What The Heart Wants

The Morning After The Night Before

Down in the dining room, Steph and Diana were talking about their travel plans to go to Philadelphia after camp and what they might want to look for in an apartment should they choose to live together again.

Steph: Do you have to stop back in Oakville after the San Jose match to re-pack before coming to Philly on Tuesday?

Diana: Yes. I didn't pack enough to be on the road for two weeks or more straight. You?

Steph: I have to be there on Monday since Wendy and Erica want Ali and I to meet all of you at the airport as you come in throughout the day on Tuesday.

Diana: The club is really putting the two of you in a prominent position with respect to the rest of the team.

Steph: Expansion teams usually struggle because they're made up of cast-offs from the rest of the league and they don't usually have a lot of veteran leadership in those cases. With the Hearts having us two and yourself, that component will be in place. We've all played for really big things in our careers, you and her with the College Cup, all of us at the Olympics and World Cup, Ali playing in Germany for a few years before coming back to the States. We need to use our experience to help the coaching staff guide this team, especially away from the field where their influence will be minimal at most.

Diana: Do you know who will be captain?

Steph: It's Ali. Decided when they chose her. Same as Vancouver and Sinc. The three of us have been through this before, and I don't expect things in Philly to be any different than they were in DC. She'll have the armband, but we'll be there right alongside her.

Diana: Any ideas on living arrangements for the season?

Steph: I was going to ask you if you wanted to get together on a place with me. I don't want to necessarily do a place on my own, and shacking up with one or two of the youngsters could easily turn into a case of Mother Hen.

Diana: I'm game. On our salaries, can we make do the two of us or would we need a third like in DC?

Steph: I can talk to Carm about rental pricing and do some online research to narrow down the choices. If we need a third, who would you want to ask?

Diana: I haven't really seen the roster to know who we have.

Steph pulled up the Expansion Draft results on her tablet and handed it to Diana.

Diana: Strike Kristie and Steph since they're a couple. I think our options are HAO, Jen Hoy, and Kriegs.

Steph: You can probably eliminate Heather since I don't expect us to keep her. Yes, she's relatively local, but she's been living in North Carolina off-season for the past few years and I know the Courage would like to have her.

Diana: So Jen or Ali. I can see the club wanting to get Jen with a couple of the younger players as an older sister type arrangement and she's also sort of local as well, which might help ease their transition to the city and the team. You good with asking Ali if it comes to it?

Steph: Let's do it anyways. She won't be able to stay with Carm once the season gets started because of the conflict of interest that that would entail.

Diana looked up and saw the USSF crest on TSN SportsCentre. She grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

Kate Beirness (SportsCentre anchor): Another black eye for the US Soccer Federation came yesterday afternoon in San Jose, CA, where a group of protesters sought to gain entry to the monthly meeting of the USSF Board of Directors. This followed picketing outside the meeting facility and comes on the heels of an in-stadium protest during the US Women's National Team's match against South Korea in Cary, NC, on October 22nd.