Nigeria, U.S. praise area soccer facilities
Before facing the United States tonight, the Nigerian women's national soccer team wrapped up training at Penn's Rhodes Field yesterday and gave high marks to the University's soccer facility.
"It's a beautiful field to play football [soccer] here," coach Samuel Okpodu said. "We're really excited and thankful to the University that they are allowing us to use it."
Okpodu, who was the head coach at Virginia Tech before being asked to coach his country's national team, understands the impact that a facility like Rhodes Field can have on a college soccer program.
"Having this facility, if I had one like this when I was coaching, I'd be on top of the cloud," he said. "I'm glad that they have something like this here for the students."
Okpodu admitted that he would have liked for his team to see a bit of University City while it was here -- but there has been plenty of work to do after a 3-0 loss to North Korea on Saturday.
"I wish we had time to go and see what's happening on campus and off campus, but we haven't had an opportunity yet to do that."
The United States trained at Lincoln Financial Field yesterday and was impressed with the city's newest sports venue.
"It has an amazing feel to it," U.S. midfielder Aly Wagner said. "There's just something about the way it's built -- I don't know if it's the newness of the stadium, but you just feel like you're going to put on a good performance in that environment."
Defender Catherine Reddick is looking forward to what could be the biggest crowd of the World Cup, when the United States and Nigeria square off at 7:30 p.m. at 'the Linc.' Sweden will face North Korea today in the doubleheader's first game at 4:45 p.m.
"It's fun to feel the vibe of the crowd," she said. "The passion and intensity of the crowd make it more fun and even a better experience for me and the team."
-- Jonathan Tannenwald
