England!!

We traveled to England on Saturday excited to be in a new country, see a few new sights, and play another top level team in the world. With a short two hour flight and all our bags arriving, it was thankfully an uneventful day.

Sunday we woke up to the overcast and cool weather of a typical England day. We had a pretty relaxing day recovering from our little bit of travel, but also got out for a practice. As we pulled up the field at England's Olympic Training Center, we were reminded a bit of home (well, home as in our training center back in Chula Vista). Once we got used to the great facility, we were ready to start playing England!

Since there was a wedding at the Training Center (it is really pretty here), we couldn't move into the dorms until Monday morning before our scrimmage. (We had been staying in a Holiday Inn near by). It was a very busy day moving all our bags and equipment, then playing a scrimmage. Nonetheless, we played quite well and dominated most of the game. Although we did not win, we got what we wanted out of the game: to figure out what worked for us, how England played, and what we needed to do in order to win.

And today, we did just that. We beat England 3-2. We didn't come out extremely strong, but we picked it up quickly and took a 2 goal lead into halftime, capitalizing on a few of our many chances. Both teams came out stronger in the 2nd half, but we added the next goal to extend our lead to 3. Unfortunately, we are not used to being ahead 3 goals, especially against a top side such as England. We got a little frantic for the last 10 minutes trying to hold on to the lead and allowing 2 goals in the process. But we still stayed composed enough to hold strong and get the win. It was a really big win for our team and our program. But this is just a starting point for us. I know we have so much more to learn and even more to achieve!

Tomorrow we are off to tour the site of where the Olympic hockey pitch will be for 2012 and then spend a few hours touring London. We are all really excited to get a firsthand glimpse of where we plan on being in 2012. We are also excited to do a little touring which we don't normally get to do a lot of on tour!!
I will blog and post pictures later!!

One more game for us against England remains on Thursday, then we return to the States on Friday!! We want to end the trip with a bang and on top!! Keep following and supporting us!!
GO AMERICA!!