"Set your goals high, and dont stop till you get there."

Saturday we traveled to Kemi to face Merilappi United. In our first meeting against them we drew 2-2 in a game that we agreed wasn’t our best. After a long bus ride, a stop to buy not one, but two pairs of cleats we arrived to the field in time for a very quick warm up. The first half we couldn’t find our rhythm. We looked panicked and out of sync.  In the 25^th minute Jenni broke through and was able to break the tie; she slid in the ball past the keeper for the 1-0 lead. Not long after Merilappi was lucky enough to even the score at 1, off a ball that ricochet off one of our defenders.  We went into halftime 1-1. Coming out of the locker rooms we knew we needed to pick it up and it showed in the second half. Brooke scored a bomb in the 60^th minute. Linda played a great ball through to Jenni, whose attempt was saved by the goalkeeper. The rebound popped out and Brooke slammed it home. In the 70^th minute, I played a goal kick over the defense, which I think Tess flicked on, that Jenni was able to run onto and placed perfectly for the 3^rd goal of the match. The game finished 3-1. With the win we will finish first, despite that we have one more game we have enough points to guarantee us first place. This will give us 3 starting points going into the final leg of the season. As a team this solidifies our first goal and we are looking forward to starting the second part of our season.

Highlights from the game

Other stuff going on.. Last Wednesday we had a team sauna night. Although the weather wasn’t the best we managed to have a great time. Brooke, Wena, Lena and I even took a quick jump off the highdive before warming up in the sauna. Ulla and Linda’s mom made us plenty of food and Linda put together a great game of minute to win it. We had 5 different games to compete in and they got pretty intense. Hakki, our coach was even on one team.. a bit unfair because he practices these games on a daily basis! My team ended up coming in second but we are ready for a rematch at the next sauna night. Kokkola cup came to town and we worked quite a bit. Our job was to sell stuff from the tournament in the cup shop, a little trailer outside the field. I also worked one day in the kitchen. At tournaments in Finland it’s common for the teams to stay in local schools instead of hotels. In a few of the schools they served the kids their meals, where we were assigned to help out. We had our first beach day of the year and couldn’t seem to escape the paparazzi. We met at the beach with a few of our teammates for some beach volley and a little picnic. The weather was nice but a bit windy.  Brooke, Monica, Krista and I have booked a trip to London next Monday. We have tickets to the Women’s Soccer Final at Wembley and hopefully will get a chance to see another event.