I hope all of you are still enjoying your summer vacations, but at the same time looking forward to the Fall Season.   Please check out the Schedule link to the left, which has the season's preliminary practice schedule in place - we kick off on August 12 at 6:15.

Also, for those of you that haven't already been joining us, summer pickup games continue this Saturday at 10:00 am on Field 4.  Hope to see many of you there, as well as at the upcoming Middlesex County Fair next week!

Norwegian national team player Solveig Gulbrandsen played her final game for FC Gold Pride yesterday.  She now heads home to re-join Norwegian club Stabaek IF, as she also prepares herself for a career post-soccer.  Gulbrandsen has played in three World Cups and two Olympic games, appearing 150 times for the Norwegian national team.   Although it will be harder to follow the remainder of her career from long distance, we will not forget her kindness in coming to see our players last May.

Although Sky Blue lost, and Solveig Gulbrandsen didn't get into the game, the girls still enjoyed a great night of soccer.   They got to hang out with their friends and eat lots of popcorn.  They got to march across the field at halftime and wave to their families in the stands.  And afterwards, they got autographs from the players, including a word from  the Norwegian star of three World Cups and two Olympic Games.

Thanks to all the present and prior Norway players and parents who could make it.   Giving the girls this opportunity to watch, and meet, the best soccer players in the world can motivate our players tremendously.

I hope to see you all out there again soon.

The first Valkyrie Cup took place this morning, on a beautiful spring day.   Eighteen girls participated on four teams:  Red for Norway, Yellow for Sweden, Blue for Iceland and Black for Finland.   Each team played one game against each of the other three.   While all teams had success during the tournament, the Swedish/Yellow team finished ahead on points and were declared the Champions.    A link to pictures of the event is on the left of this page.

I want to thank all the players who made the competition a success, all the parents who came out to support them, and Eric Miller and Brian Simpson for helping me maintain order on the fields.

I hope that each of you, and also those who were unable to attend, will want to particpate in future cups.

While the world’s focus may be on the men’s World Cup in South Africa, the women’s national teams of the world are still holding qualifying matches for the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany.   This Saturday, June 19, Norway travels to the Netherlands for their next match, hoping to replicate their success last October when they beat the Dutch by a 3-0 score.   Four days later, on June 23, Norway returns home to face Belarus, who they beat 5-0 in Belarus three months ago.

Below is Norway’s roster for these two matches:

Ingrid Hjelmseth, Stabæk
Christine Colombo Nilsen, Lyon
Lisa-Marie Woods, Stabæk 
Lindy Melissa Wiik, Wolfsburg
Maren Mjelde, Arna-Bjørnar
Toril H. Akerhaugen, Stabæk
Lene Mykjåland, Washington Freedom
Guro Knutsen Mienna, Røa
Solveig Gulbrandsen,  FC Gold Pride
Ingvild Stensland, Lyon
Trine Bjerke Rønning, Stabæk
Lene Storløkken, LSK Kvinner
Emilie Haavi, Røa
Lise Klaveness, Stabæk
Runa Vikestad, Kolbotn
Isabell Herlovsen, Lyon
Cecilie Pedersen, Avaldsnes
Hedda Strand Gardsjord, Røa
 

The Norwegian women continued their perfect road to the 2011 World Cup this afternoon, utterly crushing Macedonia by a score of 14-0 on March 27.    Forward Isabel Herlovsen tied a national record, scoring six goals herself.   Lene Mykjåland and Lisa-Marie Woods each scored twice, while Trine Rønning, Ingvild Stensland, Cecilie Pedersen, and Lise Klaveness scored one each.

On March 30, they travelled to Belarus, and beat them soundly by the score of 5-0.   Five different players scored:  Anneli Giske, Lise Klaveness, Isabell Herlovsen, Lene Mykjåland and Solveig Gulbrandsen. 

Norway sit atop their qualification group, undeated with 23 goals scored, and 0 goals surrendered.  Norway will continue their run to the 2011 World Cup in June, when they face the Netherlands, and the return match against Belarus. 

It was an unhappy Algarve Cup for the Norwegians.  They started off with an incredible opening 20 minutes against #4 Sweden, scoring two quick goals.  But just as they were unable to finish that game strongly, and ended up with only a draw, they were similarly unable to finish out the Cup strongly, losing their consolation match against #10 Denmark this morning by the score of 1-2. 

Had Norway held on to the lead against Sweden ... had they held on to to the 1-1 draw against #1 USA instead of giving up an injury-time goal ... had they shutout #18 Iceland instead of allowing them to score twice - Norway could have been in a position to win the Algarve Cup instead of finishing 6th.   All of which merely points out the mental toughness and defensive strength are necessary complements to offensive power.

Next up for Norway are World Cup Qualifiers at the end of the month (March 27 and 30) against Macedonia and Belarus.

Norway finished out group play this morning with a 3-2 win over Iceland.   Solveig Gulbrandson of the WPS's FC Gold Pride put in the first two goals for Norway, with Lisa-Marie Woods getting the third goal.  The win was a welcome relief for the Norwegians, who had previously given up a two goal lead against Sweden to come away only with a draw, and who had let in an injury time goal against the USA to lose that game.  However, despite the win, Norway will finish third in their group, behind the undefeated USA team as well as Sweden, which tied Norway on points but had a better goal differential.    Norway will have one final match on March 3 to determing their final overall placement in the tournament.

It took extra time for the #1 ranked USA to squeak out a win over Norway on Friday, when Abby Wambach scored her second of the day to give Norway the 1-2 loss.  Norway started the game having benched several veteran starters following the 2-2 draw with Sweden, where the Norwegians were unhappy to have given up the early two goal lead.   The replacements played well, and were unfortunate to give up the opening goal to the USA, when a backpass to the keeper stuck in the mud, where Wambach was able to pounce on it.   With a half hour to go in the game, the veterans were inserted by the Norwegian coach, and within three minutes they evened the score at one apiece.    Unfortunately, they couldn’t hold out for the draw, and go into their final match against Iceland on Monday needing a strong win.

Norway played it’s first match today of the 2010 Algarve Cup (a pretigious invitational tournament for top women’s national teams held in Portugal), and came out on fire, opening up the scoring just seven minutes into the game against Sweden, currently 4th in the world, on a goal by Melissa Wiik.   A mere five minutes later, Marit Christensen added another to give Norway the early 2-0 lead.  Sweden clawed their way back, however, getting one goal before halftime, and another in the second half, leaving a draw at the final whistle.   Sweden’s second goal was by our own Sky Blue’s new signing, Jessica Landström. 

Up next for Norway is the #1 women’s team in the world, the United States, starring our own local hero, Heather O’Reilly.      The game will kick of this Friday at 10:00 ET.  Live text udpates on that match will be available here.

Norway’s matches at the Algarve Cup:

• Feb. 24:  Norway 2 - 2 Sweden
• Feb. 26:  USA (#1)- Norway (#7)
• Mar. 01:  Iceland (#18)- Norway (#7)

Norwegian national team captain, Solveig Gulbrandson, will be moving to Northern California shortly to join FC Gold Pride in the Women’s Professional Soccer league this season.  Gulbrandson, 29 year old, already has over 125 caps for Norway, playing in three World Cups and two Olympic Games, winning the Gold-Medal in 2000.   Read her note to fans about preparing to move to the United States here:

Women’s Professional Soccer :: FC Gold Pride :: Postcards from home, Gulbrandsen

The WPS schedule is due out in the next few weeks - I’ll let you know when Gulbrandson’s FC Gold Pride come to town.

Sky Blue FC made University of Connecticut defender Brittany Taylor its top pick in the first round (sixth overall), also taking Katie Schoepfer (Penn State), Melissa Clark (LSU), Danielle Johnson (Ole Miss), Megan Snell (Santa Clara), Kelly Isleib (Utah) and Jenifer Anzivino (Rutgers) in subsequent rounds.

Good luck to all the ladies drafted, and we hope to see them play in the coming season.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, which annually ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, Norway is the best place to live.   Click here for the full article.

Of course, this is no surprise - Norway has held the top spot for the last nine years.