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Cardinals in the Pros
May 05, 2015 | Women's Soccer
Chelsea Hunter played at the University of Louisville from 2009-13 mostly at center back where she started 45 out of 50 games for the Cards in her time. She was an anchor on two NCAA tournament teams, including the 2011 squad widely regarded as the most successful in program history which reached the Sweet 16 before bowing out to top ranked Florida State.
Chelsea is currently pursuing a professional career in Europe. Last year she spent her time in Finland playing with IK Myran out of the Division 1 league. This season she has returned to Finland but will be playing with Merilappi Unted who plays in the Naisten Liiga, the top level in Finland.
Throughout her season we will feature blog posts from Chelsea regarding her time and experiences playing at one of the highest levels of European soccer there is. Here is another edition:
Since the last article we have played two preseason matches. We had since played two more preseason matches and two regular season matches. I said in the last blog that we were going to be playing a Swedish team but that changed. We played ONS, from Oulu. First ONS came to Kemi to play where we unfortunately lost 5-3. Our team took some important lessons from that game. For example, we have to start the game like we want to win, we have to set our own tempo, and that we have the ability to fight back. We took these important lessons into the practice week and were prepared to play them again the following week (looking for revenge)! We traveled to Oulu by bus (1:30 drive). We ended up winning 2-1.
In our regular-season opener we played against NiceFutis, a team from Pori. Over the 90 minutes, the flow of the game swayed back and forth. We were able to get on the board first early in the second half. A short lead though, NiceFutis scored. With only about 15 minutes left in the game we were able to score again, making it 2-1. Again a short lead, NiceFutis scored again, 2-2. The final score was 2-2. We were pleased with the tie but should have absolutely won the game.
Our second season game was against HJK from Helsinki. Helsinki is about a 10 hour bus ride, which is too long for day travel. The coach booked us a flight from Kemi to Helsinki at 6 am. Although the weather was pretty warm (nothing like the States) we had to play inside. The game score definitely did not reflect how the game was played. We dominated the entire game but ended up losing 2-1. HJK struck in the middle of the first half. They again scored early in the second half. We were scrambling at the end of the game to try and get back some goals. We ended up scoring but it was too little too late. We had our first season loss. It was disappointing but there were some things we can take from the game! Our travel back was awful. We boarded a train from Helsinki to Oulu (8 hours). After that we still had a two hour bus ride to Kemi. We didn't get home till two in the morning.
We have a full season ahead of us to make improvements and ultimately get some wins under our belts.
