Region I ODP Girls 2010 Russia - Kuban Tournament

We will be traveling to Moscow and Sochi Russia for 16 days for the Under-19 Kuban Women’s Soccer Tournament. This team consists of the top players from the East Region and the Olympic Development Program (ODP) serves as a primary feeder for our United States Women’s Olympic and National Teams. Our team is comprised of players born predominately in the 93 & 92 birth years, with only one player born in 1991, and are essentially considered an under-17 team. The members of our group are:

STAFF: Mike Singleton (Head Coach), Fran Kulas (Assistant Coach/Team Administrator), Erin Lycan (Assistant Coach), Regina Hayes (Athletic Trainer)

PLAYERS:Ariana Aston (East Setauket, NY), Sloan DePiero (Ramsey, NJ), Jennifer Gibbons (Bellport, NY), Jenna Gibney (Wayne, NJ), Lucy Gildein (Topsfield, MA), Katherine Greer (Massapequa, NY), Lyndse Hokanson (Crownsville, MD), Tara Kerns (Chesapeake, VA), Katelyn Koslosky (East Islip, NY), Victoria Leigh (Hamilton, NJ), Victoria McCombs (Londonderry, NH), Haley Miller (West Chester, PA), Cassandra Muzik (Massapequa, NY), Kristen Schmidbauer (Woodbine, MD), Jane Wallis (Briarcliff Manor, NY) & Allison Yeager (North Potomac, MD).

The United States Women’s National team is currently ranked #1 in the World by FIFA (soccer’s world governing body), but other countries are quickly catching up. We were invited to this tournament because of the respect that the world has for the USA and our women’s soccer programs. As a result of our status, we will be competing against under-19 national teams from other countries, as well as other regional teams from Russia. We begin the tournament in Group C and our first match is against a regional team from the Krasnodar Region in Russia. From there we play against a regional team from the Urals Region in Russia, and our third match is against the Uzbekistan National Team. Should we advance, we would play the winners from the other groups consisting of:

Group A – Russia, Iran, Belorussia, & Estonia
Group B – China, Moscow Regional Team, Turkey, & Ukraine

This journal was created as a vehicle to update the players' families, as well as other friends and members of the soccer community, on our team’s experiences and progress. It is our hope to include daily updates on the sites we see in Russia, as well as information about the details of traveling with a high level soccer team to a world tournament that will include: daily training focuses, teambuilding activities, approaches to each match based on our opponent, and standings/advancement in the tournament.

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Thanks for your interest in following us on what we know will be an amazing and successful experience!