Some portions of this release used courtesy of U.S. Soccer
Jan. 16, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's soccer team was well represented in China earlier today in the U.S. National Team's 4-0 victory over Canada in the Four Nations Tournament.
Two-time All-American Ali Krieger earned her first career cap for the National Team in the contest on Tuesday under first-year head coach Pia Sundhage. Krieger earned the start and played on the defensive end of the field in the contest.
"It was amazing," said Krieger after the 4-0 victory. "The feeling was unreal. Just being in the big stadium and finally getting a chance to play with this team was awesome."
A two-time All-American whose team won four Big Ten titles during her tenure, Krieger was a first team NSCAA All-American in 2006 as a defender and earned honors in 2005 as a midfielder.
After leading Penn State to its 10th consecutive Big Ten title this past fall, head coach Erica Walsh was selected to be a part time assistant for the U.S. National Team earlier this month. Following a scoreless first half, the coaching staff addressed the U.S. Team looking to open things up.
"The talk at halftime was great," said U.S. National Team head coach Sundhage. "I had (asst. coach) Erica Walsh talk about defending, I talked about the attack and (asst. coach) Phil (Wheddon) helped us with certain parts. We kept possession in the first half, but didn't penetrate the way we wanted to. In the second half, we got a quick goal and all of a sudden things went well. It was a really good start, especially as we had two goal scorers who are young and they did a great job out there."
On the other side of the ball, former Nittany Lion goalkeeper Erin McLeod started for the Canadian National Team in goal. McLeod had six saves in the game for Canada.
McLeod played a key role leading the Nittany Lions to the 2005 College Cup while in Happy Valley. The former Lion standout was part of two Big Ten championship sqauds made her Canadian National team debut back in 2002.
The Four Nations Tournament will help determine the USA's Olympic qualifying roster and ultimately the roster for the 2008 Olympics games in Beijing, China. The United States will next play Finland at 2 p.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) on Jan. 18. The U.S. will close out the tournament with a Jan. 20 match against China at 4:30 p.m. local time (3:30 a.m. ET).
-NITTANY LIONS-