Sauerbrunn Anxious For Home Debut

D.C. United Women News Release - www.dcunitedwomen.com

Friday, June 22, 2012

GERMANTOWN, MD - The wait to see Becky Sauerbrunn’s world-class talents on display on the Maryland SoccerPlex pitch is finally over as the 2012 Olympian is set to make her home debut with D.C. United Women on Saturday night against the Virginia Beach Piranhas.
 
"The girls played amazing last night [Wednesday] and I don’t think it can get much better than that," said Sauerbrunn, who signed autographs pre-game and watched the team’s 5-0 win over FASA Impact from the bench on Wednesday night. "The five goals in the first half were all phenomenal. Going into the game on Saturday I just hope to fill in and do whatever they ask me to do. I thought defensively the girls played amazing and I’ll play whatever role they need me to. "
 
Sauerbrunn, who was held from action last night by the U.S. Soccer training staff for precautionary reasons after a long flight home from Sweden the day before, last played with D.C. United Women on the team’s road trip to Dayton from May 31-June 2, in which the Black-and-Red went 2-0-0 against the Dutch Lions winning 3-2 and 2-0, respectively. The 27-year-old defender played all 180 minutes of those contests and will likely see a lot of minutes Saturday as well. She saw United Women in action on Wednesday for the first time since the Dayton trip and was highly impressed with how far the team has come in her absence.
 
"There are some players that I didn’t get to play with when we were in Dayton, like Carolyn Blank, she’s a very quality player and I think she adds a lot to the team," Sauerbrunn told www.dcunitedwomen.com. "It seemed last night that the ball movement is crisper, cleaner and faster and the finishing was clinical. Lianne Sanderson’s two goals were just phenomenal."
 
In addition to Blank and Sanderson, Sauerbrunn said she was most impressed by the performance of 17-year-old Ashley Herndon and is looking forward to playing with the 2013 James Madison commit on Saturday.
 
Sauerbrunn has missed five of D.C. United Women’s first seven league matches because of U.S. Women’s National Team duties, which most recently included a two-game stint in Sweden for one of the team’s final tune-ups before the London Olympics. Sauerbrunn played the entire second half for the U.S. last Saturday in a 3-1 win against Sweden, and again on Monday in a 4-1 win over World Cup Champion Japan. In last Saturday’s match, she came on for U.S. Women’s National Team Captain Christie Rampone.
 
"It’s an honor to be able to play in her spot," said Sauerbrunn on coming in for Rampone. "To sub in for her and at least try to step into her shoes, which are huge for me to step into."
 
On Monday, the USWNT found some long-awaited revenge on Japan, the team that upset them in the 2011 World Cup Final last summer. Sauerbrunn again entered for the second half, this time coming on for Rachel Buehler, and said to finally beat Japan after losing and tying them since the World Cup was satisfying for her and the rest of the team.
 
"We’ve played Japan a lot since the World Cup and just cannot win; just to play them and get to know their style a little better and be able to counteract what they do well, it was good for us to defend the way we did and obviously the score line helped."
 
Tomorrow, the defender will make her home debut with D.C. United Women and will then travel to Utah for one of the USWNT’s final tune-ups before the Olympics begin. The team faces Canada in Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 30, at 2 p.m. ET in a nationally televised event on NBC billed as their official Olympic send off.
 
"We’ve been getting really good support from the fans so it’ll be nice to show on our home turf before we play in the Olympics," Sauerbrunn said on the upcoming friendly match. "It’s exciting because we’re playing an Olympic quality team in Canada so it’s a good test for us."
 
Between all the Olympic training camps, friendly matches and tournaments over the past several months, along with managing her schedule with D.C. United Women, Sauerbrunn has been on a constant grind. That grind will only get more intense over the next few weeks as she prepares for extended playing time with United Women and the Olympics just around the corner - however, she told dcunitedwomen.com on Thursday that she is feeling good and expects to remain in top for the rest of the summer.
 
The former University of Virginia great will also appear in D.C. United Women’s July 7 home match against the Dayton Dutch Lions, the team’s last regular season showing at the SoccerPlex of the summer. However, if they keep winning, they will host the Eastern Conference Playoffs Final Four (without Sauerbrunn) sometime between July 19 and 22.
 
The July 7 farewell match for Sauerbrunn against Dayton is being billed as "Olympic Sendoff", and the team is confident many local fans of soccer will come wish the Olympian off in-person before they join millions watching her on TV in London a few weeks later.