The Miss Congeniality Award

Amy Rodriguez, USC. We know she can play. She was the Offensive MVP, but this kid also has a ton of personality. If Nike/Madison Avenue is still looking for the next “face of women’s soccer”, they should give Rodriguez a call.

Unsung Heroes Award

The entire USC backline. Janessa Currier and Kasey Johnson made the All Tournament Team, but we would like to give a shout out to the entire backline including Stacey Strong and Karter Haug. You guys were awesome!

The Sounds Exactly Like 80’s Actor Judd Nelson Award

USC Head Coach Ali Khosroshahin. If I closed my eyes, I was back in college. It was The Breakfast Club all over again.

The Sore Loser Award

The UCLA players who ditched their post-match press conference. I know it was a tough loss, but the deal is you do the press conference, win or lose.

The Add Immediately to Pia Sundhage’s Speed Dial Award

USC goalkeeper, Kristin Olsen. Olsen was the rock star of the tournament. Her name was buzzing in the press box, throughout the stadium and all of College Station. She also happens to be a nice, humble kid.

The Put the Butts in the Seats Award

Texas A&M hosted a record breaking crowd of 8,255 despite the closest participating school being 800 miles away.

The Gives Best Press Conference Award

Florida State Head Coach, Mark Krikorian. Mark is gracious, candid and funny.

The Crazy Fan Award

Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Florida State. Two track and field athletes drove from Tallahassee to cheer on the ‘Noles in spandex body suits (yikes!) and garnet wigs.

The Best Goal Award

Lauren Cheney’s semi-final strike. Wow!

The Atta Boy Award

The NCCA staff. We will always gripe about the seedings and who has to travel where, but the NCAA knows how to host a National Championship. It was fun, it was festive and it was well organized. Well done.

Photos by Andy Mead/YCJ

UCLA was supposed win the National Championship this year. They have the talent all over the field. Most schools would be happy to build a women's soccer program around a Christina DiMartino, a Lauren Cheney, a Danesha Adams or a Kara Lang. UCLA has them all.

They beat Portland in the quarters in a game that many observers, myself included, thought should have been contested for the championship.

And it’s not like they didn’t come to play. UCLA looked to be the superior team for much of the match. They put on some outrageous displays of skill like Christina DiMartino toying with a handful of USC defenders before drilling a shot on goal from point blank range.

But Kristin Olsen, USC’s sophomore keeper came up with it. And she kept coming up with whatever UCLA threw at her. UCLA out shot USC 19-8 but only managed to get one by Olsen, powered in with a remarkable display of skill and sheer force of will by Lauren Cheney in the 38th minute.

UCLA rode that one goal well into the second half. Olsen kept USC in the match recording eight total saves, of which more than one were downright spectacular.

USC didn’t have much going offensively and I was ready to chalk the match up to a UCLA win and then Amy Rodriguez took over for USC, scoring two goals in a six-minute span to lead the Trojans to the final.

The Bruins were understandably devastated at the loss. A visibly shaken, UCLA coach, Jill Ellis, gave a short press conference while her players suffered through a post-match fireworks display before mourning with their family and friends for a season that wasn’t supposed to end this way.

The Women of Troy were a bit more subdued than you might expect for a team that had just earned the right to play in their first National Championship. Coach Ali Khosroshahin indicated that his team wouldn’t be celebrating until they won the final. “We’ve still got work to do,” he said.

The Trojans will take on the Florida State Seminoles in the final of the 2007 NCAA Women’s College Cup on Sunday at 1pm. The match will be broadcast live of ESPN2.

*Photo by Andy Mead, Yellow Card Journalism

The USC Trojans and goalkeeper Kristin Olsen are riding a shut out streak into the semi-final of the NCAA 2007 Women’s College Cup semi-final against UCLA. They haven’t conceded a single goal in the NCAA tournament.

Fair Game caught up with Olsen, who coach Ali Khosroshahin calls an exceptional athlete and the USC player with the best foot skills, before Wednesday’s practice for a little Q&A.

Tell me about making the switch from field player to goalie. I know that even in high school you were playing both and were, in fact, named offensive MVP of your high school team your junior year.

I’ve played on the field for most of my soccer career. My club coach wound up putting me in the goal when I was about 15. I’ve been in the goal since then but I’ve always still kept up my field skills. In high school, they thought that I would be more valuable on the field so I ended up playing on the field most of the time. I guess it ended up working and I got MVP. I’ve played a little bit of forward with my club team in the last few years, but I’m mostly sticking to goalie now.

Do you think of yourself as a goalie or a field player?

Definitely a goalie. If you had asked me that three years ago, I probably would have said I don’t know. I don’t think I could have chosen back then because I loved the goal and I loved the field at the same time. I couldn’t really choose. As I’ve taken more responsibility as a ‘keeper, I’ve definitely started to think of myself as more of a goalie.

Was it a difficult decision to make?

When I was younger, it was really, really difficult. I remember riding home in the car with my mom and I cried because I didn’t want to switch. Looking back on it, I’m so glad that my coach saw my potential and kind of just stuck me in there.

Last year as a freshman, you were the back up ‘keeper and did not see a lot of action. This year you have started every game. Talk about the different roles.

Last year was a lot more watching and a lot more learning. Vernoica Simonton was the other goalie and she was really good and she played a big role on the team. Coming in as a sophomore, not having played much my freshman season, I was kind of nervous. I didn’t know how our defense would really accept me and how I’d work with them, but we’ve worked on it in practice and we’ve developed pretty good chemistry. It’s definitely different, but I learned a lot from last year and I think that helped me.

What would you say your strengths are as a ‘keeper?

I feel like I’m a good organizer. I like to keep my box organized. I think that’s really important because it limits even having shots on goal. I’m pretty decent in the air. My height (6 feet) helps with that. Playing on the field has helped me with my feet too.

Tell me a little bit about your 2007 season. I know you had 11 shut outs and you are the only team that hasn’t given up a goal in the tournament.

It’s definitely an honor and it shows how much our defense really has been working. It’s definitely not just me. It includes our whole team working together. I feel like we’ve worked a lot during practice and we’ve worked really hard to work out the kinks and work on shifting and finding outlets and all that combined. We have really good team chemistry back there. We’ve suffered injuries and people from the bench have stepped up and taken on those roles. I think we’ve worked really well with adverse conditions and that’s showing in our results. Hopefully, we can keep that zero goals against throughout the rest of the tournament.

You guys had a 2-0 loss to UCLA in the regular season. Do you think that is a positive or negative for you going into the semi on Friday?

I’m not too worried about actually playing UCLA. I know whatever team we come up against, it’s going to be a hard game. It’s not about a cross-town rivalry anymore, it’s about who wants to win a national championship more. They know how we play. We know how they play. It’s going to be a really tough match. I think it will be tough, but I don’t think we’re too worried about it.

How do you match up against them?

They have a lot of really good, talented players. Their offense is very strong. On our side I feel like maybe we have a really strong defense. I feel like we’re pretty balanced as far as talent and potential.

Did you learn anything from that loss that you think might help you on Friday?

I don’t know. I think we just have to go into it knowing that we have nothing to lose. They’ve obviously beaten us before, so the pressure is on them. We really have nothing to lose and we’ve just got to go out there and play our best and hope for the best.

At the beginning of the season, did you expect this team to make it to the College Cup?

When Ali came in, he asked us our goals and what we wanted to do and of course we were all like “we want to win a National Championship.” He told us we had to break it down, that we couldn’t just start from there. So we decided we wanted to win the Pac-10. We wanted to go to the Final Four and now we want to win the National Championship. Our goal was definitely to get here. Now to think that we are actually here is amazing. Making it in Ali’s first year after restructuring the team and how we play was a big change, so it is pretty amazing. I’m just proud we’re here right now. Hopefully, we can continue.

Is it enough just to be there or as a team are you hungry for more?

We’re definitely hungry for more. We want to go all the way.

Anything else you think soccer fans should know about you or this team?

Our coach always says that we are sleeping giants, so watch out.

The USC women’s soccer team had a little bus trouble today to as they were heading from the airport to College Station, Texas and the NCAA 2007 Women’s College Cup. They made a pit stop to get something to eat and wound up “somewhere in Texas” waiting for a lift after their bus sprung an oil leak. It apparently is not the first logistical hiccup for the Trojans during the NCAA Tournament.

“That has been the story for us since the NCAA tournament has started. Everything that could go wrong with buses and hotels, we’ve experienced,” said Head Coach Ali Khosroshahin.

If things have been going haywire off the field for the Trojans, they have certainly been clicking on the field. USC enters the College Cup as the only team that has not conceded a goal in the tournament.

This is uncharted territory for the Women of Troy as it marks the first time that they have advanced past the tournament’s second round in the program’s history. Even Khosroshahin is a little surprised at what his team has been able to accomplish in his first year with the program.

“If someone would have told me in January or February when we were getting started that we were going to be in the Final Four, I would have asked them what they were taking,” he said.

He credits a commitment to team defense, a solid back four and an exceptional goalkeeper, Kristin Olsen, for the Trojan’s successful run in the tournament and the shut out streak.

The Trojans will face their cross-town rivals, UCLA, in a semi-final on Friday. They lost to the Bruins, 2-0, in a regular season match, which Khosroshahin sees as a positive.

“I think we learned a great deal about ourselves in that match. It was the first time that we were really just beaten. It exposed some things that we needed to improve on and I think we’ve improved on those things,” he said.

UCLA is an offensive powerhouse with a long list of players like Danesha Adams, Christina DiMartino, Lauren Cheney and Kara Lang that can create scoring opportunities. Khosroshahin thinks that if his team can take care of the ball, then their possession game can limit UCLA’s chances.

He also thinks that the pressure is all on UCLA.

“UCLA’s been here five years in a row now. They are the only number one seed that’s left in the tournament. They’re supposed to win this whole thing,” he said. “Our goal when we started the tournament was to play some very good soccer and to see where that would take us. We haven’t been worried about winning or losing.”

It seems to be working so far. We’ll find out Friday if it is enough to take them to the championship game.

Check back tomorrow to get to know USC goalkeeper Kristin Olsen.