Day 4: March 31, 2008
Today was a "recovery" day for us. We were able to sleep in half an hour longer as breakfast wasn't until 8:00am. After breakfast we had a team meeting in a conference room in the hotel. We discussed our upcoming game and our opponent. Canada is known for being strong, physical and tough in the air so we talked about our approach to the game and how we could use our strengths to our advantage. The meeting lasted an hour and fifteen minutes and it helped us realize what we needed to do as a team to upset this Canadian team we were preparing to play in two days. After the meeting we were taken to the stadium and allowed 45 minutes on the field to practice, but we had to wear tennis shoes as they did not want us tearing up the field. Compared to the dirt fields we have been practicing on, the stadium field was golden. It has nice grass and the stadium itself is just a great sight. We can't wait to see how many people will be in the stands on Wednesday.
Now that we are given a perfect pitch, there should be no excuses for poor touches. In the 45 minutes alotted, we worked more on defensive shape and transitioning. It was a quick practice, but enough to get our legs loose and still recover from the past two days of extensive training. We returned to the hotel and had lunch at 1:00pm. After lunch we were able to shower and relax. At 5:00pm we were taken to the nearby mall to walk around. It was good to get out of the hotel for a reason other than practice. While at the mall random natives of Mexico would ask to take pictures with us. They really make you feel like celebrities over here. Dinner was served at 8:00pm and after we were free for the rest of the night to do as we pleased. Ria and I helped one of our teammates (Ayanna) with her homework while a couple others (Katrina, Anastacia, and Dernelle) were in our room just hanging out. Later we went to Maylee and Tasha's room to listen to the rap battle between our to girls from Tobago (Yaya and Kamika) and Annalis. We were both very impressed with how good they were with coming up with rhymes on the spot and they gave us some good laughs. Our night ended after that as it was time to rest for another early morning and two more practices the next day before our big game on Wednesday.
Day 5: April 1, 2008
Today began with another early morning as breakfast was at 7:30am. We departed from the hotel for our first practice at 9:30am. Coach Jamal said today was about getting more specific with our shape against our opponent Canada. As far as we know, they will be set up in a 4-3-3. So our practice consisted of moving the ball to different positions and allowing us to see where we should be defensively on the field. We also worked on defensive corners and free kicks as we know Canada will be strong in the air. We finished with some shooting and after about an hour and a half of practice we headed back to the hotel. We returned and had lunch at 12:30pm. Lunch was satisfying today compared to the other days. After lunch we did some homework and took a nap before our second practice. Practice was at 5:00pm and only lasted about 45 minutes. We did some 6v3 possession and then ended with 8v4 possession. We arrived back at the hotel took showers and had a 7:30pm dinner. All the girls including ourselves are ready and seem pumped for the game tomorrow. It would be a great accomplishment for the T&T Women’s team and the federation if we can pull off an upset against Canada tomorrow. As long as we come ready to play and stick to our style of playing simple, as Coach Jamal has been preaching the past couple days, we should be in for a great game of futbol.
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