Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

THE BEIJING OLYMPICS: HERE WE COME 9th April 2008

It is strange to go into a match, knowing that the outcomes of the game will change the direction of your life and future. We knew that if we won, then we go to the Olympics; if we lost, then we would have nothing ahead of us for the next three years. It is a great burden to have on our shoulders playing one game.

Winning the game against Mexico we could almost physically feel the huge weight being removed from all our shoulders. It is hard to describe how much pressure there really is, until it comes off.

We spent the entire game day waiting anxiously for the kick-off time to come. The day seemed to stretch on forever. I can attest to the fact that I was a nervous wreck from the moment I awoke in the morning. I spent the rest of the day sweating nervously and thinking about the game. I even telephoned my father, but he was as nervous as I was.

All the country now knows that we won 1-0, but I really felt the score could have been a few more than that. We hit the bar twice and had other near chances - more than Mexico. Critics of the game may of course harp on about our time wasting tactics, and our reliance on the long ball game, but we won. This is what we came to do. We have qualified for the Olympic Games. We executed our game plan to the best of our abilities and everybody on the team gave everything they had and more. The examples of this are may: Erin making the biggest play of the game by stopping a break away; Brit running 110 yards down the field after a loose ball; or our bench players screaming their hearts out and urging us forward; everything was left on the field.

I apologize to our fans for making the game what must have been, a very uncomfortable one. I am sure that you were on the edge of your seats and remembering the end of the World Cup game against Australia. I'm sorry but at the same time, I thought that we were the better team over the 90 minutes. I say this even though I personally and the team were rather shaky in the first 20 minutes.

It is hard to even begin to describe the joy and post-game feeling. Winning the match took a huge amount of stress from us all, staff and players. The only other time I have ever experienced such a high was that other soccer game, when we beat China in the 2003 World Cup.

We stayed out on the field for almost an hour after the final whistle, enjoying our achievement and being in one another’s company at such a good time. The Mexican fans were great. Obviously they weren’t cheering for us much during the game, but they were never aggressive, only loud, and this is what a soccer stadium should sound like. Many of them stayed behind to cheer for us after winning the game. As an aside, I enjoyed the fact that we were in a Spanish-speaking country. A foreign language makes it easier to convince yourself that the crowd is actually cheering for you, and not the opposition. “Punta” doesn’t sound that bad a word!

We spent the rest of the evening telephoning our homes, remembering others who have been in the program and our recent retirees like Andrea and Taryn, and celebrating with our friends and family who had made the long journey down here to support us. It was a brave thing to do seeing as they were in a very tiny minority, in a very Mexican stadium, and there had been recent negative press about the area. I will repeat just how amazing it is for us on the field to look up into the crowd and see those red maple leafs cheering us on.

The next morning everyone was very tired from the game and from nervous exhaustion. We finished celebrating about midnight, which is very late for us. We were given the day off to rest and recuperate which gives us one more day to remember our famous victory before we go back to work tomorrow to prepare for the finals.

Thanks for all the kind e-mails and letters of support and congratulations, especially Greg Kerfoot and COC. Our wall of e-mails gets longer every day!