugal time, so Whitehill is going to record it on her TIVO and watch it the next morning. We can only hope they don't wake up any hotel guests.

Jog/Sprint

The U.S. players jogged to morning training today instead of taking the small bus as usual. It takes just a few minutes to drive to the practice field and about eight minutes to run. The players were supposed to run at a "conversational pace," meaning it's easy to chat and run at the same time. But of course, being the competitive women they are, the run started getting faster and faster until it was some serious Chariots of Fire going on there...The players hit the last big hill before the training field and suffice it to say, there were no conversations going on. At least they got a good warm-up before training. The 60-minute afternoon full-field scrimmage ended 1-0 on a penalty kick smartly converted by Cat Whitehill. The team has all day off tomorrow. The players are looking forward to some serious R&R and are hoping the gorgeous weather holds.

Day Off Tomorrow

The practice fields are so close to the hotel that the team jogged to training this morning. It will be a very light one after a few hard days and there is a full-field scrimmage this afternoon. The pic above is actually from yesterday's speed and agility training. Tomorrow is the first day off since the team arrived in the Algarve and about half the team is planning on taking the two and half hour drive east to Seville, Spain, which is about an hour past the border. If you haven't been to Seville, we recommend going. It's a beautiful city, with a great vibe and a massive cathedral that's a "must-see." The cathedral supposedly contains the tomb Christopher Columbus, although apparently that it the topic of much debate as his remains were moved several times after his death in 1506 and no one is really sure that it is actually CC in Seville.

Osborne's Eye

If you were reading the WNT Blog during the USA's last training camp in Los Angeles, you know that Leslie Osborne and Rachel Buehler had a frightening head-to-head collision that left Osborne with a monster bump on her head and Buehler with, well, a little minor soreness. Neither player missed a training session, but 15 days later Osborne's right eye is still sporting a shiner. Her swelling went down quickly, but it's settled under her eye and she reports that she can't walk anywhere without people asking her what happened. That's including the tourists here in the Algarve, hotel staff, etc. Truth be told, she can't wait to be less raccoon-like. Osborne told us a nice story about the incident though. Buehler, who as reported during that camp has the tenacity of bulldog on the field and the personality of golden retriever off it, went to Osborne's room that night, apologized for like the 15th time and gave her a huge box of chocolate. Those who know Osborne knows there's only one food that even comes close to her love of cheese, and that's chocolate...Other afternoon notes: The team had two fairly hard trainings today, so after the afternoon session, almost the entire team decided soak their legs in the hotel pool which is known to be perfect for polar bears and penguins. Apparently this year while it is still icy, it's not too bad and certainly refreshing for the legs...Christie Rampone's daughter Rylie was seen taking a 20-yard run up and hurling herself onto a couch in the lobby of the USA's team floor, then calling herself "SuperMan!"...Since there is no Internet access in the hotel rooms, most of the time the players have to go to the lobby to access wireless, where they get on Skype to talk to family and loves ones back home, which is no doubt an odd site for any tourist walking into the hotel and seeing a group of young women working on laptops and seemingly talking to themselves.

U.S. Kickoff Times Unchanged

While all of the U.S. venues were changed from what was originally announced, the kickoff times stayed the same, meaning fans can log on to ussoccer.com's MatchTracker to follow the games on:

March 5 vs. China at 8:45 a.m. ET.
March 7 vs. Italy at 8:45 a.m. ET.
March 10 vs. Norway at 10 a.m. ET.

Seems that the games were moved due to television. Four of the eight TV matches will be at the Stadium Algarve, which is cabled for TV after having hosted matches at the 2004 European Championships, with the last four TV games in Vila Real de San Antonio, a nice little stadium that will host the third-place and championship. For a complete updated schedule, check ussoccer.com.

Chalupny Wins Wally Ball

There was a lot happening at today's morning training. Part of the group did weight lifting and speed and agility training in the middle of the field, while some worked on finishing in small groups at the goals, then they switched. It was another beautiful sunny day in the Algarve and practice was high-paced. Kudos to goalkeeper coach Phil Wheddon, who had to step between the posts for many of the drills and made many a spectacular save during point-blank shooting drills that could have killed a mere mortal, or someone not quite as fit as big Phil. The training ended with asst. coach Erica Walsh setting up a "Wally Ball" tournament. The game involved several groups of five or six players hitting balls against a wall (there's a nice big one at the training field), in order and consecutively, but only getting one touch. The ball against the wall had to be hit inside a set of cones, both traveling to the wall and coming back off it. If you couldn't get it inside the cones on one touch, you got a letter. The first round was P.I.G., and the championship, consisting of all the winners from each of the groups, played for U.S. Lori Chalupny came out on top in the championship, defeating Cat Whitehill, who you may recall finished second in the USA's coin tossing the game on the day the team arrived. Cat did say, "never a bride, always a bridesmaid," but that doesn't really hold water as she was married in front of more than 1,000 people in Birmingham, Ala. on Dec. 31, 2005. She also won an Olympic gold medal and several NCAA titles. But as we know Cat doesn't like losing. Just the other day, she said, "the only time I ever cry is when I lose...or when a dog dies on TV." Anyway, congrats to Chalupa on her Wally Ball title!

Cha...Cha...Changes

We found out tonight that all of the venues for the USA's first-round games have been changed. We're not sure why, or how this impacts the kickoff times, or the rest of the tournament matches, but we know that the U.S. team won't be playing in the fabulous Stadium Algarve, which is a bummer. As soon as we get a copy of the new schedule, we'll post it on ussoccer.com. This will be the second straight tournament that the USA has found out about venue changes after arriving in a country. You may recall that the team landed in Guangzhou, China, in January for the Four Nations Tournament and found out that the games were actually in Guangzhou, and they didn't have to take a bus to Foshan, which was fine with everyone. The USA is hoping for some good playing surfaces in whatever venues they will be playing, as sometimes the field conditions can be hit-and-miss at the Algarve Cup.