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RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

LOSING TO EVERTON AT UEFA 6th August 2009

I am writing this journal while sitting in my living room back in Norway. I have to admit that despite the heartbreak, it is good to be back here from Croatia and into cooler weather.

As most will know, we lost to Everton when they scored a goal against us in the 92nd minute. All we needed was a tie to go through to the next round. We did not play well for the first time in the Tournament, but even then we were so much better than the English team that losing to them still really hurts.

The fact of the matter is that if you lose in the 2nd minute of overtime, then you deserve the loss because you just didn't want the victory badly enough. We lost this match because of a lack of focus and a lack of effort. To say that I feel frustrated over the loss would be a massive understatement. To have won this game would have been huge for the Team Strommen club, and to come so close is just not good enough.

Everton had all but given up, and they just wanted to be off that field. Most of their players were just going through the motions. But, unfortunately, so were we. Team Strommen already seemed to have visions of the celebrations in their heads. We became sloppy and slowed down. We allowed Everton to come down the field almost unhindered by any defence, then allowed them to get a cross into the box, and then there was a lucky side-of-the-foot, back heel over the head which looped over the top of our goalkeeper. The Everton girl would have little hope of ever repeating that shot, but it chipped over our keeper and went into the far netting. grrrrrr.

As you can probably tell, I am still mad, and I am going to be mad for quite some time. As a squad, we now have a break for two weeks and I think that this time is necessary for me to return to equilibrium and give my back time to rest. I came on in the second half when we were playing one short.

During these two weeks my mother is coming to visit. She lands in Oslo today and I can't think of anything better to get my mind off soccer and our loss to Everton than working her hard during this visit. Norway is a big country to see in six days!