Breakers Practice Blog 7/10/09

This is the start of a new blog, written by Boston Breakers media relations intern Jess Lander.

The best part about today was not having to huddle under a covered bench with my raincoat on because summer finally showed its face around Boston. So instead, I took my seat upon ‘The Gator” (see photo) and watched practice. Well, some of practice. My eyes kept wandering off the field to where Kristine Lilly’s adorable daughter Sydney was learning to walk. A kid that cute is pretty distracting, but not as distracting as yesterday’s practice where Sydney was accompanied by none other than Mia Hamm. I can’t tell you a single thing they did at practice yesterday because I was too busy staring at my childhood idol.

But, I did resist Sydney’s spell long enough to take in some of today’s practice. The girls are gearing up for Sunday’s game against Sky Blue FC, who they haven’t been able to beat in two games this season. In fact, Sky Blue is the only team that has successfully beaten the Breakers twice. The good news is the Breakers finally have the home field advantage against them.

Coach DiCicco (Tony) seemed to be trying to find a lineup that will work, and had the probable starters scrimmage the non-starters. The line-up looks like it might be a little different than it’s been the last few weeks as some players are back to full health, and might take the start over some of the developmental players that have recently been getting into games. Candace Chapman is back from her hamstring injury and will probably be back in as a starting defender. Also, the big news for this weekend is the debut of Brazillian star Fabiana, who is finally back to full strength after an ACL injury. It looked like she would likely be starting on the flank. A few positions might also still be up in the air, as Tony seemed to be trying out different players up top and in the midfield.

Kelly Smith took the day off for her nagging knee injury, which she mentioned, has been bothering her since Saturday’s game. She’s pushed through it all season though and should be okay for Sunday, so no worries. For Kelly however, a day off is no English teatime, as she spent the practice doing push-ups and abs exercises. As if she’s not already solid muscle.

The team ended practice by running through corners and free kicks. Sky Blue scored the winning goal on Saturday off of a corner, so maybe they should have been practicing them defensively more than offensively.

Sydney came over at the end and used her cuteness to distract all of the other girls too, so I don’t feel so bad anymore for losing my focus. She showed off her new walking skills by walking from mom to dad to different Breaker’s players who enticed her with a bight yellow tennis ball. Apparently babies respond similarly to dogs in that way. After all, they do both like to put anything and everything in their mouth and slobber all over things. But drool and all, did I mention she’s adorable?