NORWAY NOTES              4th, June 2010 

Memories of the match against Norway, which we tied yesterday, are already beginning to fade now that I am sitting at home in front of "Mission Impossible 2" on Norwegian television. It is good to be back in my own place and in my own bed, although I do admit to already missing the team. 

Yesterday evening's match was an exciting one, even if less than a classic. Norway is ranked 6th in the world and we, unfortunately, have slipped to 11th. Our tie against Norway will be seen by many people as a good result, but I cannot agree. We came out strong right from the start, and I think, we had them reeling on the back foot. After about 15 minutes of pressure on them and no score, the game seemed to even out, with both teams generating some pretty good chances on net.

In the second half, both teams came out ready to play, nut again I thought that we had the upper hand. I am sure, if you asked a member of the Norwegian team, they would say that the game was even at this point, but looking at the number of chances and the quality of those chances, I feel that we we definitely should have won the game.

We were obviously missing some of our big name players through injury and Club commitments and this was a challenge for us. However, Norway was missing some important players as well. It ws just good to know that we can still perform well without them, even if we did get only half the job done. 

A big congratulations to Bryanna McCarthy, who started the her first international team game and she was awesome. If I hadn't known this was her first cap before the game, I would never have guessed it. It is very exciting for our team and program to have developing players like her. She was not alone in her good work. One can just think of Alysha Bonnick, Josee Belanger, who scored her first goal for Canada, and a number of others coming up through the ranks.

There's no doubt that I am feeling tired after the camps, travel and matches. My body is fatigued, and I will need some good sleep before my game with LSK Kvinner in the Norway Cup on Sunday. Cup games are always tough, whomever the opposition, and we had better be ready for it.