Tampa Day 7: Beach to their own

Throughout the planning and admin for this USA trip, Teddington Athletic have been keen to insist that it is not a holiday, but a football tour. The focus is upon education and experience, rather than simple fun in the sun.

That said, today we went to the beach.

Even professional footballers have their downtime and their team-bonding, and after their excellent exertions the previous night, the girls did indeed have fun in the sun on Clearwater Beach. Under clear skies and on white-gold sand, these fine young folks had a great time, ate ice creams, laughed – a lot – and rode inflatable bananas atop the eponymous clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Tomorrow, they get some more fun with a trip to Busch Gardens, before an evening training session to prepare for two consecutive matchdays. Let's hope they enjoy those just as much.

Tampa Day 6: Cupcakes in the rain

The day started with more Pilates courtesy of Lisa and Jacqs, followed by a brief but brutal game of American Football. The girls then relaxed round the resort ahead of what the evening would bring: the tour’s second fixture.

The weather was once again interesting. Whereas Saturday’s game was played in 85-degree searing sun, this match was preceded by an afternoon-long thunderstorm which dumped so much rain that the venue was changed from the grass fields of Monroe School to the artificial turf of the Ed Radice complex. It’s almost become a home from home; as if to make the girls even more at home, the temperature for the 7.30pm kick-off was a noticeably cooler 67 degrees, and after a beautiful Floridian sunset, much of the game was played in more rain – warmer than British precipitation but just as moist.

Teddington were boosted before the game when Saskia Brewster recovered from a slight illness, while Amy Hallett declared herself over the ankle injury she’d picked up in a Walmart aisle. (Thankfully, she didn’t get a two-for-one deal.) The only player unavailable was Liz Kriebel, still recovering from a high temperature but well enough to attend.

There was one change to the starting line-up, with Ella Bothamley rewarded for her impressive substitute showing (and superb assist) by being placed on the right-wing. Phoebe Head switched to the left, with Carla Novakovic – who had been the designated stand-in for either Saskia or Amy – dropping to the bench and fully expected, correctly as it turned out, to play a major part in the game.

Teddington started the brighter. Popping the ball around in the sort of triangles that pleased the watching George Fotopoulos, they had the majority of early possession and the first shot on target when Phoebe found Emily Coulson for a well-saved seventh-minute effort. Pressed in midfield, Tampa only sporadically threatened with the odd through-ball mopped up by Ruby Rudkin.

After 15 minutes Boz came off, deciding she’d rather wear boots than trainers – a curiously delayed decision considering the girls had been playing on the turf for well over an hour before kick-off. Sadie Day came on for her own 15-minute spell, ended when she decided she was starving hungry. Obviously right-wingers are a strange breed.

They can be effective, though. In the 22nd minute, Tampa’s broke the deadlock. Those Fotopoulian passing triangles pulled poor Carla, on for Sas, into no-girl’s-land and the winger broke clear to fire past Ruby, rooted to her line.

Affected by the concession, Ruby spilled a cross a couple of minutes later but Millie Theobald, dependable as ever, was on hand the scoop it clear – and the next chance fell to Teddington, when Phoebe again created a chance for Em to test the keeper.

With Sadie subbed off with a rumbling stomach, Millie MacEacharn emerged and Phoebe switched back her normal stamping ground of the right wing. She wasn’t entirely happy on the left but it’s a role worth persevering with: she could score plenty of goals cutting in from the flank onto her lethal right foot, and it will make space for Boz’s superb right-wing crosses – such as the one converted by left-winger Phoebe at the weekend.

Positional flexibility is a boon to player and team alike, and the latest tactical wheeze was unveiled at half-time. Emily Bashford has all the physical attributes – pace, determination, energy, fearlessness – to be an excellent central striker. When she was told this during the first half, and that she would be coming on not in her usual wide position but through the middle, she shyly smiled, thanked the coach and quietly asked where she should stand.

Luckily, she had a great role model to watch in Ale Fairn. Troubled by a wrist problem (exacerbated by falling off a bed – another for the Unusual Injuries file) and then a back strain picked up during the game, the No.7 didn’t have her finest half-hour, but as usual her footballing brain was exemplary.

If Ale is the silent assassin, ghosting through defences, Bash presents a different problem. Utterly fearless and fiercely determined, she immediately worried the home defence and was involved in three passing moves in the first five minutes after the break. Sadly, this promising (re)start was somewhat undermined by Tampa doubling the difference when a runner broke through the Teddington backline and found herself free in the six-yard box to smash past Ruby.

Again, Teddington refused to be cowed. In what was now pouring rain, Millie MacEacharn continued to impress with her stoic efforts on the left, helping Saskia – back on for Amy, with Carla slotting effectively into defensive midfield – to thwart Tampa’s dangerous right-sider.

On the opposite flank, Teddington were creating their own danger, with Em and Phoebe regularly linking up and the latter’s deflected shot forcing a corner. But the visitors came closest through an unusual outlet. With Ella Dodd having once again poured her efforts into the midfield marathon, she was given a breather by switching places with Jelly. And the captain was desperately unlucky not to halve the deficit on the hour.

The chance came at the business end of an excellent Teddington move which started with Carla feeding Em, who drove forward and found Boz (back on for Macca) whose lay-off set up the skipper; despite being just inside the area she had the presence of mind to take a touch and aim a curling shot toward the far corner, so perfectly placed that it bounced off the woodwork.

With only two goals since her club joined the top division, poor old Jelly has hit the woodwork at least twice as many times, and has of course spent many games in goal and defence. It will be interesting to see what happens if Teddington can find a way to free her to cause damage further forward; perhaps it will come through that positional flexibility, with Doddsy again looking comfortable in the back-line too, at one point expertly blocking a through-ball with a mid-air heel-flick. Like her skipper, Doddsy is a danger to the opposition, but if the two girls can cover for each other in this way, it can only benefit them and their team.

Doddsy can also be a very effective front-runner, but just as Teddington were preparing to throw her up there – reverting to a back three, another flexibility bonus – Tampa made the game safe with their third, a speculative effort from the edge of the area which flew through Ruby’s despairing hands.

Beaten but not downhearted, Teddington can be proud of themselves. Against yet more excellent opposition – who at one point totted up an 18-pass move trying to get away from the visitors’ pressing – they played a full part in a good game, working hard without the ball and using it intelligently in possession. Several players, including Anna Kauffmann, Carla and Bash, arguably gave their best performance yet in a Teddington shirt.

As the girls befriended their opponents over cupcakes – and Dave chatted with his opposite number Adrian Bush, whose U17 team last year became national champions – the lessons Teddington are learning from this trip will do them well in future, when the rain and the welcome may not be quite so warm.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Ella Waldron, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Amy Hallett, Ella Bothamley, Emily Coulson, Ella Dodd, Phoebe Head, Ale Fairn. Subs Carla Novakovic, Millie MacEacharn, Sadie Day, Emily Bashford.

Tampa Day 5: Education, education, education

The Tampa tour was always intended as educational, and today the girls went to college. Eckerd College, to be precise, nestled at the mouth of Tampa Bay near the four-mile Sunshine Skyway bridge.

There their host was a professor of football, if such a thing existed: Danielle Fotopoulos, the 1999 World Cup winner and all-time NCAA Division 1 record goalscorer, who is now head coach of the Eckerd women’s soccer team.

Danielle showed the girls round her place of work, and it’s not a bad place to earn a living. Situated on the Gulf coast, with its own beaches and dock, Eckerd is idyllic – but Danielle was quick to demolish any preconceptions of athletes sailing through college barely troubled by academia. Anyone who goes to college, even on a soccer scholarship, is thoroughly monitored for grades and attendance.

Indeed, Danielle was insistent that she won’t even consider enrolling someone who isn’t excelling academically (meaning, after a little wrangling through the US/UK grading differences, B+ at least – in core subjects like English and "math"). Parents will be glad to know that any pie-sky ideas of ignoring study to become a famous footballer will have been squarely knocked out by Danielle’s firm but fair words.

Showing the girls around for 90 minutes, Danielle was generous with her time and patient with the queries, from the straightforward “What’s a sophomore?” to knottier questions about finances and combining motherhood with a professional career. Those Teddington girls – and there are a few of them – who might fancy pursuing this academic avenue have now had a glimpse into a possible future – and a clearer idea of what is required.

One requirement is a constant commitment to improving as players, so an afternoon with Mrs Fotopoulos was followed by an evening with Mr Fotopoulos. Having watched the game on Saturday, George had a few suggestions for the girls' training, so it was back to the Ed Radice complex – thankfully in the cooler early evening.

Overriding more minor language barriers – cleats are boots and pennies are bibs, that sort of thing – Tampa Bay United's Director of Coaching gave the girls a simple but important training session built around switching the point of attack.

Firm but friendly, George also stopped training a couple of times to introduce various coaches who were arriving to tutor some of the 9,000-odd kids under TBU's umbrella – coaches like Martin Grammatica, whose eight successful placekicks helped Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the 2002 Super Bowl.

Hopefully the girls will learn from the advice kindly given by Mr and Mrs Fotopoulos. The first evidence may come tomorrow, when Teddington take on Tampa's U13 Elite – but maybe the effects will be much longer-lasting.

Tampa Day 4: To the ball game

After the exertions of Saturday, a much quieter and easier Easter Sunday. The girls’ day started with a Pilates warm-up, hosted by chaperones Jacqs and Lisa from a plan derived by Narelle at Body Tailored Pilates. The girls’ physical fitness has come along impressively in the last couple of months, with specialised running training and Pilates sessions every week giving them the strength to give them confidence on the ball.

Next there was a team meeting on a few matters: a quick warning about the perils of off-target golf-balls and encroaching alligators, then a considered debrief on the previous day’s defeat against Tampa Bay United. The tone was upbeat: these were very good opponents, Teddington have learnt lessons and on Tuesday will get another chance to measure themselves against Tampa’s U13 Elite team.

But today was a whole different ball game. Specifically baseball. The tour party was off to the George M Steinbrenner ballpark, home of the Tampa Yankees and spring-training home of their parent club, the mighty New York Yankees.

The Yanks and their visitors the Minnesota Twins whiffed a fair few balls behind the foul lines, and though nobody in the crowd seemed able to catch the ball, their eye was certainly caught by the Teddington players and coaches in their matching tie-dye T-shirts, made by the right-back Anna Kauffmann to raise money for the tour. 

The girls’ chaperone Amy turned increasingly American as the innings (or is it inning?) wore on, culminating in impressive solo renditions of God Bless America and Take Me Out To The Ball Game. For their part the girls were somewhat nonplussed with baseball (although to be fair spring training is the equivalent of a football pre-season friendly), but happily joined in with the scoffing of hot dogs.

And Ruby, who had spent the entire game screaming for the players to throw her a ball, was (along with Doddsy) presented with one on the way out. So that’s good.

Tampa Day 3: Getting educated

When Teddington Athletic started investigating a Florida tour, it was to give the girls new experiences and new lessons. Their first Stateside matchday brought both.

Experientially, these may be the hottest conditions the girls ever play in. With the kick-off brought forward to 2pm, the mercury touched 85˚F (30˚C) with 90% humidity. It’s the first time your reporter has stood at the side of the pitch wondering whether to go trainers, boots or barefoot. As the teams warmed up – a wholly unsuitable term for the situation – Tampa Bay United’s affable chief George Fotopoulos arrived pitchside in a motorised buggy filled with water and ice for the participants.

For the first time on the Florida tour, the sun came out, short shadows scuttling underfoot on the artificial turf. Three hours later, on returning to the resort, the girls would discover it had suffered another tropical downpour. How they wished for one during the game.

The girls in their special Tampa-tour kit, 

kindly sponsored by RDT Office Solutions

Teddington started with the same team that had annihilated Abbey early doors, but here it was Tampa taking the early initiative, going in front after three minutes. In what would prove their preferred pattern of play, the hosts fed the supremely speedy left-winger, who cut inside and crossed. Teddington turned down a couple of opportunities to clear it but Tampa were much less fussy, driving low past Ruby to open the scoring.

The visitors had been prepared to face a team with a rare combination of physical and technical supremacy. Not only are Tampa Bay United’s U14 Elite girls the state champions, they are also – in a country obsessed with ranking its sports teams – officially the best in the land. Passing in triangles with pace and purpose, they immediately worried Teddington, who were also rather too keen on occasion to contribute to their own downfall.

Still, the visitors showed glimpses of their own considerable ability. In the 10th minute, realising they generally couldn’t dribble past or outpace their opponents, they started passing the ball instead, and immediately cut through the vaunted home team: Doddsy fed Carla on the left, who linked up with front-runner Boz to force a corner. 

Playing a passing game requires familiarity and continuity, but in this heat the bigger requirement was multiple substitutions, and Teddington struggled to establish a rhythm. Just before the first water break, a Millie T tackle was adjudged to be a penalty. The striker rolled it confidently toward the bottom corner, but Ruby dived full-length to her right to stop it – her second penalty save, following a crucial stop at Fleet late last season.

Teddington came within five minutes of making it to half-time a single goal behind, but Tampa doubled their lead when another left-wing cross was pulled back for a striker who’d broken clear of the centre-backs to slot the ball under Ruby’s dive. And three minutes later it was 3-0 when Teddington failed to clear a corner; despite Carla’s best efforts to throw herself in front of the ball, the rebound was tucked away.

A positive half-time team-talk, held under what Tampa called “the shade trees”, couldn’t stop Teddington going 4-0 down two minutes after the break with another preventable goal. Ruby had done well to push a shot round the post, although it may have been going wide anyway; certainly the corner should have been cleared instead of bouncing at the near post, and Tampa punished the hesitancy with a game-killing fourth goal.

Four became five on 51 minutes – Tampa cutting through from the right wing for a change, and hammering past a somewhat dazed Ruby – and six on 58 minutes, when a ball across the six-yard area was tapped home by the tiny No.9, over whom even Amy would have a height advantage.  

By the time of the second mid-half water-break, Tampa may have been tempted to take their foot of the gas, except that they seemed to be fielding a few trialists who wanted to prove themselves; instead it was the visitors who proved a point or two. Teddington were pushing players into all manner of unusual positions to fill the XI, and some of the girls were finding hidden reserves of courage.

Not only were they continuing to battle despite the heat and scoreline, but many were experiencing new positions. When Anna needed a rest, Amy filled in well at right-back; when Sas succumbed to the weather, Macca took her left-back slot; Carla showed good promise in defensive midfield then even slotted in at centre-back.

Such positional flexibility – not only a boon to coach and team, but also brilliantly educational for the girls – is already a feature of Teddington’s squad, displayed by reliable performers like Bash (left or right wing), Boz (right-wing or up front) and Doddsy (who in one particularly hectic five-minute spell moved from midfield to centre-forward to centre-back).

Indeed, in the 64th minute, emergency left-back Macca displayed Saskia-like qualities in intercepting a cross, looking up and playing a superb first-time daisy-cutter up the middle to Doddsy, now operating as the main striker. She outmuscled and outpaced the defender, her shot from outside the box toward the bottom-left corner just about being pushed round the post by the goalkeeper.

From the corner, Macca hared up to play a one-two with Boz, whose cross allowed Emily Coulson to set for Doddsy to fire narrowly over.

A minute later, Teddington got a consolation goal that was very fine indeed. Playing out from the back, Ruby and Doddsy – now at centre-back, Ale having come on for the exhausted Millie T, who had lasted over an hour and allowed herself a deserved air-punch as she came off – calmly passed the ball between each other until Doddsy made space to find Boz in right midfield.

Boz laid it inside for Emily C, who immediately tried to switch the ball for left-winger Phoebe. That was blocked, but Em picked up the loose ball and instead sent a clever ball down the right, where Boz was on her bike and pedalling. Hitting the byline, Boz pulled out a typically excellent cross which sailed over Ale’s near-post run because she had perfectly picked out Phoebe at the back stick, who scored what she proudly noted afterwards was her first-ever header. A new experience for a fine player, and the least that Teddington deserved.

After the match, as the girls tucked into well-deserved pasta and meatballs, the exemplary hosts took justified pride in showing some of their trophies. Turns out that the U14 girls aren’t the only TBU team ranked No.1 in the US: so are the U13s, and indeed at just about every level up to adulthood, Tampa’s female teams are in the top three or four; at some age levels, they’ve got the top two teams. Clearly, this is A Proper Club.

For their part, Teddington need to keep learning. This was the hardest fixture of the tour; on Tuesday they’ll face Tampa’s U13 Elite – also national champions, but a year younger – before two more games on Friday and Saturday against a mixture of girls that George Fotopoulos will carefully gauge in an attempt to create close games. 

Those fixtures will also be held outside the searing heat of afternoon, in either the evening or mid-morning. That may help Teddington to overcome one of their biggest enemies – allowing the conditions, which cannot be changed, to affect their thought processes.  

There are other things that Teddington can do to help themselves. There is no shame in losing to such a good team, but the majority of the goals were preventable. That’s a shame, because when they started to play the game the way the normally intend to, they looked like they belonged on the same pitch as the USA’s finest side. This game brought new experiences, and it also brought new lessons. Teddington can benefit from both.

TEDDINGTON ATHLETIC Ruby Rudkin, Anna Kauffmann, Ella Waldron, Millie Theobald, Saskia Brewster, Amy Hallett, Phoebe Head (1), Ella Dodd, Emily Coulson, Carla Novakovic, Ella Bothamley. Subs Millie MacEacharn, Liz Kriebel, Sadie Day, Emily Bashford, Ale Fairn

Tampa Day 2: Getting ready

The first day proper of the tour, and after a quick morning splash in the pool, Teddington Athletic wanted to get down to business. A team meeting in the resort's central square explained the plan: lunch, then a spot of Pilates, then into the vans and over to the Tampa Bay United campus for training.

But you can't say "training" without saying "raining", and a storm was sweeping in off the Gulf. You fly four and a half thousand miles for a bit of sun, and it rains. (Your pity is soaking through the internet.) Although still warm, the downpour brought with it a risk of lightning; the only thing to do was to sit it out.

An hour later, and after consultation with George at Tampa Bay United, the vans were on the road. The Ed Radice Sports Complex is but one of TBU's campuses around the bay area, and it immediately felt like home to the Teddington girls, decked out again in new training tops (made possible by AppTree software, although not in time to get a logo on it...).

Welcomed by George himself, who gave them warm words and a firm warning to stay hydrated, the girls settled on to the new "turf" – a top-quality artificial surface which drains far more quickly than grass would.

The session also granted the luxury of time. Rather than a hurried pre-match 45 minutes or a Friday night's hour, having unlimited time (and lots of water) gave the coaches plenty of room to work with the team. First they were split into four fours, and by turns, each member of each quartet became the "coach" for the other trio, making suggestions from the sidelines, the better to improve their communication and teamwork.

Then came a fruitful hour (with plenty of water-breaks) working on defensive shape and attacking moves. Having the time to work with the team units was particularly useful, and enjoyed by the girls; the old coaching tactic of finishing with a shooting drill meant that they didn't want to come off the field, even after more than two (well-hydrated) hours.

On Saturday, the girls will return to the Ed Radice complex for their first game against their hosts – specifically the U14 Elite squad, Teddington's toughest Tampa task. There was some hushed nervousness among the visitors as George explained, with neither braggadocio nor false modesty, how the Elite squad were among the best teams in the country for their age group.

But Teddington are no slouches, and more importantly winning is not the main point. The team are here to learn, to examine the possibilities that America might bring, and to have fun. They're already doing all three.

Tampa Day 1: Getting there

The first victory of any tour: Nobody was late for the meet-up time, although regular transAtlantic traveller Amy Coppola cut it rather fine. Some were weary, some bleary, some teary – and that was just the parents.

The girls were resplendent in uniform polo shirts and track suits (thanks to Gazing), each with matching backpacks and hold-alls courtesy of Ultimate Destinations, who were there in the personage of Alan, smoothing the check-in process.

Those who own a teenager or two may wonder what it was like to travel with 16 of them. You may be pleasantly surprised; certainly we were. The old saw that kids only misbehave for their parents and are lovely for everyone else proved true: throughout the journey they were excited and hardly silent, but never rude or discourteous to fellow travellers.

The first flight passed with films, from Creed and Hunger Games through Star Wars and Peanuts to Mrs Doubtfire and Home Alone (Sas showing her evident love of feel-good retro). Landing at Newark, Jacqs promised us a glorious glimpse of the Manhattan skyline, but the low cloud drifting in off the Atlantic had other ideas.

After grabbing a slice of pizza in Newark airport – a pleasantly American way to start – came the second flight. A three-hour hop down the Eastern Seaboard, with Chile vs Argentina on the in-flight telly-box and an electrical storm raging 50 miles off the port side, the cosmic lightshow a safe distance away but the plane bumping along sympathetically anyway.

Into two 15-seat travel-wagons – with Amy Coppola leading the way in a much smaller car 80% filled with bags – and up the I-75 to Saddlebrook Resort, an expansive and attractive tennis-and-golf affair and no bad base for teenage girls on tour.

There’s some mix-up over the accommodation details, and while the grown-ups sort that, the girls get whizzed round in golf carts, high-fiving each other as they pass. An overnight compromise is reached and after 20 hours’ travel, heads can hit pillows. Thanks to all who made it possible. Especially the pillows bit.