"If you train hard, you'll not only be hard, you'll be hard to beat"

Sorry I have left you hanging for a little while. The last two weeks we have put on a much better display of how we can play. Prior to our break we were winning the games but I felt we hadn’t played to our best ability. In trainings we collectively decided that we need to pick up the intensity if we want to reach our goal of finishing first in our league. Our first game back was against FC Sport, the team that was trailing us by 3 points. The weather was pretty bad but we were ready. In the first half we had a few chances that we were unable to finish. We knew we needed to come out strong in the second half and finish the chances we got. Ten minutes through the first half we were able to score three goals. Sport fought back and were able to finish a rebound before the game ended, 3-1.

Last Saturday we traveled to a neighboring city, Jacobstad, to face FC United. We knew going into the game they were going to have a couple league players with them but we didn’t let that interfere with our mindset.  We came out strong and scored two quick goals. The second goal came off a nice cross from Tiia that found Linda’s head just inside the box which she was able to chip over the keeper. We went into the break 4-0. I thought we moved the ball pretty well and created a lot of chances for each other. The final score was 7-0. I hope we will continue to improve as a team and keep working hard in practice. We have only 3 games left before the final part of the season begins. We have the weekend off and are back at it again on Monday for a week’s worth of training before our game next Saturday.

Other news in Kokkola.. the weather has been awful! We had one nice week that had a beach day or two but unfortunately we didn’t go due to soccer. Now we are in the low 60s with rain all week! Finnish summers are awesome I tell you! Monday our fitness coach really took jogging to the next level. After about 2 miles, 8 hill sprints up a MOUNTAIN, 2 miles to some pond, swam and jog back we finally made it out alive. Not to mention the 50 mosquito bites that were acquired. Looking back it was a good workout and a pretty cool place to run through.. but I wouldn’t suggest to do it again anytime soon!