What The Heart Wants

Chemistry Class

A/N: Picture is of Morgan Reid (l) and Frannie Crouse (r), two of the Hearts' rookies.

Sunday was a "recovery" day for the Hearts' players. During Monday's training session, Wendy and Carm worked out arrangements for the upcoming road trip so they could be presented to the team at the conclusion of practice. Carm impressed upon Wendy the idea of getting the team out of Philly for a bit, to use the two road friendlies as part of a longer trip. They would leave tomorrow for Durham, then train there the rest of the week with the match against Duke on Saturday night. On Sunday, they'd continue on with the planned trip to DC, train Monday and Tuesday there prior to the scrimmage against the Spirit on Wednesday afternoon. Instead of staying over Wednesday night, the team would bus back to Philly and then have Thursday to take care of business for Heart-to-Heart and catch up on what was missed in the ten days gone before a recap training on Friday morning, leaving the rest of the Easter weekend free for the players.

Carm began pairing up players as roommates for the trip. She kept couples together, as well as housemates when possible. With an odd number traveling (19 players, 3 coaches, and Lauren to chronicle the trip for the website and handle media requests for the team), it was decided that Erica would get her own room and Carm and Diana would room together. When completed, Carm shared her list with Wendy.

Erica Dambach; Kristin Luckenbill/Lauren Green; Ali Krieger/Steph Labbe; Diana Matheson/Carm Moscato; Kristie Mewis/Steph McCaffrey; Emily Sonnett/Lindsey Horan; Morgan Andrews/Sammy Jo Prudhomme; Becca Quinn/EJ Proctor; Steph Ochs/Liz Eddy; Cami Levin/Cari Roccaro; Frannie Crouse/Jen Hoy; Morgan Reid/Savannah Jordan.

Wendy: That looks pretty good. When we get our 20th player, where does she fit in?

Carm: I think what will happen is that I'll be with Erica, Jen will go with Diana, and that player would slot in with Frannie unless there is a reason to change up another pairing.

Wendy: Sounds like you've got the chemistry thing in order.

Carm: It's not so hard when the club has so many pre-set relationships.

Wendy: Guess not.

Carm: Seen any movement out of Portland?

Wendy: Nothing since we made the deal on Tuesday. The underground network is indicating that they are working on getting a haul of players somehow. Not sure who's going or who they're trying to get, but if that's true we'll end up with one of that group most likely.

Carm got a beep on her cell, which she checked. It was an alert from the Thorns' Twitter account with a link. She clicked upon it and was taken to a press release from the club.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thorns, Pride strike five-player trade

The Portland Thorns and the Orlando Pride, combatants in one of last year's NWSL semifinals, have agreed to a five-player trade that sends forward Chioma Ubogagu, defender Monica, and midfielder Nickolette Dreisse to the Rose City for forward Hayley Raso and defender Emily Menges. Said Thorns general manager Gavin Wilkinson, "This off-season has been a complete overhaul of the 2017 championship squad, one that started through the expiry of contracts and the expansion draft that robbed us of two highly-valued scorers. As we sought to rebuild our team, it was evident that we needed quantity over quality. Getting three players from the Pride who will provide us with leadership in the back and upside at the wide positions I feel will help us in our pursuit of another playoff appearance in 2018."