Stand Up For CHANGE

It’s not only a political keyword these days. When the U.S WNT takes on Norway this Wednesday in the quaint Fredrikstad Stadium, it’ll continue its own rapid reinvention. A new head coach, a new mix of players, and a willingness to adapt one’s individual game for the benefit of the program. Sure, this is still an Abby Wambach team that threatens to score off every set piece and a Shannon Boxx team that’s fearsome down the middle, but its biggest advantage going into Beijing is the handful of young players that are capable of providing that unexpected burst of speed or defense-splitting change of direction.

“We talked about ‘change’ since I started and they seemed to embrace that word,” head coach Pia Sundhage said last week. “It has not been too much of a change, and it hasn’t been too little either. I think we’ve balanced that in a nice way from the way they played last year and how they adapted to a new coach, and I’m impressed with that in only seven months. I think the weakness is that we didn’t have a lot of time. We could have more in order to prepare for the Olympics. However, the fact that we have not had that much time, this team has been very precise with every single minute, every single practice. I’m very happy about that. There are players with a lot of experience and players with youth experience and I think that mix is good. Weakness? Well, could you perform, could you play, could you have fun when it really matters? Because if you look at the games today, the games we are playing, they have smiles, they’re happy. If all of us could have the same feeling going into the Olympics, we don’t know. We’ll see.”

The player that perhaps best embodies this revamped attitude is Angela Hucles. She’s going into her second Olympic Games and was by no means a slouch earlier in her career. Recently, however, the experienced midfielder and all-time leading scorer at the University of Virginia found a way to take her game to a level we’ve never seen before.

Coach Sundhage givin’ a wahoo to the Wahoo:

“Angela Hucles is amazing. It’s about change and it’s about changing speed. She has all the tools. She’s fit, she has great technique, she can strike that ball. Tactically, she’s good. It’s about changing and being unpredictable. We’ve shown a video, we talked to her and all of the sudden, she got it. She’s coming of the bench and has done great stuff. She’s started and done great stuff, as well. She can change her speed and change directions. She will not only play many minutes at the Olympics, she will score many goals as well. I look at her and I just smile because she changed her style a little bit. She had it, she Angela Hucles made me very happy lately. She’s good.” had the ability and she pretty much found it and coached herself.