Tarpley’s Thoughts

We played our first game of the Peace Cup and we beat Australia 2-1.  Australia is a very good team and it was a great win for us.  We are still adapting to the hot and humid weather here in Seoul.  We play Brazil tomorrow at 2:00. 

We have been enjoying South Korea.  We went to a fashion show on Friday night which kicked off the start of the tournament.  One person from each team modeled a dress and walked the runway.  Also, there was a Peace convention so people from all over the world were there.  It was a really neat experience. 

I did an interview at the fashion show with two Australian players and one Italian player for a newspaper in South Korea.  It was very interesting  because the question would be asked in Korean and then translated to the Australian players and me in English and another translator would translate it into Italian for the Italian player.  Then, we would say our answers and it would be translated back to Korean.  I was very impressed with all the translators! 

Big game tomorrow! 

Go USA

We arrived in South Korea last night.  We are in Seoul and there is a Coffee Bean connected to our hotel with Internet!  We are all very excited about having coffee and being on the Internet in a different country!

The flight was about 12 hours but it went by pretty fast.  I had a great opportunity to catch up on all my movies!  We had about an hour bus ride to our hotel.  Overall, the travel day went very smoothly. 

We are here for the Peace Cup Tournament which starts on Sunday.  Our group consists of Australia, Brazil and Italy.  It is a very well organized tournament and everything is top notch.  We came to this tournament two years ago and beat Canada in the final on a late goal. 

The roster is down to 22 players.  Only 18 players go to the Olympics and the 18 will be named in the next few weeks.  The Olympics are getting so close!

I’m off to get a vanilla latté to keep me awake. This jet lag is catching up to me!

Talk to you soon-

 Tarp

We qualified for the Beijing Olympics!  We beat Costa Rica 3-0 to advance and Canada beat Mexico 1-0 to earn the other birth.  It was very exciting to qualify and continue our goal of representing the USA in Beijing. 

The last few days at Olympic Qualifications we had a lot of fun.  We went bowling at a nearby bowling alley, hit up Starbucks once again and played a very competitive game of soccer tennis.  It was a lot of fun.  I actually took bowling in college for my PM.  You would think I would be better than I am! Ha ha.

Right now, I am enjoying some down time at home.  I am resting up for our domestic tour which starts in North Carolina and ends in Washington D.C.  We play three games, two against Australia and one against Canada. 

I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful spring weather!

We beat Mexico 3-1 in front of almost 23,000 fans this afternoon.  It was one of the best atmospheres that I have ever played in.  The fans were shouting at us, doing the wave and cheering very loudly.  We did very well to keep our composure and win this very important game.  We play Costa Rica on Wednesday night.  Whoever wins that game will qualify for the Olympics.

Go USA!

Last night we played Jamaica and we won 6-0. They played very well and it took us a little while to figure out how to solve their system. We scored 6 nice goals in front of a very lively crowd. It was a beautiful night and it was really fun to play under the lights. Tomorrow we play Mexico and it is sold out! It will be a really fun environment to play in.

Stephanie Cox had her 22nd birthday on Thursday and we had a party for her. It was a lot of fun….we had a piñata, cake, candy and lots of singing. We all had a really good time especially for the man who was holding the piñata who kept moving it up and down so Steph couldn’t hit it. We all got a good laugh out of it!

I’m excited to watch UNC play Kansas tonight in Men’s basketball. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get the channel down here. If not, I’ll be in the Internet watching it! Go Heels

Greetings from Juarez, Chihuahua in Mexico!  We are just across the border about 25 minutes from El Paso preparing for our first game in Olympic Qualifying.  We play Jamaica on Friday and we are really excited about it.  We arrived on Monday after training in Los Angeles at the Home Depot Center for the past week.  We can’t wait to start playing the games…..

We have been enjoying Mexico especially the nice weather!  Today on our way home from training we got to stop at Starbucks.  Our giant bus pulled over to the side of the road and we all jumped out and got our favorite Starbucks treat. I added another Starbucks mug to my collection of mugs from various cities I’ve visited.  Other than that, we are laying low preparing for our first match. 

Tonight we are going to see Mexico play Jamaica.  I’m looking forward to seeing the stadium and watching the other teams play.  I will keep you updated throughout this tournament….the top two teams advance to the Olympics!

Tarp

We won the Algarve Tournament!  We beat Denmark in the final game 2-1.  It was a tough match because we played 4 games in a short amount of time and Denmark was a very good team.  I always have a great time at the Algarve Tournament.

The flight home was, fortunately, uneventful.  It was a very long trip to get to LA! My trip started out with a 3 hour bus ride to get to the Lisbon airport, 7 ½ hour flight from Lisbon to Newark and then 5 hour flight from Newark to Los Angeles.  I was very excited to get home!

We have a week break and then we start camp on Friday.  We are preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers in early April in Mexico. 

I will write more later!  

We played Italy today and we won 2-0.  Italy came out and played us aggressively and we did well to solve their pressure and score two goals.  We played at a stadium that was really close to the beach and it was fairly warm. 

After the game, we ate at a nice restaurant on the water.  I always love going out to eat after the game.  It is fun to try different places and see different parts of Portugal.  We saw a beautiful sunset just as we were finishing up our meal. 

We have two days off till our next match.  It will be nice to rest up and recover before we play Norway…. they always have a great team. 

Thanks for reading…..

Tarp

The games have started!!!

We had our first game against China yesterday and we won 4-0. We played well as a team and we scored 4 great goals. It was an exciting way to start the tournament. We have another game tomorrow against Italy and then we play Norway.

 Things have been going really well. We had a day off and a few of us went to Sevilla. It was only about a 2 hour car ride and the scenery was beautiful. We had a really nice lunch and then we got to walk around the city and explore. There was a lot to do…touring the beautiful cathedral, carriage rides, shopping, walking around, Starbucks… It was one of my favorite trips! I bought another Starbucks mug to add to my collection (I collect Starbucks mugs from different countries that I have seen).

There is a restaurant really close to our hotel that has the best crepes and pizza. For me it is the perfect combination…..ice cream and thin-crust pizza. It doesn’t get better than that! Ha ha.

The weather has been beautiful since we arrived. Yesterday was a little windy, but the sun was still out. This is the nicest weather in the Algarve that I can remember. We play tomorrow at 1:45 PM…..I will keep you updated!

 Go USA!

 Tarp

We made it to the Algarve!  We arrived yesterday after a very long travel day.  I flew from the west coast and that flight was almost as long as the flight from Newark to Lisbon.  When we arrived in Lisbon, we had to take a 3 ½ hour bus ride to our hotel.  The airline didn’t put 65 pieces of our luggage on the plane so we didn’t have balls, gear, etc.  Our training yesterday consisted of walking about a mile down to the beach and playing a “horseshoe game” with quarters.  I was really bad!

I always love coming to the Algarve Tournament because it is beautiful here.  So far the weather has been great and I’m hoping to venture out for crepes and pizza in the next few days!  Our first game isn’t until March 5^th so we will be training for the first few weeks enjoying Portugal.

Thanks for reading…I’ll keep you updated from the Algarve!

Tarp