Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

RESIDENTIAL CAMP UNDER WAY 8th January 2008

As the Canadian National Women's Camp is now well underway, let me wish everyone a Happy New Year and a hope that everyone enjoyed a good Christmas vacation. I had an amazing time, as always, and loved having time to relax and to eat my mother's baking for a couple of weeks.

I will admit that the extra training to work off the excess pounds was hard. However, to be honest, every bite was worth it. I started with some cross country skiing and tobogganing.

The National Team squad returned to residential camp in Vancouver on Friday 4th January, 2008, and I am enjoying being back.... We are just at the start of the camp, but there are already some big changes.

Before our Christmas break we had training sessions with only 7 or 8 of our National squad available, because of the demands of school or injuries. So now, it is amazing to be out on the field with 20 healthy players. The sessions have been intense, although fun, so our bodies are rebelling slightly (i.e. we are aching). it is amazing to me how quickly our legs forget what we do for a living.

We are only in camp for a week before we head off to the Four Nations Tournament in China. This should be a fantastic tournament, given the very good teams which are involved. The tournament is due to be held in Guangzhou, China from 16th - 20th January 2008. FIFA ranks us 5th and we play against the USA (ranked 2) on 16th January, then against China (ranked 13th) on 18th January, and finally against Finland (ranked 16th) on 20th January, 2008.

We have a preparation game Tuesday evening in South Surrey, but the wet weather may cause the venue to be changed because pitches are waterlogged and closed. We desperately need some game experience under our belts this year, before we head out to major tournaments. Kick-off on Tuesday is scheduled for 7:00pm vs Whitecaps U16 Boys at South Surrey Field 4. This is located at South Surrey Athletic Park. If they tell us in time, I will publish the venue on this website.