I was in the San Francisco airport last weekend waiting to take our red-eye flight back to the East Coast after our first Sky Blue F.C. road trip of the season. I was sitting on the floor while Carli [Lloyd] and Tash [Kai] tried to secretly take photos of an interesting character at the gate across from ours. The highlight of his attire was definitely the mining-style hard hat with a head-lamp. Not quite sure why he would need that on the plane but I guess if the power had gone out in the airport the joke would have been on us. This entry is going to be a bit different — to mix things up a bit, I decided to make a list (I love lists!) of my favorite “most recents.”
Sky Blue F.C. Game We played F.C. Gold Pride and lost, 3-1. The first half they came out hard and put us under a lot of pressure. It was their home opener and they had the better of the play for the first 45 minutes. At halftime we were down by 1-0. In the second half I think we really stepped it up. We tied the game, but unfortunately couldn’t hold. I was happy to play 90 minutes and I think that my performances continue to improve, which is important over a long season. I feel so much better this year than I did last year at this point in the season, so that is encouraging. We were disappointed with the result, but it is so early in the season and I think our team is yet to click. Rosana said something important in our team huddle after the game, “Sometimes you have to lose to win.” It’s true. In the long run, this loss was not a bad thing. Now we are focused and intent on improving so we can get the better of Chicago, when we travel to play them next weekend.
From My Journal
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.” – Theodore Roosevelt
Meaningless Thought. Each other should be one word! I always type it that way and then have to change it when the little red squiggly line comes up underneath it.
Meaningful (or at Least in My Opinion) Thought. This is somewhat related to the Roosevelt quotation, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about fears and things that hold us back from being who we dream of being.
I think that this new train of thought arose when I started to really tweak my diet, hydration and recovery thanks to Dawn Scott’s suggestions. I’ve always worked as hard as possible, but this is an area that I’ve really fine tuned lately, and it led me to realize that I truly do everything possible to be my best. Whether it’s physically, mentally or emotionally, I give everything I have to fútbol. I believe that this is the best way to go about any goal — to decide what you want and then fight for it, devoting everything you can to the process. But sometimes it is a scary feeling to know that you’re holding nothing back. I used to often say, “What if I do everything possible and that still is not good enough or I still am not able to be the player I dream of being?” The thing is, there’s no way to know that unless you try. And it is impossible to feel any regret if you’ve done the best you can.
Song Played on My iTunes. “God of Wine” by Third Eye Blind
Sky Blue F.C. New Tradition. Before each away game, we all put $5 into the pot and then select a name of a teammate at random. Whomever’s selection scores our first goal that game gets all the money. This week’s winner was Katie Schoepfer. She drew Laura Kalmari’s name and Laura scored our goal against F.C. Gold Pride. I had picked Carli and I told her that if we were around the box I would only pass to her. Now that I think of it, she did have one run in behind the back line where I tried to slip her a ball through, but we didn’t quite connect.
Addition to My To-Do List. Buy smoothie ingredients. I recently bought the Magic Bullet blender, so I’m going to start making smoothies for after training. I need to stock up on some frozen fruit and maybe protein powder.
O.K., back to the regular format.
It was really nice to see my sister, Shira, last weekend. She plays for Stanford, so she got to go to the game and hang out afterward, and the next day. I know that I’ve mentioned Shira before, but every time I see her it reminds me again why she is my best friend and my biggest supporter. There is no way I could do what I do without her as a friend and training partner. Although we are different, we basically look like twins.
Apparently, when we were watching the game, a concerned fan came up to her and said: “Yael, why are you not out there? Are you injured?!” These kinds of things a lot happen to Shira. I’m pretty sure she’s also signed a few autographs as me in the past.