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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

OXNARD EXERTIONS 24th March 2008

I managed to sleep in until 8:00 am this morning. The beds in the hotel are amazing, little nests. The beds are so soft and comfy that I managed to pass out while reading, with three pillows under my head. As you can imagine I now have quite the crick in my neck..

The morning was a quiet one, with nothing much at all to do before heading out for practice. We are training at the University here, Oxnard College. The campus is about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, and very importantly there are two Starbucks en route! The Campus is the same place where the Canada Olympics Men's team practiced.

We were very spoilt in Cyprus with the superb condition of the fields. They were immaculate, and this has made us picky. Even though the Oxnard fields are amazing, better than anything we have been playing on in Canada, it is impossible not to make comparisons to the Cypriot pitches.

The training session was a long and intense one. There is nothing like jumping right back into the middle of things. Even though most of us still have heavy legs from the journey here, I still felt that training went well and that we all looked sharp.

The spirit of the team is very good, and perhaps this is something you can see for yourselves In one of the team photos we took. This was an official team photo session for our sponsors: Winners and our brand new sponsor Technominco. Les took so long arranging the set-up for the photo that the team had time to spread the word. Except for two clueless teammates (try to spot them) the word was to play "dead." The end result was amazing - very well coordinated. Don't you like the poses of the coaching staff who of course, were not in on the plan? The official version of the photo was taken afterwards!!

After training, we headed home for our 2:30 pm lunch, and after all the exercise and fun. we were ravenous. I am not sure how we spent the afternoon. I am sure we did something important, but the memory of the team picture has momentarily left me blank.

Supper was at 7:30 pm, and everyone enjoyed the Mexican fiesta which was served to us before we had a team meeting at 8:30pm. At the meeting, we watched game tape from the France match, as this is the first time we have had an opportunity to review the tape and our game. This lovely session (death by videotape) took over an hour, before we were free for the night, … this means free to go to bed!