This morning team USA faced England for a second time. The score at half time was 1-0 in favor of the UK on a penalty kick.  The US played one of their better halves of soccer demonstrating they could hang with one of the best teams in the world. Superior conditioning of the Brits in the second half and the loss of a couple of our players to injury resulted in a 6-0 final score.

All in all, the tournament, the first hosted by the US in more than a decade, was a great success. Team USA continues to show great improvement and promise for the future.  Key to our prospects in the World Cup will be a commitment to better conditioning and more frequent opportunities to practice together as a team.  The latter has always been an issue of funding which we are starting to overcome with recent grants to the AASA.  We are one very generous donation away from developing into a world-class team. Any wealthy followers of this blog or potential team sponsors are encouraged to contact me.

After the closing ceremony Nicolai and I made our way to Space Center Houston where we learned about the history of the NASA space program before heading to the airport for our respective flights home.