Tracy's Diary: Part Three
July 3, 1999
On Friday afternoon we arrived at Logan Airport in Boston and to our surprise we were met by a local marching band, fans, several youth teams, and a ton of media. The band was small, but you can probably imagine how loud it sounded as we walked through the terminal. We definitely drew a lot of attention. I think Tiffany Milbrett said it best when she said, "Sometimes I feel like we are animals on display in the zoo ... ".
We are used to traveling in relative anonymity, so this was quite a change. Even though we always travel in the same outfit ... emblazed with the US Soccer Federation Crest and the swoosh ... red, white, and blue everywhere, we always get the same questions, "Do you guys play volleyball? basketball? What college are you from?" The attention we are drawing from this World Cup is changing all that. We can't go anywhere without hearing, "I will have two fillings too!" or "Are you on the US Soccer team? Can we get your autograph?" It is a nice change, but it certainly takes getting used to.
The band led us to the center of the terminal, up onto a stage where we were handed flowers and mini US flags, and a brief welcome ceremony followed. After a long draining game versus the Nigerians, a late night, and a day of travel this warm welcome certainly energized us for this leg of our trip. I love my hometown!
That afternoon the starters went to the pool for a light recovery workout and the reserves went to the Babson College to squeeze in a quick 30 minute 4v4 game. We had to keep it short because we were invited to Jonathan Kraft's house for a BBQ. It was an optional dinner out, but we all jumped at the opportunity to eat some real food. After two weeks of hotel food we needed a change. Jonathan is the owner of the New England Patriots and the New England Revolution. He owns an awesome house, is a great guy, has two cute kids, has a very nice wife, Pamela, and he sure knows how to throw one amazing gourmet BBQ!
Saturday was a typical day before a game. We ate breakfast, trained, obliged to the requests of the media, signed autographs, ate lunch, relaxed, got massages, watched movies, played games, ate dinner, had a team meeting. Our days are getting pretty predictable, but we have found it is good to stick to routine. At training on the day before a game we always end with a drill called "Near, Far, Slot." However, being the competitive team that we are we have turned it into a competition between the field players and goalkeepers.
The field players get 20 services from the flank that the three runners in the box try to finish one touch on goal. There are no defenders ... it is just them versus us, (the goalkeepers). All rebounds and redirects are live ... ..basically everything is live until it is either out of bounds, cleared beyond the field players, or in the back of the net. However, if we give up a corner kick then they get an extra service added onto their 20. The challenge is that they must score eight goals or more out of 20 to win. Each time we play we have two rounds -- one from the left side and one from the right side.
I must take a second here to boast that the goalkeepers have been dominating at this game as of late. We are on a six-game winning streak! (This has NEVER happened in the history of this game)
It is to the point that we are trash talking to try to piss off / fire up the field players ... and the main target of our abuse and chiding is "Loudy Foudy" because she never shuts up when they beat us. No matter what, we always do our best to shutout Foudy ... because she is the ultimate smack-talker.
The field players have now deemed that they kick butt in the real game if they lose to us in "Near, Far, Slot" the day before ... excuses, excuses ... .
Finally it is Sunday ... game day! Today we play North Korea, it is our last game in the first round. If we win we go undefeated in group play and thus win first place in our group. We have never played North Korea before and know little about their team except what we have seen in their other two games. Today is FIFA Fair Play Day. What does that mean? It is just a day to signify that FIFA supports and encourages fair play in this tournament ... play hard, but play fair. We are doing very well in this department. We are the only team that has not received ANY cards and we have the lowest amount of fouls called against us along with Russia.
We left our hotel in Waltham at 4:45pm. We got our typical police escort to the stadium. This is really a necessity because we would never make it on time with all the traffic. It is interesting to watch the faces of the drivers when we cruise by ... fans are excited and cheering and throwing us #1 signs while other are pissed while they sit in traffic. The funniest was when we got flicked off by some driver suffering from road rage!
Saskia's hair design for today's match ... red and white stripes on the side and a blue top w/ white stars. It looked like she had a bandana on her head. Her head was the flag ... it looked pretty cool.
Once again we had an abbreviated warmup because of the Italy / Mexico game before ours. This meant running around a tight locker room in our cleats trying to break a sweat to save time on the field. Tonight's game strategy was two-fold. Obviously, our first priority was to win the game so we could win our bracket, but we also wanted to use as many reserve players as possible so we could rest the legs of our starters. Tonight's lineup included four new starters, MacMillan, Venturini, Whalen, and Roberts. Sobrero and Akers took the night off to rest their beaten bodies, while Milbrett and Foudy went in at half. The other substitution that was made, (only 3 subs are allowed per game), was Christie Pearce.
7p ... .kickoff ... .for a change we didn't come out nervous and we didn't really give them too many sniffs of our goal in the first half. However, we were having trouble executing our offense. Their defenders were very fast and we kept playing right into their strength and attacked up the middle instead of on the flanks. They were a very fast and technical team and they were sliding all over the place on defense. End of the first half ... 0-0.
In the second half we made some changes that proved to be very effective. We possessed the ball more, changed the point, and had quicker transition from offense to defense which allowed us to get in behind their defense before they setup their bunker. I also think we took more shots from outside the box instead of trying to do too much in the box. The result ... 3 GREAT goals! The first was from MacMillan. She beat one defender as she dribbled across the field and then unleashed a line drive to the near post from just outside the corner of the 18. I think their goalkeeper was caught a bit off guard from the pace and movement of Mac's shot. Mac has one, if not THE hardest shot on this team and she has a knack for making the ball "dance" or move. As a goalkeeper this makes your job very hard and can lead to numerous jammed fingers ... I know first hand. The next two goals were very similar ... .both were great headers by Tisha that were assisted from Mac. WAY TO GO RP's!!!! Tonight the reserves were called upon to step up and they did! That is a credit to the reserves' mentality and ability to stay game fit even when they don't get much game time. Ready to go when called upon.
However, the highlight of tonight's game was not any of the goals ... it was Tisha's awesome celebration. After her 2nd goal she sprinted away from the goal, did a cartwheel into a full layout back flip! None of us could believe it! We went crazy on the bench!!!! She definitely received all 10.0 's from the judges on that one ... she even stuck the landing. She certainly raised the bar as far as celebrations are concerned. From here on out it will be impossible to top that celebration. As it turns out Tisha was a gymnast when she was younger ... .WOW! ... look out USA Gymnasts, here comes Tisha!
On the other end of the field, I can't leave Bri out. As a fellow goalkeeper I know we never get the credit we deserve. Bri had some great saves. There was one in the first half that was a cross that was tailing in towards her back post that she footworked to and leaped up for and swatted out of bounds with her huge paws. And in the second half she made 2 point blank saves back to back to preserve the shutout. Way to go Bri ... way to earn a clean sheet!
All in all tonight's game was less emotional than the others because there was less riding on this game and because we dominated most of the game. The crowd at Foxboro was good ... .not a sellout, but very close ... .50,484 ... ..the stands were full except for a small portion of the upper corners. So far the loudest crowd by far has been Chicago's, but Foxboro's crowd wins the award for longest sustained wave. And one section of the Foxboro crowd also gets the most creative award. An entire section across from our bench was bought out by the Newton Soccer Association and then everyone in that section wore red, white, and blue Women's World Cup t-shirts forming perfect red, white, and blue stripes. It was a pretty cool visual effect.
After the game we took our now traditional celebration lap, applauding the crowd for coming and cheering. The show of support by our fans so far has been nothing short of amazing and inspirational. It is so awesome to look up and see all the red, white, and blue faces, shirts, and flags. And to see so many camera flashes going off in the crowd ... .awesome ... .it is like a giant firework display.
We finally returned to our hotel around midnight after all the media and after visiting with our families and friends. Waiting for us back at our hotel was one of our more famous fans, Nomar Garciaparra. We met him at a Women's World Cup promotion event last year here in Boston and he has been a big fan of ours ever since. Although he is a big time baseball player, (for those of you who don't know him he plays for the Boston Red Sox), he played soccer as a kid, so he loves soccer too. Nomar and one of his teammates, Lou, had brought us by some of Lou's mom's famous homemade meatballs and ravioli. They were delicious and a nice treat from the hotel food.
Three games down ... three to go! Next up ... .Germany in the quarterfinals in DC!