By: Kacey White
(Brad Smith / isiphotos.com)
Kacey White earned her first National Team cap under Pia Sundhage at the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The CONCACAF Olympic Qualifiers is an event that I will always remember. We arrived in Juarez, Mexico knowing that it might be a long hotel-confined 2 week stay. However being prepared for that possibility and the fact that my former college roommate, Lori Chalupny (“Choops”), would be my roommate for the stint, made it much easier to handle. Prior to our tournament opening game, we had the opportunity to check out the stadium while watching the Mexico vs Jamaica game. Since both of these teams were in our group, I was excited to see how they fared against one another. Just making it to our seats was quite the experience as we were escorted by stadium officials and police escorts through the huge crowd. We had great seats and were able to enjoy the first half of the game before leaving at halftime. Mexico had quite the upper hand as they went on to win the game vs Jamaica 8-1.
Up first for us was the Jamaican National Team. As a team we were extremely excited to get the first game under our belt as this is what the team has been preparing for the past few months. The game was a difficult one to grow accustomed to as the Jamaican team compressed the field and only 30 yards separated the two team’s defensive lines. We started off well, but could not seem to get the scoring underway, but once we got the first goal in by Carli Lloyd they seemed to keep coming. With the game at 4-0, I came on as a substitute and was able to get my first cap under new head coach Pia Sundhage. The game ended on a high note as we scored 2 more goals for a final score of 6-0. We were one step closer to Beijing!
Our second group game was an event of a lifetime. USA vs Mexico in Juarez, Mexico in front of 24,000 screaming fans! However, those fans were not for the United States of America. Talk about a 12th man! However, our team was up to the challenge. Tash Kai got us on the board early in the game with a great finish on the ground past the Mexican goalkeeper. A bit later in the first half, the Mexican side equalized with a shot that went right into the upper left corner of the goal. Although momentum had instantly been turned in Mexico’s favor, less than 30 seconds later, Abby Wambach would capitalize on a long ball from defender Kate Markgraf. This allowed our team to keep most of the possession through the remainder of the half and Tash Kai took advantage of a defensive mishap by the Mexican central defender and netted her 2nd goal of the game. Although the second half was an entertaining one for the fans, the score remained at 3-1 as the final whistle blew.
After our win over Mexico, we were into the must win semi-final game vs Costa Rica. After a tough start to the tournament (a tie against T&T), Costa Rica almost kept Canada at bay with a tie. Although they lost 1-0, it was enough to advance on in order to play in the game that would determine the CONCACAF representatives at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Although we were in our hotel getting ready for the game for most of the day, we did happen to notice that it seemed a bit overcast on this particular day. Little did we know, there was a huge dust storm that had overtaken the area. As we exited the bus at the stadium, we began to realize that this would definitely have an affect on the game. We all tried to come up with our own ways of dealing with the situation, as the winds were very high, and dust was blowing everywhere. In warm-up the tactic varied from wearing sunglasses (the staff’s coping mechanism) to keeping extra gauze on each of us in order to wipe our eyes and keep our vision clear. By kickoff we had become a bit more accustomed to the interesting playing atmosphere and were ready to book our ticket to the Beijing. After a tight and sometimes frustrating first half we were able to put 3 balls in the back of the net to go on to a 3-0 win over a very talented Costa Rican team.
Final vs Canada: What more can be said? Anytime we meet Canada, we know it is going to be a battle. Most would suspect that after both teams qualified for the Olympics, that there would be a drop in focus and motivation. However, we knew that this would not be the case for this Final game. And we were not disappointed. Canada came out hard and we just tried to settle into our rhythm the first 10 minutes and really try to dictate the tempo instead of the opposite occurring. Although we had many opportunities throughout the game, we were unable to find the back of the net, therefore forcing overtime. I personally thought we had the go-ahead goal a few minutes into the 2nd half of overtime, as Carli Lloyd unleashed a shot from 30 out, only to be denied by the crossbar. However, a few minutes later Angela Hucles earned the team a free kick and Carli would put it in the back of the net. We celebrated with all of the intensity of a golden goal, but we knew that we would in fact have to finish the last few minutes before we could be named CONCACAF Champions. Canada did manage to put in a goal off of a corner kick rebound, thus forcing penalty kicks. Although the penalty kicks ended up stretching into the 7th round of kickers, “Barnie, (Nicole Barnhart) came up with the save we needed thus giving us the win 6-5 over the Canadians! Once the game goes to penalty kicks, it is often very easy for the team that controls the game to have a let down, but our team showed tremendous focus and confidence to finish the game in the fashion we did. These are the type of conditions that cannot be replicated and will only serve to help us in our preparation for Beijing!
So how do you pass the hours away on these trips? I think this is an interesting thing when it comes to our National Team. For Choops and myself we tried to change things up a bit each day. Of course there is the predictable napping, television, and internet browsing that most anyone would do with the time given between practices and games. Some of the girls even enjoy a bit of scrapbooking on these trips…it is a great way for the team to organize all the places that we have been so blessed to visit. On this trip, a favorite of ours quickly became the popular Xbox game, “Rock Band”. For those that do not know what this is, it is a musical game where up to 4 people can participate, one on the lead guitar, one on drums, one on bass guitar, and of course what band would be complete without the singer. More often that not, teammates could find myself and Lori in the equipment room working on either our guitar, drumming, or singing skills. Unfortunately for Pia, her room was right next door to this musical room and more often than not her work would be serenaded by a lively rendition of Bon Jovi’s “Wanted Dead or Alive”, Lori on guitar, Kacey on drums, and our guest singer, team captain Christie Rampone, on vocals.
After a rocking time in Mexico, we returned to the States for a little R&R before re-uniting for our first home games of the year. We’ve already notched a 3-2 victory over Australia with another game against the Aussies on Saturday in Birmingham followed by a game against Canada on May 10. Look for details on our domestic tour next time.