Saturday, June 27, 2015

Soccer - Congrats USA on a Big Win vs China!

Women's World Cup Soccer is going on right now!  It is very exciting to watch, and our family is especially cheering for the USA.  And a little bit for Team Mexico too - I'll tell you about that in a minute.  One of my daughter's college teammates, Julie Johnston, is now playing on the US National World Cup Team! 



My daughter Kat just graduated from Santa Clara University, a school that has a very proud Women's Division 1 Soccer history, with Coach Jerry Smith, and player Brandi Chastain.  Brandi is famous for removing her shirt after making the winning goal when the US beat China in 1999. 



Brandi is currently a volunteer coach at Santa Clara, and it was an amazing experience for my daughter to play in this organization, and be on the field with Brandi every day.  Here is Kat at Santa Clara.  I've been watching her play since she was 4, and it is a little bit hard to believe she is graduated  - who knows what will be next?  Kat is #6 in the red. 




 

 





Here is Julie at Santa Clara.






Last year, when Julie Johnston graduated, she was selected to play for the Chicago Red Stars professional team, and was named Rookie of the Year.  She has been playing all year with the US team as well, gradually moving into a starting role.  We spent three years watching Julie play, and she is a fantastic player!  She has already been named Player of the Match for one game, and now vs China she had the assist on a beautiful goal by Carli Lloyd!  Here are a few pictures of Julie playing for the US.  She is #19 in blue in the first picture, and white in the second picture.  I'm sure you will be hearing a lot more about her!



And I mentioned about cheering for Mexico as well.  My daughter trained for years in youth soccer with Amanda Perez and her sister Veronica.  They are both now on the Mexican National team and Amanda plays for the University of Washington Huskies.  It is so exciting to see these kids compete at the highest levels of college and national team soccer.  There were so many days of driving back and forth to soccer practice, and 'Mom, can I just stay another hour to practice my shooting?".  It was a good thing I had lots of binding to do on my quilts - I can practically trace the history of my quilts through which practice/game/tournament I worked on them!  Here are Kat's friends and teammates from youth soccer - sisters Amanda and Veronica now on the same Mexican National Team!



Do you have children or grandchildren playing soccer?  Or do you play yourself?  It's a fun game and I've learned a lot through watching my daughter over the years - but you won't see me out there on the field!  I'll be sewing the fun soccer quilts and wall hangings for the kids!   Here is a great wall hanging for your favorite soccer player,




and some fun soccer fabric you can use - it's perfect for World Cup time! 



And we also have some great ideas for t-shirt quilts - but that's a story for another time!  Enjoy the World Cup, and Go USA! 
 

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