Meet Midfielder Jenna Richmond

Struck down by an ACL injury nine months before the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, defensive midfielder Jenna Richmond (above left with 2008 U.S. Soccer Young Female Athlete of the Year Kristie Mewis) couldn’t quite make it back into contention for a roster spot on that team. Now, she is focusing on trying to make the U.S. squad for the 2010 U-20 FIFA Women’s World Cup, a tournament that will take place in Germany next summer.

During a break in U-20 WNT training camp at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., the high school junior from Centreville, Va., took a few minutes to answer 11 Questions for Center Circle on ussoccer.com, ranging from her knee injury, to her short-term goals in 2009 and why Abby Wambach is “da bomb.”

Oh So Close!

The U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team is currently encamped at the The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., during the very early stages of its preparations for qualifying for the 2010 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. After experiencing the highs and the lows of a run to the title game at the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, defender Cloee Colohan is preparing for another shot at lifting a trophy. You can read more about Colohan here.

Goal of the Tournament Nominee!

Be sure to vote for Alex Morgan's first-half strike against Korea DPR in the Final for the Goal of the Tournament!! You can watch her upper-90 shot (and all of the other nominees) by clicking here:

http://www.fifa.com/u20womensworldcup/video/goalofthetournament.html

A Word from Coach DiCicco

Now that we've all gone our separate ways, it's time to wrap up the U-20 WWC Blog. We don't think we could have summed up this tournament better than coach DiCicco, so in his words...

This team won for a bunch of reasons but one key reason was how close this team became. There were 20 sisters fighting for each other and it did not matter if you played or not…you were important and supportive. The staff was also totally tied into our vision and dream. You just don’t beat the world unless you have that component!

From a technical standpoint, we won because we were the best defensive team in the tournament. We gave up three goals and two were in one game (0-2 lost to China). In that game, I started six different players because we had already qualified for the quarterfinals and unless we lost big and France won big would still win our group. By resting players who had played a lot of minutes and protecting players from getting their second yellow card and having to sit a game; we shortened the tournament from six games to five games for key players and that helped in the Final.

We also won because we had two strikers that played their best soccer at the right time. Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan scored 10 of our 12 goals and that is a very serious 1-2 punch to our opponents. In the Final against North Korea…they each scored and that was what we needed to defeat an excellent North Korea team.

I am incredibly proud of them and they did what most experts didn’t give us much chance to do and that was to win the GOLD. We beat every team in the final four because we beat France in group play and then Germany and N. Korea in the semi-final and Final respectively.

When we got back to the hotel after the final our team met up with the Germans and the two teams had great fun together. The Germans were a class act even though we ended their Gold medal dream. They created a receiving line that our players passed through on the way to receive our Gold Medals.

By the way, the USA team collected the Gold Medal, the FIFA Fair Play Award, the Best Goalkeeper Award, the top and 2nd best player award (called the Golden and Silver Ball) and the top scorer and 3rd scorer award (the Golden Boot and Bronze Boot awards). Pretty impressive.

Tonight, we will fly on a red-eye; land in LA and everyone will rush to their gates. I have done this before and all of a sudden it hits you that, as a team, we will NEVER be together again. It will be emotional…but I will remind them that we are linked FOREVER and have changed each other’s lives for the best.

We should all be proud of this team…because they represent what makes America special. In their own way (through soccer) they showed the world that Americans are good people; respective; polite; hard working; creative and not to be easily dismissed or defeated. I love America and I love this team…

The 2008 FIFA U20 World Champions.

Tony

Michelle's New Set of Nails

It didn't take long for nail-painting champion of the U.S. team Michelle Enyeart to figure out the best way to declare her new-found world championship-ness... if you can read her nails in that photo they say WORLD CHAMP, a perfect fit.

Please Stow All Carry-On Luggage...

Well... there are just some things that you don't want to put in the overhead compartment and if you're Alyssa Naeher, the Golden Glove trophy is one of them. She seatbelted in with her for take off and landing, just in case.

A Memory is a Memory (We Guess... )

This is Becky Edwards' leg. You might be wondering why we're blogging this scrape because it looks just like any other burn that one might get while playing on turf. However, not every burn is earned in a World Cup final, but this one is. That's why Becky actually wants this one to scar. Seriously. She's been scratching it so it leaves a permanent mark.

Some R&R Time

After visiting the Presidential papce, the team took the bus straight a good old fashioned barbeque that was organized by our amazing Team Liason Officer, Rosario, and her brother Martin - Martin pretty much served as Rosario's assistant for the final week of our journey.

Anyway, they took us to a friend's huge house and we had a great barbeque and we relaxed by their pool. It was some much needed down time where the girls basked in the sun and in their achievement!

A Special Tour

the team with Chile's Secretary of State

The U.S. ladies had two days to relax following their HUGE win on Sunday night and it was filled with pretty much everything we could have hoped for... we slept in, took a tour of the President's residence and did a few media appearances. Not only did we get a private tour of the residence, they were happy to open it especially for us because it was a national holiday here in Chile. Yea, these players are celebrities here.

WORLD CHAMPS!

What a night! Check out the hardware that the U.S. U-20 WNT took home tonight... there is the Fair Play Award, the Bronze Ball, the Bronze Boot, the Golden Ball, the Golden Boot, the Golden Glove and... oh what's that in the middle? That's a World Cup trophy!

Obviously we'll have much, much more on the celebration of tonight's championship victory over North Korea.

As if Sydney wasn't tired enough after 90 minutes, she had to lug around all those trophies afterwards...

College Cup Duel

Tomorrow, just before the U-20 Women take on North Korea for the World Cup title, a different championship will be on the line for some U.S. players. With two 1-0 wins on Friday evening, as Lauren Fowlkes’ Fighting Irish and Meghan Klingenberg and Nikki Washington’s Tar Heels are squaring off for the NCAA College Cup on Sunday just before the World Cup Final.

The Notre Dame vs. UNC match will kick off live at 2 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and will be immediately followed by the USA-North Korea clash in Santiago.

A Visit from Sundhage

U.S. Women's National Team head coach Pia Sundhage made the very long journey from Sweden to Chile for the USA's semifinal game and will be here through Sunday's final match (then she'll fly straight to Los Angeles ahead of the WNT's Achieve Your Gold Tour game against China).

It was a post-game surprise for the U.S. players, who were properly introduced on the field after the victorty. Sundhage, who had to take a later flight to Santiago than the rest of the team, addressed the team a little more informally after dinner - first offering her congratulations on last night's win and then, in keeping with her tradition, singing a little bit. Her selection was a bit of a change from the standard Dylan - Tina Turner's Simply the Best.

We're obviously thrilled to have Pia as part of our team through Sunday!

Tune in on Sunday!

When word reached the team that Sunday's championship game will be show LIVE on ESPN2, we were on a bus heading back to the hotel after training. Ever seen a standing ovation on a bus? This isn't the first time the crowd has gone wild on board our beautiful bus, but it's always fun when it happens!

So bottom line: be sure to tune in on Sunday for a Women's Soccer double header. You can catch the NCAA College Cup final at 2 p.m. ET and then the USA-North Korea World Cup Final at 4:30 p.m. ET!

We're Going to the 'Ship!

No rest for the... well, we're all relatively un-weary. But regardless, the team took a flight in the morning from Coquimbo to Santiago where they'll have just two days to prepare for the Final game against North Korea.

The USA and Germany shared the same flight, so everyone was able to forget the differences from last night and actually made friends.

As a side note: If you can afford to live anywhere in the world, we suggest gaining employment at the La Serena airport. Are there any other airports in the world that don't open before 11 a.m.?

Anyway.... here is the beautiful view of the Andes that we had for the entire 40 minute flight. They are really, really big.

Keelin on the Mic

Before kickoff tonight, the USA and Germany will recognize FIFA's Anti-Discrimination Day. In order to try to eradicate racism in football across the world.

U.S. captain Keelin Winters and the German captain will each read a statement to the crowd at tonight's match - don't worry, Keelin will read it in English. Then the two teams will get together for a photo behind an Anti-Racism banner.

Did You Know...

That German head coach Maren Meinert played for the Boston Breakers - the team that U.S. coach Tony DiCicco currently manages.

Of course, Tony coached against Maren when she was a player, most notably in the quarterfinal of the 1999 WWC, won by the USA by a 3-2 score....

The Rivalry Continues

This match will mark the ninth time the USA and Germany have met in a knockout round game at a FIFA Women’s World Cup or an Olympics, but amazingly the two countries have never met in a final. Of the previous eight meetings, six have been in semifinals and two were in the quarterfinals. The USA holds a 6-2 record in these knockout round games.

Prior to the USA’s 2-1 victory over Germany in the semifinal of the 2008 FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and subsequent loss to North Korea in the final, the winner of the semifinal meeting had always gone on to win the championship.

The USA has met Germany in two U-19 Women’s World Cup semifinals (2002 in Canada a 4-1 U.S. win and 2004 in Thailand, a 3-1 Germany win) and one U-20 Women’s World Cup quarterfinal (2006 in Russia, a 4-1 U.S. win).

Tonight's match between the two most successful women’s soccer countries in the world will mark the ninth meeting in the 14 FIFA world championships that have been contested.

Stars and Stripes

Since we're sharing a hotel with Germany, we felt it would be important to make sure we had our flag flying on our half of the hotel - just in case there was any confusion. The rooms here, as you can see, have really nice balconies that overlook the pool on the second floor... gives it a little bit of an Olympic Village feel we think!

Nice View

The U-20 WNT just wanted to give you a shout out to those of you in the northern part of the United States. It's summer here and as you can see, our hotel in La Serena is steps from the Pacific Ocean. The team made the short walk to the beach to catch a glimpse of the beautiful sunset before coming back to finish up some homework and call it a night.

It's Cold in There

Sometimes you gotta improvise and in La Serena, that means we're using trash bins as cold tubs. Below you can see Lauren Fowlkes shivering, but recovering and getting ready for Germany! The tubs still do their job and that's really the most important thing!