“If you have high expectations, you raise your level. If you have positive expectations, very often it happens. I try to coach what is healthy instead of trying to say, ‘fix the mistakes.’ It’s OK to make a mistake and I think that was an important statement, that the biggest mistake you can make is that you don’t try.” Pia Sundhage USA Women's National team Head Coach

A few weeks ago I looked at my calendar and I saw that I had a long weekend the same weekend as the World Cup Final.  Every soccer players dream is to play in this game; the next best thing is to watch it live!  Germany is only a two hour flight away from Finland so I looked up tickets and I booked it! I figured this was an amazing opportunity. 

 

Jamie and I flew out to Germany Friday morning and we met up with two of my Swedish friends (Helena and Martina) in Frankfurt. The whole experience was one that I will never forget.  I was so happy Martina, Helena, and Jamie got to come as well.  We had so much fun.  It was really neat Martina and I were at the final together because her Freshman year we made up goals and wrote them down.  Our goals consisted of playing professionally together,  making our country's national teams (USA and Sweden) and the last was to meet in the World Cup final; it was anyone's game from there... We met in Germany at the final! We saw Sweden and the USA play. It is funny how life is sometimes.. You really never know where you will end up.

I still have this paper and I truly believe that if you write your goals down you increase your odds on making your dream happen. 

 On Saturday Sweden and France battled it out in the bronze medal game.  We were all decked out in Swedish gear and we went to the fan zone to watch the game.  At the fan zone they had many different activities, at least three stages, giant big screen projectors, and food everywhere.  There were so many people there.  We got perfect seats and we met lots of new friends.  The Sweden game was intense! We were yelling the whole time.  Sweden deservingly captured the bronze medal.  Everyone was celebrating and shortly after the game ended the bands started playing, DJs popped up, there were shows, and fireworks.  We walked around proudly wearing our Swedish Jerseys and people everywhere where cheering and celebrating when they saw us. The euphoria, the excitement, the passion and the whole surroundings of the world cup was incredible! This day counts as one of my favorite days.

 

Sunday was the big day.. The World Cup Final!! I wore my red, white and blue and had an American flag.  We get to the stadium and I could feel my heart pounding.  Our seats were perfect we were about 10 rows up from the corner flag.  The stadium was sold out.  The atmosphere was incredible; the sound of the crowd, the numerous Japanese and American fans, the field and just the game itself is hard to describe because it was so great.  It was a great game to watch; my heart was going so fast I felt like I was playing.  I was out of my seat for a lot of the game and when Abby Wambach scored in overtime to make it 2-1 I thought my heart was going to stop.  Then when the Japanese tied it up on the corner kick; it was hard for me not to celebrate for them because it was such an amazing goal. I don't know how she managed to get her body on
that ball.  Its in these moments you see athletes do the unthinkable; they go that one extra degree to make it happen.  That extra degree makes all the difference.  Its incredible to experience and amazing to watch.  Sadly the US lost in PKs but I was happy for Japan.  Both teams fought hard and played like champions.  The ceremony at the end was amazing.  Once Japan had the trophy in their hands they ran around the stadium showing the fans and the world what they accomplished.  Watching them celebrate with such joy and passion was unbelievable. I had the chills.