Rhian Wilkinson's Official Website

RHIAN'S SOCCER JOURNALS:

THOUGHTS ON MATCH VERSUS USA 27th May 2009

I have not been looking forward to writing this report. It is never easy to analyze a loss ... especially one to the USA.

I was disappointed with the 0 - 4 result, but more than anything I was disappointed with myself. I am usually aware of how I play, and I know when I play well and when I don't. Yesterday, did not go as I had hoped and I played poorly.

During warm-up I felt really calm and relaxed and looking round, I saw my teammates were feeling about the same. However, I went from this good state to being insanely stiff and nervous as soon as the starting whistle sounded. My teammates weren't any better. We were too laid back and calm and we needed to get the arousal levels higher. I think that most of us played scared, or nervous early on, and only two or three of our players performed to their potential.

There are always dissenters, but I felt that only Chappy and Diana played really well in the game. The rest of us just managed ... or tried to manage. The US played very well, and they made the most of every mistake we made. Their first goal came so early in the game that we were shocked. We had any wind or aggression knocked right out of us. We were stunned when they scored that early. We just gave them a little too much space and BAM it was in the back of the net.

We can never afford to give a team a goal like that - especially the United States - from just outside the box. Someone said after the game that we played 45 minutes in the first half without being scored on. This of course is true, if you ignore the goal at the 2 minute mark and the one at the 47th minute mark. The 45 minutes inj between were much better. However, we have had the old adage drilled into us in our soccer careers that you must NEVER be scored on right at the start of a game, or near the end of a period. More than anything else, I think our two lapses were from a lack of concentration and focus.

Disappointing as the result is, it would be all too easy to make excuses. Some people have noted that we are a team that is a work in progress. Others that we have had little preparation compared to a team that has met regularly. Then again, Canada is an amateur national team, without any payments to or for players in the budget, compared to the fully professional Americans, all on salaries from the US Soccer Federation and playing for professional US clubs. In the end, we are left with the result, a loss, and we just have to do better.

What did not change were the amazing fans of the national women's team, and I want to thank you all. The support of the crowd, the "Voyageurs corner," the South Simcoe FC players, all who came out to cheer us on, even when we lost 4-0 to the Americans, is amazing. In what is only our second home game in three years, we still had over 10,000 fans in the stadium and our fans never stopped cheering and supporting us. This is something really special. We all feel terrible about the game, and not performing better. I cannot tell you how badly we wanted to do well in this match, but to hear our fans screaming just as loudly at the end of the game as they were at the beginning was really moving.

I was fortunate to meet so many people after the game as I walked around signing autographs. It is good to be reminded whom we are playing for every time we step out on the field in the red Canada jersey

From what I have heard, our fans and critics are united in enjoying our new style of play that we are starting to use under Carolina. I am certainly enjoying it a great deal, but obviously we all need a little more training time under our belts. First this year, England showed us how the game is meant to look in the finals of the Cyprus Cup. Now we have been reminded again, on the 25th May, that we still have plenty of work to do. You may have no doubt that we will persevere and start our climb up the world rankings again.

Thank you again and again for coming out and sticking with us during this journey.