What The Heart Wants

A Media Invasion

Erica scheduled an afternoon practice for Tuesday to give her players, herself, and the other coaches sufficient recovery time from last night's Heart-to-Heart gala. Right after 8 o'clock, Carm got a call on her cell phone.

Karina Leblanc: Carmapop! I'll be there in 10 minutes to pick you up. Be ready!

Carm: Sure thing....KK?

Karina: In the flesh!

Carm got ready as quick as possible, but was still behind by the time her former national team teammate and current soccer analyst for TSN and Lifetime arrived at her house. She asked Diana (who stayed over to allow her housemates some private time) to get the door and let Karina in.

Karina: D! What are you doing here?

Diana: I spent the night so that my housemates would be able to....

Karina: Don't finish that sentence!

Karina turned to her cameraman and said, "We'll get to those two later."  Carm came into the living room and hugged Karina, then asked why she was in Philly.

Karina: Lifetime sent me to do a piece on the Hearts for the season preview show on Friday night, focusing on why THIS women's soccer franchise will be able to do what the Independence couldn't, get the city to care about and support it.

Carm: So what's the plan?

Karina: You remember Carpool Karaoke that I did with Sinc, D, Rhi, and the rest at the pre-Olympic training camp? This is going to be Carpool Interview. We're going to the Hearts' complex to pick up Wendy, Erica, and Kristin, then will hit the streets of Philadelphia while I ask the four of you about the steps the club has taken over the past six months to be where it is now.

Carm: Let's go, then. Diana, lock up when you leave and if you happen to run into my best friends before I do, give them a hard time about last night. Wait a second...I just got an awful image in my mind. On second thought, I better give them the what-for since you'd probably be just as susceptible to acting that way if you and Rhian had been out together.

Karina: Carmie, I do NOT want to think about my business partners being all nasty like that. You're going to have to buy me some strong coffee to get that vision out of my mind.

Karina and Carm left her house and got into the rental SUV the former goalkeeper procured. They arrived at the training complex at 8:45 and the other three members of the front office/coaching staff got into the vehicle. After a couple of minutes on the road, Karina started with the questions.

Karina: Wendy, how does an expansion team land a World Cup champion and an Olympic medalist with their first two picks in the draft?

Wendy: We took advantage of the short-sightedness of the Pride and Spirit front offices to nab a pair of players that we felt were the perfect backbone for the club and team we wanted to become. It also didn't hurt that they had someone on the inside advocating for their selection.

Carm: What can I say? When the protected list was disclosed, I saw their names weren't on it and went to bat for the two with Wendy and Erica.

Karina: Erica, did your vision of how you want the Hearts to play factor into the moves you and Wendy have made in the past six months?

Erica: I'd be lying if I said it didn't. We used our first seven picks in the expansion draft to attempt to get the necessary pieces to eventually build a starting XI, but the last three that day were more about leveraging other clubs' interest into a deeper squad here. Adding a player like Diana Matheson after being locked out of selecting her during the draft allowed us to be aggressive in getting value from Abby Smith and Heather O'Reilly's selections.