By: Kacey White

(Brad Smith / isiphotos.com)

So long Sweden! Kacey White will be training with the U.S. Women's National Team for the rest of the year.

It's funny how quickly plans can change.  Three weeks ago, I was set to return to play for my Swedish club, Balinge, during the upcoming Swedish league season.  Then my phone rang and I received a call from U.S. Soccer inviting me to train with the Women’s National Team for a week in Los Angeles, California.  A weeklong trial turned into an offer to join the team for the rest of the year.  There's no way I could turn that down!  So now Sweden is not in my future, but training with the best American players day in and day out in the buildup to the 2008 Olympics is...and who knows, maybe a trip to Beijing for the Olympic Games will be at the end of the road.

“Kan du prata Svenska?” These were the first words I heard from our new National Team coach, Pia Sundhage.  Being aware of my two season tenure in Damallsvenskan, the Swedish league, she had asked me if I could speak Swedish. “Lite,” I responded letting her know that I could in fact speak Swedish a bit and that I could understand her.  However, this was the extent of our Swedish exchange, as it became clear that she could speak much better English than I could ever speak Swedish!! 

I began my nine-day camp with the Beep test and an intense practice to follow. I am not convinced one can ever get used to running the beep test, because no matter how many times you do run it, you are not only testing your fitness, but also your competitiveness, willpower and mentality.  After this first day, the rest of the camp seemed to go by extremely fast.  What a competitive week of camp! When we weren’t battling one another in each practice, we were competing in two extremely competitive games against top local area boys’ teams, who not only test our physical capabilities, (as one could easily see by the results of our heart rate monitors!) , but also our ability to make quick decisions with and without the ball.  This competitiveness plus the emphasis on developing ourselves tactically join together to create a unique environment not only for the growth of each player, but more importantly our team. 

We will reconvene in LA after the completion of the Algarve Cup in Portugal and will finish preparations for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament being held in Mexico on April 2-12. Until then, I’m headed back to Dallas to train for the next camp. What an exciting time to be part of the Women’s National Team!