Well it is official, I made the England World Cup team and I am soon to be on my way to Germany!!!! Whooooo hoooooooo, I cannot wait!! It is now real to me.
It’s a weird feeling waiting for the phone call that is going to determine your fate. It was so nerve racking. News was starting to filter through from other girls that they had made the team and that they had had their call already, so I was left wondering why I had not had my call yet?? Nerves start to set in, and all different thoughts start to circulate through your mind.
I suppose it does not help that we were waiting for our phone calls all the way over here in America and we are on a total different time difference. Of all the days to be awaiting my phone call, I was at the Puma headquarters doing a fashion show for Puma at 9 o’clock in the morning… a fashion show at 9am I hear you say… YEP a fashion show… which is cool in itself, getting to see all the new lines that are going to be coming out in 2012 and getting to pick up my nice new green boots that I will wear in the World Cup if selected and if I get my phone call, ha. So there was me trying to act all professional and do a good modeling job for Puma, when really my mind was thinking, ‘damn what happens if I miss my phone call?’
So the Puma shoot was done and I was on my way home in the car with Leslie Osborne when my phone starts to ring. I look down and see the number that is calling from England… this is it, this is the phone call I knew was coming and the one I have been waiting for… so why is it, that when you have been waiting for a phone call and it happens… you stare down at the phone and you hesitate to answer (so weird, ha)?
I answer and hear our assistant coaches voice, he tells me I am the last phone call of the day (good thing/bad thing? Ummmmmm??). “Congratulations for making the World Cup team,” I hear him say. A big sigh of relief overcomes me, and I say “thank you and I will see you on my return to England camp next week.”
The excitement then starts to sink in, because after all this time always saying ‘If selected or if I make the team’ I can now change that to, ‘I made the team and when in Germany.’ I can tell my mum that I am officially going and that she can make all her final preparations to fly over and see me play in what will be my second World Cup.
I know that some of you may be reading this and be thinking, ‘well what did she have to worry about?’ Some of my teammates said to me, ‘come on Al there was no shock there, I was certain that you were going to make it.’
I am a player however that takes nothing for granted and you really do not know until you know… yah know? Ha. You just never know what your coach is thinking. So not once did I ever assume that I was already going to be going to the World Cup. All I could do in the meantime was continue to work hard on my game and on my fitness and make it hard for the coach not to pick me.
So this is my last weekend game for the Boston Breakers which I am hoping I leave my team with a win under their belt. (Boston drew 0-0 with Sky Blue FC on Sunday at Yurcak Field.) Then it is time to fully focus 100 percent on the World Cup and my mind on my national team.
Here I come Germany!!!! With a stopover England camp in England first, though.
So much has been talked about that this is going to be the best World Cup in the history of the women’s games. You here things like there is going to be 70,000 at the opening game and that over 70 percent of all tickets have been sold. It is now that all this stuff starts to go through my mind again and you really cannot help but get goose bumps and it sends a shiver up your spin. I really hope it is going to be truly special and the women’s game is going to be taken to a whole another level through the showcase of this event.
So it is bye to WPS for a while, but I’ll be back! And it is hello Germany and taking in another handful of memories which I will be sure never to forget.
I will try my hardest to update you all with our progress and the coolness of it all, so you can all share this experience with me. Right now I have a huge smile on my face that is not going away anytime soon!!!
This World Cup is all about showcasing talent, and I sure am going to work my hardest for my team to showcase what talent I have too.
‘ich bin nach Deutschland!!!!!’
