June 10, 2007

Things here finally started to settle down and everyone is starting to feel the competitiveness and excitement as our first game gets closer. We have been having two practices a day and meeting to go over loose ends before game day on Saturday. Thursday was a pretty crazy day because it was really the third day we are here and according to the girls it's one of the toughest days because the time change really starts settling in and you have to fight wanting to take that nap in the middle of the day. I definitely felt what they meant.

We had a good morning practice going over offensive and defensive corners and doing lots of shooting on the keepers. Towards the end we did 5 vs. 6 to get our legs going and our blood pumping. After lunch we had a meeting to go over some video of Korea, who we play first and talk about possible presses we will see form them. We looked closely at some of their attacking corners and how we can defend those. It's pretty neat because during the meeting I would look to my sides and everyone is taking detailed notes. All the girls keep a notebook filled with previous game notes so it was very helpful and interesting to see previous game notes had on Korea. They could look back and see what other key elements they focused on before and really refreshed their memory about key players and tendencies from their opponents. Preparation for this U.S. team does not only mean on the field, but also off the field. In our meeting we also talked about the expectations of this tournament and the mindset we need to have going into all our games. Our coaches really emphasized having confidence in all we do and expecting the best from each other and ourselves. Most importantly we have to EXPECT to be in that championship game.

After that meeting we were on our way to our next practice and it usually takes about 25 minutes to get to the field but due to crazy traffic delays it took about an hour. Their traffic problems here in Azerbaijan aren't normal though. Apparently when people see traffic they panic and try to make U-turns in the middle of traffic! This road we were on had two lanes for each way and you had people in the farthest lane making U?turn in front of everyone. Of course their favorite things to do is lay on the horn even though no one can really move. This was chaotic! After about two minutes, our very courageous bus driver decides that he will make one of the lanes from the opposite direction his new lane!! We were driving on the opposite side of the road and we had everyone else following. Everyone is holding on to their seats, outraged by this man while we had honking and random cars trying to go head on with us before they moved. For about 20 minutes there was 3 lanes going in our direction and 1 lane going the opposite direction. By this time everyone is laughing and yelling and energized so our final practice of the day was very effective. We did shooting again followed by short games and game like situations. Defenders practiced doing over head throws and receiving them, which is new to me because in college it's rare to see many of those. After a hard practice we ended with a competition of strokes!

It's Friday and the day before our first game. We got to sleep in a little today which to all of us was key. We got up to do a team walk and then breakfast. After that we headed out to our only practice of the day, thankfully the bus ride was smooth. Today a teammate asked me if I was nervous for tomorrow, I guess that part hadn't really settled in for me because all my focus was on practices. It really made me get into a game like mode.

Throughout the practice I started visualizing game like situations and going over all aspects of my game that I needed to work on or things I have learned since being with the US team. The nerves have kicked in a little, but mainly I'm excited and ready to get a chance. This morning's practice really brought out everyone's game faces. The intensity and competition was phenomenal. Everything we practiced looked solid and accurate. Defense made great tackles and clears and the offense really challenged the keeper while putting in plenty of goals. The best part was that Korea was watching our practice today and from our attitudes I know they can tell we aren't going down. We are ready for tomorrow. The rest of the day we will focus on a lot of video. Forwards, Mids, and Defense will have separate sessions and we will end with a team meeting to cover our strategies for tomorrow. And word is, to get us into a competitive mode for tomorrow, we will be having a ping pong tournament tonight! I'll let you know how that goes.

If you wanted to keep posted on our games you can go to usfieldhockey.com and check out scores.

GO USA!!!