Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

NUL MATCH WITH NEW ZEALAND 26th July 2008

We tied New Zealand tonight 1-1. Sincy scored at 28 minutes, but the White Ferns Emma Kete equalized 8 minutes later in the first half.

;I would say that this was a mediocre game at best. Credit must be given to the New Zealanders though, as they played really well and didn’t give us an inch all night. They have improved every time that we have played them and will, I think, create one or two shocks during the upcoming Olympics. No one had better take them lightly.

All this being said, we will have to really step up our performance from the one tonight if we are to achieve our goal.

I have to admit that I am not at all panicked about this result. I thought we had some pretty good periods of play. In the end, we have to remember that this match was part of our preparations for the Olympics. The game was meant to prepare us to play in the heat and humidity, to step up our fitness base and to drag us out of our jet lag. I think this game has done exactly this.

The whole Canadian squad sweated like fiends out there. We ran our tails off, and most of us stayed up later tonight than we have in a long time. It is 10:45pm as I write this report, and I have yet to go to eat supper. My previous record was 10:30pm.

I am usually very apologetic about our team performance in ties and losses. This time I feel we played below our best, but I am not worried about this. This Canadian team is not going to Beijing solely to be Olympians. We are going to bring home the gold. And, if we need to play an average game here in Singapore in order to prepare, then I am totally fine with this.

I am sure that the The coaches and my teammates see things in a similar light. This does not mean that we will not be training hard in the next few days to prepare ourselves even better through our fitness and heat acclimatization. Normally a tied game against New Zealand would be an upsetting experience, but right now we look at it as a small price to pay in order to feel the weight of a precious metal around our necks.