Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

RECOVERY & COFFEE BECOMES A MILITARY EXERCISE

7th August 2008

Sorry for the short journal yesterday, but I was utterly spent, physically and emotionally, after our opening game.

Today, after a couple of hours to digest the game and think about my role and how the team played, the day seems so much brighter. I found that yesterday, I was having trouble getting over my own mistakes in the game, and I rather selfishly forgot to focus on the importance of our team victory. Though the result was not as convincing as we would have liked, Canada's National Women's team did win their first ever Women's Olympic soccer game. Many years from now I am going to look back on this experience, and what I will remember will be our first victory, and not any slips or mistakes that I made.

I received an e-mail from Andrea Neil this morning that helped to jolt me back into this right perspective. Andrea Neil is now retired from the National team, but she is still a guiding light, not only to me, but to many members of this Canadian squad.

So, everyone was in good spirits this morning, although there were many who were suffering from stiff legs. We had a walk and stretch at 9:00 am, but at least four of us were almost late. Tired legs and tired minds lead to deep sleeps and we really had to rush to make it on time. The smog is as thick today as it was last night, and so I guess we had better get used to it. Here in Tianjin the weather and smog will apparently always be a toss up. Who knows what the conditions will be like for Saturday?

The men's teams play today, so we haven't seen much of them about the hotel. Their games should be interesting to watch, not only for the results, but also because I want to see how they react to the air quality and the slippery turf. We had a rough go standing up last night, not because we were wearing the wrong footwear, but because the grass and sod is so new that it hasn't had time to root itself properly. This means that any time you try to stop quickly, the entire turf segment under your foot comes up.

Yesterday we also watched part of the game between China and Sweden. They were very evenly matched teams. I found the game was exciting, and I was impressed with the Chinese crowd. They were fantastic at getting behind their team and everyone in the stadium seemed thrilled to be taking part in the event. At one point, the crowd even set out on an impromptu march around the stadium; quite something to witness.

Obviously it is going to be tough playing in front of such a large and strongly partisan crowd on Saturday, but I actually just really enjoy getting to play in front of a group of people enjoying themselves so much. How often do we women get to play in such huge stadiums, let alone full ones? The crowd may not be supporting us, but they are supporting women's soccer and I am going to love every minute of it.

We have a quiet day today. This is the usual routine as we recover after a game. We did manage a trip out to Starbucks though, but we didn't know what chaos our little caffeine jaunt would cause. The Starbucks visit shut down a big section of the city. We didn't know before we left on the bus for our coffee run that this little sortie would require 50 or more policemen and at every intersection of the city, the roads were shut down for us to pass - yikes! We tried to do our best by smiling and waving at everyone, to take pictures and to sign autographs in the crowd, but somehow I don't think this makes up for the fact that we probably made a great many people very late for whatever it is they had planned. And, all of this just because we decided we wanted a coffee.

I am pleased that some of my journals will be included in my local newspaper on the West Island of Montreal, the Suburban, and thanks to the Knoxville News Sentinel for remembering me from my alma mater: The University of Tennessee.