Hey Whitecaps fans,
I’m here checking in from Los Angeles, California, where we are getting to enjoy some sunny weather. We left Vancouver on Tuesday at 4 p.m. PT and landed just in time for us to load up our minivans and head over to California Pizza Kitchen for a delicious team dinner, where we were able to "carb-load" for our big week. This week, we have three matches in three different cities in California in just five days, so we have to make sure we are not only mentally prepared, but physically as well. After dinner, we were all excited to head straight to the hotel to find out our rooming assignments and get settled in for the night and get rested up for game day.
In the morning, we started off our day with another delicious meal at Corner Bakery, where we ate as a team before heading down to Manhattan Beach. At the beach, we went for team walk, where we all got to admire the incredible beach houses and ocean views and visualize what we want for a dream home someday. After about thirty minutes, we headed over to the pier where our trainer Tanya Rank led us through a series of stretches to make sure that our legs would be nice and loose come 7 p.m. PT when it was time for kickoff. Not only was the walk and stretch important for our pre-game preparation, it was also so nice to get to escape the hotel for a little while, take in some fresh California air, and enjoy the sunshine.
When we got back to the hotel, we had a few hours to ourselves to do whatever we needed in order to be rested and ready to play Pali Blues in the evening. Following that, we headed up to the penthouse meeting room in our hotel, where we had a neat view of Los Angeles and went through some tactics for the match. Coach Hubert Busby Jr. and the rest of his staff prepared us for our match-ups for the evening, and as a team, we knew it was time to start really focusing on the game. Once we knew our individual roles for the game and we were released from the team meeting, we headed to the pre-game meal and back to our rooms to get suited up to travel to the stadium.
As of now, we just finished playing Pali Blues at their home field in Pacific Palisades, where we were able to steal one point from them on the road. Although points aren’t easy to come by away from home, especially against quality opponents, we left the game feeling a little frustrated. We are a competitive group of athletes with high expectations for ourselves and we weren’t pleased with the goal we gave up and thought we had some quality chances to put the game away, but instead we ended up in a 1-1 draw. However, with our frustrations aside, we were proud that it was a hard-fought game for 90 minutes and although we didn’t get the three points we were hoping for, some good things came from the match. Our team showed a lot of character coming from behind on the road after we gave up a goal in the first half just before halftime. Tina Romaguolo was one of our sparks off of the bench in the second half that was able to change the game when she scored the equalizer on a penalty kick after she was the player that drew the foul. Towards the end of the game, we really took control and thought we would be able to put in one last goal for the win, but time expired before we were able to capitalize.
On Thursday, it is important that we use the day to recover our legs and our bodies because we have another big match coming up on Friday evening against LA Strikers in Pasadena, California, where we are looking to earn a win. Thank you for all of your support and don’t forget to cheer us on from Vancouver at 7 p.m. PT on Friday evening. I'll be sure to check back in with you afterwards!
Erica Campanelli - #2
