U20 WNT - Game Day 1

Thursday July 9th

Let's start at the end.......We beat Wales 7-3

It was a great day for the team. Had the bacon, sausage, egg, baked beans and tomato breakfast and it was very tasty. Found out that Adele who is the head cook at Stoke Mandeville took the players laundry home and did it in her own washer and dryer as we were having problems with the ones at the dorms. What a sweetheart! That lady will certainly get a tour t-shirt. Went out to Halton for the Jersey Ceremony and a walk through of the game plan. Lunch then off to Brunel for the game against Wales.....see following report. After match meal was a great opportunity for the players to socialize with the Welsh players. here is a snippet of video of the players right after the win.......emotional as eight of them were on the squad that lost by a point to Wales in 2007.




USA U20 WNT Win Nation’s Cup Opener

The USA U20 beat Wales by a score of 7-3 to win the opening game of the U20 Nations Cup. The USA started the game on the back foot as they struggled with the passion of their Welsh counterpart. The young eagles weathered several attacks by the Welsh before giving up a penalty in their twenty-two that resulted in them going 0-3 down after ten minutes. This actually seemed to settle the nerves of the U20’s and they began to create chances of their own. They almost leveled the game at the twenty–three minute mark but Cat Parkhill’s long-range penalty attempt fell just short of the posts. The rest of the half was a forward dominated battle that was mostly played between the twenty–twos.

The USA came out very strong in the second half and got down to the Welsh five-meter line only to knock on as they went for the tryline. Fifteen minutes into the second half Erica Cavenaugh received a yellow card and despite being down a player the game began to swing in the U20’s favor. They began to dominate possession and territory only to have several scoring opportunities thwarted by a swarming Welsh defense. With the game approaching injury time the Welsh were awarded a series of penalties that took them out to the half way line and they looked like they had weathered the storm when Tyra McGrady pounced on a dropped ball and weaved forty yards down the field to score in the corner. Cat Parkhill stepped up and kicked the conversion from the sideline and the US bench erupted as the ref blew for full time. “This was a well deserved result. We played most of the second half on the front foot and had several chances that we just couldn’t finish,” said Head Coach Bryn Chivers. The squad contained eight players from the squad who narrowly lost to Wales the last time the teams played. “This was an emotional win for the team as we lost 14-15 to Wales two years ago on the last kick of the game”. Chivers added. When asked who stood out for the U20’s Chivers credited all of the players but thought flanker Jozy Gessner and wing Erica Cavenaugh stood out for different reasons. “Jozy Gessner was all over the field and her work ethic was an inspiration. In a physical game you have to have someone who will step up and put in the big hits and Erica Cavenaugh did that today”.

The U20 WNT’s next game is Sunday July 12th when they take on a strong England team that beat Canada 45-0 in the second match today.