Day 3 In Iceland 7/11

Today, the 98s played a warm-up friendly with the Icelandic club Breidablik. This was a professional women’s team. Currently, the first team at Briedablik is in 1st place in the Icelandic women’s premier league and their second team is in 2nd place in the Icelandic 1st division. The team the girls played was made of player from both squads. After a full 90 minutes, the score was Breidablik 2, LNSC 1. It was an evenly played match after the first 5 minutes (which is what it took for LNSC to settle in) and both teams created numerous chances. The LNSC goal was scored by Carson Jones in the 35th minute and set the match equal at one a piece. This, after an LNSC goal scored by Ashley Whitaker around the 30 minute mark was called back for offsides. Both Breidablik goals were conceded from corners (something that the team will look to shore up in their next game). Other nice goal scoring opportunities came off of a Kate Swartwout set-piece that beat the keeper and went wide of the post by less than a yard and a Claire Eve corner that fell just short of curling into the near post. All in all, the pace of play was very quick and it was a good warm up for the Gothia Cup which begins on Monday. It was also and opportunity to ease a few players recovering from injuries back into full speed play. It was certainly a learning experience for both teams as the hosts gave an impressive display of individual dribbling and shooting abilities while LNSC caused havoc with our high press, ball movement through the backfield and constant attack through diagonal balls and channel-through balls.

After the game, the group headed to the Blue Lagoon, one of the 25 Wonders of the World. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa located in a lava field in Grindavik. The water temperatures average between 99-102 degrees.

The team left the Blue Lagoon around 10:00 pm and headed to the airport for a 1:00 am flight to Copenhagen. Once in Copenhagen, the 98's met up with the younger team for breakfast than boarded a bus for the 4 hour ride to Gothenburg. The girls are all checked into the hotel and have headed out for an afternoon training session with coaches. Tonight we have a couple of meetings and a team dinner then an early night with games starting tomorrow morning. The 00's/01's play at 10:50 and the 98's play at 5:10.