The Wait Is Over

Last-Minute Crisis

Final preparations for Sam and Abby's wedding were being handled in Chicago by Katelyn with some help from Sammy Jo. The Red Stars and Breakers went through two days of normal training before planning to focus specifically on the opposition on Wednesday. Caitlyn had been cleared by Patrick on Monday to rejoin the playing roster for the final, much to John's relief, and the punch to the head Sarah received in the Orlando match left a slight bump, but no signs of a concussion. Also on Monday, John signed off on Yael's plan for traveling to and from Chicago, allowing Steph, EJ, and Sarah to depart with her after today's training session was over.

As the players arrived at Jordan Field, Sam and Abby went directly to John with a bit of a dilemma.

Sam: John, Abby and I have a problem. The person who we had hired to perform the wedding on Sunday had to back out due to the death of her mother. Can you get in touch with your friend in Milwaukee and see if he's still available?

John: Deepest condolences to her and her family. We can handle it after training. It'd probably be best for you to be in my office when I call him so if he's unable to do it, you can move quickly on finding a replacement.

Abby: Thanks, Coach. Katelyn and Sammy Jo, along with Megan's mom, are handling the last-minute stuff in Chicago because the rest of our bridal party is preparing to play us on Saturday.

The two of them joined the rest of the team and began warming up. Once the players were sufficiently stretched and limber, John called them in to go over the plan for the day.

John: When we played Chicago at the Hollywood Studios Cup in March and here in April, we didn't have Abby in the lineup. Additionally, we didn't have the height that our in-season trades brought to the roster. If I remember right, Colaprico did a fairly good job bottling you up, Jessie. I'm going to try something out that might help us get the advantage on them where they might not be thinking. Morgan, you and Jessie switch positions and I'm going to have the reserves set up in Chicago's standard formation minus the center backs.

The first XI (Labbe, King, Dahlkemper, Oyster, Chapman, Mewis, Lavelle, Andrews, Fleming, Troccoli, Purce) took their places on the north end of the field, while the remaining nine (Proctor, Schiller, Stassi, Santacaterina, Bonavita, Elston, Parry, Rhodes, DiSarcina) settled into their positions on the south end. It was evident from the start of the run-through that getting Fleming out wide could be particularly useful against the Red Stars' right-sided players of Sarah Stratigakis and Arin Gilliland. The sneaky-quick speed and ball control from Jessie forced Lauren to play out wide instead of pinching in and required Devon to stay pinned-back as opposed to cheating up the flank into the space left by Lauren's more central positioning. The spine of 5'11" Trocolli, 5'9" Andrews, and 5'11" Mewis made it difficult for Jenni or Lindsey to get much in the way of long balls up to Dani or Caitlyn. John switched Caitlyn and Midge and flipped Abby to the other side, leaving Sam to partner Megan in the back, Morgan and Sarah to move into more defensive positions, and Caitlyn as the lone striker, supported by Rose on the right and Jessie on the left.

Following a water break, the team worked on set pieces, using Jessie, Abby, and Morgan as servers and Sarah and Sam as the main targets. Caitlyn was held out of this drill as a precaution. Once satisfied with the results of this drill, the team took penalties to give John some preliminary data on who he would choose should the final end up going to kicks. With everything seemingly worked out in this final training before the team was to leave for Chicago tomorrow morning, John ended practice.

***

Back in his office, John went through his email and saw a message from Marc Schmidt about Saturday.