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Abby, Becky, Heather, and Lori during USWNT practice

I dithered almost to the last minute about what to do today. My original plan had been to leave the car parked and spend the day walking around Faro, the town where I’m staying. But Aaron Heifetz had said I’d be welcome at the team practice session today, and in the end that proved to be too tempting. If I needed any more convincing, as soon as I stepped out the door of my guest house, the skies opened.

Fortunately, the sky cleared by the time I got to the USWNT practice site in Ferreiras. It took a little bit of discussion to get in the door, but I was soon settled in along with the Japanese press (who seem to be the only ones covering this tournament with any diligence).

When I arrived, they were playing some sort of weird game with a bunch of players on either side of an open area. Periodically the ball would be kicked from one side to the other, and how well this was done seemed to be important. I’ve included a clip of this. If you don’t understand it, either, don’t worry – I watched it a lot longer than two minutes and still couldn’t figure it out.

Next, the players were split up into forward, midfielders, and defenders. The forwards practiced beating defenders and shooting; the midfielders practiced corner kicks; and the defenders practiced clearing long balls. So far as I could tell, this practice included only players who hadn’t gone 90 minutes yesterday. So players like Abby Wambach and Lauren Cheney were there, but no Alex Morgan or Christie Rampone.

The final practice brought everyone back together for some small-side soccer on a reduced field. After a few rounds of that, Pia Sundhage called a halt. The whole practice didn’t take much more than an hour, but players really seemed to be feeling it.

It’s interesting. While they’re practicing, you’re listening to them encourage and rag on each other and laugh and yell, and you think, “They’re getting paid for this!?” But at the end everyone comes staggering over to the side of the field: Hope Solo limps off, Tobin Heath gets a massage, half-a-dozen players get ice packs, and you realize the toll it’s taking on them.

I was extremely chuffed when Lori Lindsey actually came over to me as she came off the field and gave me a hug. She’s been with the Freedom since 2003, so I’ve known her a long time and even copied game videos for her mom back in the WUSA days. Becky Sauerbrunn, with only the slightest encouragement, also came over and gave me a hug, and I managed to get an interview with the two of them, unfortunately brief because they had to hurry up and be elsewhere.

After that I drove over to nearby Guia and had a wonderful lunch, then spent the afternoon in Silves, a pretty historic little town with a great big castle in the middle. Tomorrow the plan is to take in three Algarve Cup matches, though I may decide to skip Wales-Ireland and just spend a bit more time in Lagos, a lovely town that I only got a taste of yesterday.

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• Soccer
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