Reporter
Twenty female strikers were named to the CNMI Football Team that will compete in the East Asian Football Federation Women's Football Championship 2010 Semifinals Competition in Tainan City, Taiwan, later this month.
Northern Marianas Islands Football Association technical director and CNMI coach Sugao Kambe, in an e-mail to Saipan Tribune, said members of the Commonwealth's team were selected after more than three months of rigorous training.
Making it to the CNMI Women's National Team are Natalie Hill, Madison Smith, Carrie Knight, Angela Shyrack, Meaghan Hassel-Shearer, Brenda Schultz, Linday Davis, Melody Matson, Zoe Jewell, Katie Peters, Michiko Tenorio, Patricia Coleman, Brianna Martin, Amber Roberts, Rebecca Newman, Maryana Gramlich, Amanda Allen, Emily Gries, Elisa Fejeran, and Felicia McFarland.
Several members of the team, like Schultz, Davis, Newman, Coleman, Fejeran, and Gries, had been selected to play for the CNMI against Guam in the past years. The team also had a few mixed of high school players in Jewell, Roberts, Gramlich, Tenorio, and Smith, and the rest of its members are regulars in the NMIFA's leagues.
Kambe devised a three-stage training regimen for the team to prepare them for the EAFF event, which will run from Aug. 22 to 30 and will also feature teams from Guam, Hong Kong, South Korea, and host Chinese-Taipei.
The first stage, according to the CNMI Coach, focused on individually skills for technical and tactical aspects of the game. The second part was about functional (positional) training and basic endurance training, while the last leg was putting into practice what they have learned and final conditioning.
Kambe said that by the time the three stages are completed at the end of this week, he believes his wards are all set for their first international tournament.
“Their conditioning [physically and mentally] is getting better every practice session and I believe they are ready to play,” Kambe said.
The CNMI Women's National Team will leave Saipan four days before the EAFF tournament, as they will play two exhibition matches in Chiba, Japan before going to Taiwan. The team will leave for Japan on Aug. 18. and on the same day in the afternoon the CNMI's female strikers will challenge the JEF United Ichihara Chiba Ladies U-18. On Aug. 19, the CNMI bets will take on JEF United's Ichihara Chiba Ladies.
In the EAFF tournament in Taiwan, the CNMI's female strikers will debut against Guam on Aug. 22 and will duel Hong Kong in their second game on Aug. 24. South Korea will be the CNMI's third assignment on Aug. 26 and the Commonwealth bets will close out the round-robin tournament with a meeting against host Chinese-Taipei on Aug. 28.
The winner of the nine-day tournament will join China, Japan, and North Korea in the championship round to be played in Tokyo, Japan next year.
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