Competing in the Big Leagues.

The last thing our coaches told us today is, "You have to Believe." Today we competed hard against a team ranked in the top 10 in the world and just returned from the World Cup in Argentina. New Zealand, Australia, India, South Africa and England are all teams that are ranked higher than us and have a lot more experience and specialty players on their squads. This tournament we have shown that we can compete with these teams and although the scorelines may scream otherwise, the Canadian team has put out a hard fought battle and has put their name on the map.

We not only held New Zealand to 0-0 at the half but we competed. We had calm, circle defense with good, tight marking in the first half. We had a bit of trouble outletting at first due to technical errors and decision making but as we got our rhythm we really started to generate attack and put their backs under pressure. We gained a lot of territory and capitalized by earning two closely timed penalty corners. Steph J was up to bat on both and the second of the two was very close to going in but was somehow kept out by the NZ post player. Holding at the buzzer to a score of 0-0 we were revved up to really compete and take 3 points from this team.

At this point, we sat in a 3-way tie for points with both Wales and Malaysia. Since the tie breaker goes to goals +/- we needed to stay ahead of Malaysia who lost to England 3-0. Therefore, we needed to keep the scoreline less than 4 or tie or win to go through to the 5th/6th place game. Excellent for us. We knew we didn't want to just lost by less than 4 we wanted to take points from this kiwi team.

Our coaches told us the first 10 minutes would be the most important of the second half but a slip up in our push back and a very fast counter attack down our left side found a NZ girl one time chip shotting the ball near side to give them an edge 1-0. We settled and competed back and within minutes were in the other end and the ball was down to Barney on the baseline who one touched it across the net. Diving with all efforts Robyn put the ball past the NZ keeper to tie the game at 1-1.

Great efforts for the rest of the game but some slip ups allowed them to go up 2-1 by a quick free hit outside the circle on the left side. Late in the second half a series of corners were called against Canada but our goalie, Zee made some fantastic saves on their low drag flicks. Keeping us in the game the last corner of the match Zee made the save but it trickled behind her and casually touched our post players shoe. The stroke was called and was the final goal for NZ to put them up to 3-1. A questionable call and what might of or should have been a 2-1 game against a top 10 team in the world is a fantastic result and effort for Canada.

So, yeah when our coach says, "You have to believe." We do. We are good enough and better than our rankings state. We are here to compete and we will keep competing and do what it takes to get to London 2012.

Look out Guadalajara .... Pan Ams 2011... Here we come!

We will be playing India in two days for 5th/6th place and that game is going to be rediculously overwhelming. We just saw India play South Africa and win 3-1. The crowds were nuts in a stadium that holds 20,000 people.. imagine. So, in two days we not only have to play against a team that we have competed well against since June and beaten but also, a huge and I do mean HUGE home crowd. It is going to be one game I will never forget. I hope my cold really is on its last legs tomorrow so I can be snot free and breathing well for the game!

Pictures are up on Facebook from the village and our games. Check it Out!