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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

OLYMPIC PREPARATION CAMP 3rd June 2008

My last journal from Australia, following our 2 - 1 defeat never ended up being written. There were a number of reasons for this. One was the fact that the Canadian team decided to stay after our game at the Sydney Football stadium to watch the Australian Socceroos men take on Ghana in a friendly match. Australia won the game 1 - 0, on a goal early in the second half. However, the decision meant that we arrived back at the hotel very late. Worse still, we then left very early the next morning. The second reason for the lack of a report was a feeing of embarrassment. We played a bad first half of our game against the Matildas, and not surprisingly, we soon found ourselves two 2 goals down, and deservedly so. We came out after the break and played much much better, but unfortunately, we could only claw one goal back.

The Australian women are a good team, but we should have beaten them. The hardest thing to do in sport is to be consistent, and this is what the Canadian team needs to be right now. On any given day, any international team may be able to beat another, because of any number of reasons: Weather and field conditions; a fluky goal, illness. A good team though remains consistent and learns to win day in and day out, no matter what outside influences may be involved. We in the Canadian National Women's team need to start doing this, BIG TIME. We need to be consistent not only as a team, but also as individuals. Kara said something today on this topic, that really resonated with me. She said that, “for me to win gold in the Beijing Olympics, she will need to win gold in the Beijing Olympics." In other words, for any of us to make it to the podium, every single one of us will need to be playing at our best. To win in soccer is not something that one person can do on their own. Obviously, I and all of the team already know this is true, but having it verbalized really hit me.

Courtesy of Getty Images

Since arriving back in Vancouver, not much has been happening except for practices, training and preparation, and we are all working on our focus.

We have been hard back at work for a few days now, and it is good to be back out training with the squad. A few of us had a rough time getting back on schedule after Australia, so forcing ourselves back into a routine and stepping back out onto the field has been good for us all.

Barring Diana Matheson, the whole squad is now assembled in Vancouver. The final push for Beijing is on. Diana has been at school for the last month finishing up her degree at Princeton, but she will also be back in the next week or so, and then we will be training with the entire squad. The Under 20 National Team has been at a camp in town and we have run some of our practices with them. There are many, many of us out on the practice field. Today, we managed to have a mini Soccer tournament with them 11 versus 11 versus 11 and each team had substitutes!!!! These are unheard of numbers for our practices at camp. Preparations are going well