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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

TRAINING AND U 17 FUNDRAISER 3rd April 2008

We had a relatively early start this morning. We were on the bus at 10:00 am sharp, and headed to training in preparation for our game against Costa Rica. We trained in Juarez this morning, so it was a much quicker commute than usual, when we practice in El Paso. It is true that the field surface was not as pristine as we are used to in El Paso, the local organizing committee has definitely done their best to make it playable.

It was a hot day today which made the dust from the field a little harder to handle than anything we might face in Canada, but there is no doubt that whatever the surface, we ended up with a good practice. The subs from yesterday's game worked their butts off for the full hour and a half, playing mixed games and drills. Meanwhile, the starting eleven from the Trinidad game did a recovery session in running shoes. Then we did some shooting at the end

After practice we were met by the local school soccer team. The school was very excited about us being there and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome. They put out tents and water next to the soccer field, and sent out their soccer team to meet us and present us with one of their game shirts. The kids must have been about 8 years old, so that even though we appreciated receiving one of their shirts, D was the only one able to benefit from it ; she was the only one who could squeeze into it.

The practice ended up very well with a stop at Starbucks on the way home. The workers there were very excited to see us and they asked us to sign their aprons as we ordered. I don't think they realized how often they are going to be seeing us over the next few weeks. In fact, we may be lucky and by the time of our next visit, they will do better with pronouncing our names, I'm not sure Even can take much more of being called Evelyn.

I must mention the fact that the National Under-17 women's team is holding a fundraiser. It is the under-17 World Cup year and they and their parents are working overtime in order to raise funds to better prepare the team for the tournament. They have a website which will explain more, at http://www.u17soccer.com/ The National senior team really supports their hard work as we know how tight budgets can be and we know womens team need assistance from outside sources in order to prepare properly for big tournaments. These under-17's parents and players are doing for the under 17 team what our manager, the COC, and Greg Kerfoot have been doing for us. We wish them every success and support them fully.