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Hey guys Firstly I would like to apologise for not catching up with you last week, I was flying back from China and then I went straight from their to the TV studio’s in London to do the pundit role on the rest of the women’s world cup.
Ok, I will start with our quarterfinal game against America. All the girls and the staff were extremely pleased that we managed to get out of our group, I don’t think many people back home expected us to do it as we were in a group with two teams ranked higher than us in the world, Germany and Japan. However we always had belief in ourselves as a squad, we also thought we could beat the Americans we focussed on their weak points and what we would do to the win the game, I feel we started off really well and held them 0-0 at half time, after the break the American’s showed their experience in tournaments like this and when we made some mistakes they capitalised and scored three goals within 15minutes. That was game over we couldn’t get back into it and we were out of the tournament we all were very down after the game as you can imagine we wanted to stay for the entirety. Back home, when I eventually returned after 24 hours travelling, not that I am complaining as we did travel business class on the way home so we had the comfort of a bed, big TV and food and drink on tap. I couldn’t believe the reaction of people, we were stopped at the airport, at the services, and then when I eventually got home I was stopped at my local shop and all the people were so positive and supportive they had been following the whole tournament, it was like the nation was behind us. All the games were shown in my local gym, in the local pubs and clubs and my old schools it was crazy to find that out but it just made me feel proud and I am hoping that we have helped change the perceptions and opinions of many people in this country and if we can encourage just a few more girls to take up sport especially football it will all be worth while. On my return the BBC phoned me and asked would I like to be a studio guest for the rest of the world cup, this is something I really enjoy doing and a way to still be part of the tournament even though I wasn’t playing. I really admired the way Brazil played it was such a refreshing change to see a team full of flair, skill and speed this was in contrast to the powerful nations of America and Germany. So, although I shouldn’t have been biased I was cheering on Brazil in the studio. They managed to demolish America and I saw one of the best goals in either a men’s or women’s world cup ( Marta’s second) please watch it if you get chance. Unfortunately they couldn’t manage to beat Germany in the final they were just to strong on the day but Brazil was by far the most entertaining and have done great things for women’s football in the world and I am sure they will be back. So on reflection, I have loved my experience of china, my TV work and how the nation have really backed us, but its great to be back home and now the season for my club team Leeds united starts on Sunday against Liverpool, I cant wait and hopefully we can get off to a positive start. |
