Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS 24th December 2007

Happy Holidays everyone! I have been asked to write a Christmas journal to review and sum up the year... but how exactly do you sum this year up briefly? I will do my best.

Residency Camps I have found the residency program out in Vancouver to be fantastic. We should be very grateful to Greg Kerfoot for making it happen. Although the day to day grind out on the pitch, pushing weights, and cardiovascular running fitness can get tiring, frustrating, annoying ... you get the idea, all in all, I found it to be a very positive experience. The unity that comes from working together as a team, and the improved levels of fitness, can only help Canada move forward in the future. My favorite part of it all has been getting to know my teammates off the field as well as on it. And the worst moment? Probably waking up at the crack of dawn and running fitness out in the rain.

Now, after a short Christmas break, we will regroup in Vancouver again, in the first week of January 2008 to begin the second phase of our preparations for the Olympic Qualification Tournament.

2007 FIFA World Cup This was a tournament that we had been working towards for the past four years. After doing so well four years ago in the 2003 FIFA World Cup, we knew that the pressure was on us to repeat our successes and we were confident of doing that. Obviously this is not what happened, and we were all devastated by our early exit in the competition. We can make excuses about a lack of home games and build-up games, and these may well have been factors, but we expected more from ourselves and four years is a long time to wait for redemption.

Untold Story The untold story of the 2007 FIFA World Cup was the postponement of the Australian game thanks to the typhoon hitting Shanghai. I don't think people fully understand what happened with this. Early on, the FIFA Organizing committee decided to reschedule the games taking place in Shanghai itself, just in case the typhoon was as bad as predicted. This was a smart move. However, the situation then became complicated, because no one seemed to know whether our games, from the same group, but outside of Shanghai, would be postponed as well. All teams contacted FIFA regarding what was happening and we all received no response at all. We therefore figured that everything was still a go for the game.

Our game against Australia was meant to be played in the afternoon and the whole day before and all morning of the game, people working for FIFA, the Chinese organizing committee, the teams, everyone just went ahead planning for the match to take place. Australia was scheduled to arrive at the stadium before us. As we were not meant to have the two teams meeting together in the lobby of the hotel before a match, they were loaded on their buses and off before we started our trip down to the lobby and thence to the game. It was at this point that our manager received the call postponing the game. The notice came in that late. Most of us thought it was a joke, and laughing was the only possible reaction to something like this happening. How can a FIFA World Cup game be postponed so close to kick-off? It was almost farcical. Instead of playing our most critical match of the tournament to this point, we went for a swim in a hotel pool that smelt a lot like a urinal!!!!

Playing Home Games Whenever I have played home games for the National Women's team, the stands have been packed and we have enjoyed having the support of our fans. I think we have built a good fan base and interest in the Women's game, and we work hard at public and media relations for this. Unfortunately, many of us on the team have been left frustrated and mystified by the Canadian Soccer Association's apparent lack of support. We last played at home 22 games ago, against China in Newfoundland in August 2006. It is hard to maintain fan interest and attract sponsor support with so few matches at home. I am sure that Canada's Men's team suffers similar irritations, but I can only speak for the Women. Why have we not played a game in Canada since August 2006, some sixteen months ago? Now it is almost 2008, and a home game still does not seem to be on the horizon.

Canada's National Women's soccer team, in the sport in which most women participate in Canada, did not play a single home game in a FIFA World Cup year and perhaps they still won't in 2008, an Olympics Qualifying and Tournament year? Much has been written on all this, and feelings have been made clear, but we still have no answers and it seems that we may have to wait for 2009 for another home game! Despite all the irritations and hectic travel schedule, the team has maintained its ninth-place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Rankings.

Our next Tournament will be overseas again, our third visit to China since May 2007. We will be in a Four Nations Tournament in Guangzhou, playing against the United States, Finland (Suomi) and China in mid-January, 2008. The last time we played in this Tournament was in 2004, in my second year on the squad.

Lowest Moment of 2007 For the National Women's team this was hearing that the CSA had passed on the opportunity to host the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, even though offers were made by both B.C. and Quebec to host the tournaments and bear the costs.

High Point of the Year for the CSA CSA Directors said some good things about Andie at her retirement press conference.

Andie's retirement The year could not be summed up without another mention of my good friend and mentor, Andie's decision to call an end to her stellar soccer career. She is missed at every training session we have, not to mention missed at games and on trips.

Knitting My new-found hobby gets a mention in this annual review as I have talked about my new passion so often in my reports and journals. Basically I took up knitting as a way to relieve stress and to feel productive between training sessions. This is not actually what happened because it appears that knitting can become competitive. I killed Amy Vermeulen in our scarf knitting race. I tend to put myself on a knitting schedule and become very upset when I fall behind my set plan, and this can lead to a short temper and many evenings of frantic catch-up knitting. Unfortunately, such frantic bouts of needle clicking can be dangerous, and they have happened often over this break thanks to Christmas socializing. I have apparently given myself the beginnings of repetitive movement syndrome. My darned wrist has woken me up the last two nights!!! Who knew that knitting could be so dangerous?

My best wishes go to all Canadian soccer players, fans, coaches and staff for a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a wonderful 2008. We have written 95 journals this year on my website and a few other reports and commentaries. Please let us know any other articles or journals that you would like to see on the site.