First Practice
First of all, let me clearly state:
It was way too windy and cold for my liking. I would like to present today’s weather as Exhibit A in the case of never moving the NWSL schedule to match the FIFA calendar. Some people may be willing to endure this weather to watch soccer, but not me. I endured about 10 minutes of practice before begging off and leaving Bekki Morgan to observe. Prior to my chickening out, we did get to hear from Coach Björkegren and Thembi Kgatlana. Here are the items of note from Kim:
The team will have a couple of weeks of training prior to heading to Florida. The pre-Florida training will likely be all fitness and conditioning training with tactics coming during the Florida trip.
In his time with Carson Pickett in Cyprus he witnessed what we all witnessed from her which is a deadly left foot on set pieces, especially corners.
He is mostly content with the roster as it sits, but is looking for one to two more moves to bolster attack.
Thembi Kgatlana shared that she is closer than expected to a return to action, setting April as the target date. She also commented that she enjoyed working with a roster of young talent in that it might give the team an advantage as their opponents might not always know what to expect. She was also cagey about how she might be deployed on this team, citing surprise as one of the elements in her personal arsenal. While not a full participant in practice, she was kicking the ball around before practice and appeared to be moving normally.
