Day 15 - USA vs. Columbia

Day 15 began quietly – everyone had free time to spend in Frankfurt as they pleased before lunch that was being served at 12:30 p.m. Beginning at 7:00 a.m., there was an elaborate breakfast buffet being served in the hotel. There was every type of breakfast treat including eggs, bacon, sausage, crepes, omelets, bread, meat, fruit and then the not so familiar breakfast foods such as miso soup, sushi, and rice noodles. The group entered at their leisure and almost everyone took advantage. Since this was one of the longest mornings the group had to themselves some chose to sleep-in while others went into the city of Frankfurt to check-out the famous skyline from across the river and do some shopping and exploring of the various historical buildings.

After a fun morning walking around Frankfurt, we gathered in the lobby in all of our USA gear ready to cheer our heads off.  The team was well equipped with our Wal-Mart America gear. Our two hour bus ride consisted of massive amounts of face paint and Michael Jackson.  Amber used her professional face painting skills to paint intricate variations of stars and stripes on our faces, unique to each player of course and Katie Gannet painted Massimo and Elena and even managed to paint the American flag on her own face.

Once we arrived at the Rhein-Neckar Arena in Sinsheim, we killed some time by wandering the stadium buying souvenirs and food and drinks. The atmosphere this time around was completely different from the first World Cup game we watched. It was filled with excitement and pride as the stadium slowly filled with fans from all over the world. Our face paint sure did turn heads! We had a bunch of random people ask to take photos with us; it was almost creepy.

After the nerves of the players wore off, the game was purely dominated by the USA.  Their first goal was a beauty by Heather O’Reilly, she took a pass from Amy Rodriguez and set herself up beautifully with a great first touch and ripped it into the upper left hand corner.  Their second goal was by substitute Megan Rampinoe making a quick impact right of the bat and the crowd went wild.  Their third goal the Colombian goalie got a hand on it but couldn’t handle the force of the strike from Carli Lloyd and the USA ended up winning 3-0.

The USA vs. Colombia game was the most perfect way to end this trip. Each member of the team took away a different piece of the experience. The bonding that has been created through our own team wins over the last 16 days and today’s USA win over Colombia have set the stage for Fall 2011 – Ivy League Championship here we come!