First of all, I was embarrassed about yesterday's game as I feel that some fans and observers back home may have thought we were coasting because we knew before kick off that we had qualified for the quarter finals. This was not the case, and we were running our butts off, although not always in a useful or productive manner. I want to make sure that everyone knows how much we wanted that win against the Swedes.

. AFP PHOTO /Frederic J. BROWN (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

After the loss, I was seriously pissed off, mostly at my own individual performance, but also because losing just sucks. It is a really strange feeling to be utterly frustrated and annoyed at losing, when you know you could have done so much better, yet elated at the same time, because we are advancing to the Olympic quarterfinal matches.

There isn't really much about the Swedish match to talk about. We did not play well, even though we still managed to create a ton of great goal opportunities, only one of which we converted. On the whole, I think our forwards played reasonably, and that in the end the responsibility for the loss must be laid at the feet of we the back four. We were a little off. Now, we have time to tweak and adjust our game before we face the Yanks on the 15th.August in Shanghai.

We arrived back at the Olympic village late yesterday after the game, and managed a quick bite before we rushed to pack and send our bags off at midnight. By the time we crawled into bed it was almost 2:00 am and we knew that we had to be up, fed, and ready to go by 0815 am. As you may guess, I was not a happy camper this morning.

The travel day to Shanghai went really well though. The bus to the airport was waiting for us at the village gate. The plane to Shanghai was on time, and the bus from the airport to our hotel was equally punctual. The only strange part of the morning, and there may have been more, but I was not in a humorous frame of mind, was when some guy tried to walk up to us, to take a closer look at all these red-garbed Canadian women.

I will admit that I have not been overly impressed with the size or the abilities of our little security guard detail as the men don't look as if they can actually do very much. I was proved wrong today. I don't think the poor guy trying to get closer to us knew what hit him. Usually we feel a bit like caged, exotic zoo animals when we are traveling as people gawk and stare while they take pictures. We are not used to all this attention and adulation - probably the Men's team soccer players are. But, even with their fascination about the team, one has ever come up close to check us out.

Anyway this particular little man seeking closer contact was manhandled away from us very swiftly. The speed and skill made more than a few of us gasp and wonder if the man was alright as he was frog marched away.

80,000 seat Olympic Stadium in Shanghai

Now that we have arrived in our new host city, we are settling into our hotel, or settling in as well as we can without our bags, which we are told, should be arriving some time tonight. I am enjoying the "peace and quiet" that is downtown Shanghai, compared to the noise and crowd of the Olympic village. The hotel is reasonably quiet and peaceful, and once again we have better access to internet and to television. It seems strange that while at the Olympics, in the athletes village, you are unable to actually watch the Olympics without going to find a lounge somewhere.

Well, that is it from me. Next up are the Americans and the biggest match of our lives. Good night

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