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A momentary altercation, involving our team bus and the compromising angle of the ground's driveway turned into a twenty-point turn, gave me and Walshy a flash back to a past tour of Chinese Taipei with the national team in 2006....
Our bus driver had decided to take us down a narrow route and along a ramp leading to our training sports ground that became higher and more narrow as we continued along this seemingly pointless venture. It got to a point where some girls were becoming quite concerned and wanted to get off as we towered over a 25 metre drop with the bus wheels edging dangerously close to the very low parapet that would do nothing to stop this huge bus from going over the edge. A regular trip to training became an absolute debacle as the atmosphere on the bus reached to pandemonium while some girls were close to having meltdowns whilst others were screaming and laughing hysterically, wacking the side of the bus with their wrists to watch the already stressed out bus driver panic in the rear view mirror while they giggled uncontrollably.
Finally after half an hour the bus driver managed to reverse us all the way back out circled the stadium to find another way in. The flustered bus driver accidentally took us down a one way street headed in the wrong direction and then a police car began tailing us. Despite the cheeky demands from the girls to try and out run the cop we pulled over and our coach and master mediator Tom Sermanni stepped in. Following some serious discussion he managed to diffuse the whole situation and got the bus driver out of copping a big fine.
After the entire debacle Tommy decided it was best to call off training and we headed back to the hotel, disheveled but amused.
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| Credit: Ann Odong |
As we made our way into the changerooms I was to get some urgent treatment after taking another heavy fall and rolling on my neck again. It had only just gotten better from the round one fall! As our legendary physio manipulated my neck to get some more mobility back, Stajic gave us another honest evaluation of our first half performance. He told us the quality of our passing and possession had to be better than that of the first half, saying that we are better players than what we had shown.
We couldn't have got off to a better start with Sarah Walsh putting away a tidy goal early in the second half. Then by a stoke of luck and some good timing, I went up for a corner when then ball was hit low into the box in the direction of a Newcastle defender directly in my line of sight. Lucky for me it bypassed her completely and I rounded up for a first time strike with my favoured foot. My right foot connected but could have made better contact. Regardless the ball went in the right direction and passed straight into the bottom corner. I couldn't believe it and raised my arms up while my team mates jumped over me all smiles and cracking up as I have been due for a goal for quite some time! The picture above captures the moment well. Being a defender you don't often get to indulge in all the glory of being the goalscorer, and then you remember... that's what all the fuss is about!
We finished strong and put away another couple of goals but had a slight hiccup when I tried to catch a striker out while she was making a clear offside run so I stepped up and raised my arm to make her offside run obvious thinking everyone would be on the same page but unfortunately we weren't at that instance and the flag was never raised putting us a couple of strides behind the striker who managed to put away a consolation goal ending in 4-1 our way.
High fives all round by the coaches post game which is always a good sign.
Sunday night I attended the premiere of the documentary about the two indigenous girls in the Matildas, Kyah Simon and Lydia Williams. It was held at the Oxford Art Factory and a select group of people were invited to attend including the girls themselves and friends and family. It was a moving film about the heritage of both girls and their journey into becoming two of the best players in the country. The film is called 'No Apologies'.
Mondays session we had off, I think to rest a few sore bodies and try to help recover from some minor injuries. Hopefully Brogan will be back for the Adelaide game with Kyah Simon making a much anticipated return to the Westfield W-League after a prolonged time away with a serious ankle injury. She started running a couple of weeks ago but when the pain did not subside she was ordered to put the dredded ankle boot back on.
Tonight (Wednesday) we have a practice game at Seven Hills then Friday morning training is back at Olympic Park in Homebush. This weekend we have a bye so we will be having a heavy training session on Saturday morning instead of a game.
Key player for Westfield W-League side Sydney FC, Thea is also a current Matilda with a strong passion for womens football and the sport in general. Catch the W-League every week at your local ground or if you can't make the game watch it live on ABC1. Read Thea's other columns for The Football Sack.