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Pac-10 In Print
• Stanford Women's Soccer Stanford Women's Soccer 2007
Written By: Ali Riley I don't even know where to begin! This has been the experience of a lifetime. Last Wednesday we played in the Group D opener against favorites Brazil in front of 33,000 screaming Chinese fans. We lost 5-0 but played our hearts out and learned some valuable lessons about playing against the world's best. Defending against Marta, the current FIFA player of the year, was unreal. After a rest day we started up training again in preparation for Game 2 against the 6th ranked Denmark. We also got a chance to go out and hit up the Wuhan night market! We had an hour to bargain our way through the stalls and interesting smells, buying purses, shoes, and DVDs. Thursday night we did our country proud and played our best game yet as a team, holding the Danes to 0-0 until the 60th minute before losing 2-0. After our game, we got to sit in the stands as Brazil put on a show, beating China 4-0. The crowds are unbelievable. They love their team, doing the wave and yelling for the total 90 minutes. I couldn't hear a thing! So while Brazil is set to go through to the second round, it is still up in the air as to which other team from our group will go through. If we tie the host team tomorrow night, we will be the spoiler, preventing them from reaching the 2nd round, and if we win, we could even go through ourselves! We flew from Wuhan to Tianjin on Sunday, and are now situated very comfortably at the beautiful Sheraton hotel, just eight minutes away from the field. We are no longer sharing a hotel with Brazil and Denmark, who headed off to different cities, but we are now with China, Sweden, and Korea. The atmosphere is really cool, with such a crazy mix of cultures and languages surrounding us. A few of my teammates have friends who play on some of the other teams, so it has been great to meet other women who are sharing our dream. Yesterday we went up this huge tower to look out at Tianjin, but it is so smoggy here there was not a lot to see…Then we went to a huge Chinese supermarket and bought a ton of mysterious candy, chips, and cookies. It was hilarious. Last night was our official training at the pitch, which looks like a huge glass UFO, surrounded by a pool. It was finished just a month ago and is one of the venues for the Olympics. We had exactly forty-five minutes to work through our formation, working on both our in and out of possession shape. All of the FIFA personnel and media were there, and they start the stopwatch right when the first person steps onto the grass. After practice, the highly anticipated 100 meter race took place on the track between our physio Roland and our technical analysis coach Tony. Roland, who hadn't sprinted in 16 years, shocked us all by diving at the finish and beating Tony, who used to play professionally, and was favored to win. All in all it was a very exciting night. This morning we had our last training session before the big game tomorrow. Today and tonight we will be meeting with the coaches, watching footage, and resting up as much as possible. Go Kiwis! Stanford is now 6-0 and playing some great soccer. After a big win 4-1 against Rutgers, the girls are now getting ready to fly off to Colorado. I am so proud of them!
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