A World Class Experience

Oklahoma soccer associate head coach Graeme Abel had quite the offseason. Abel traveled the world with the U.S. Women's National Team as the squad's goalkeepers coach, aiding the team to its third World Cup title. A native of Liverpool, England, Abel reflects here on his journey to a World Cup and the opportunity of a lifetime.

I spoke with Jill Ellis (U.S. National Team head coach) in February about going to France with the team. I went to Lorient, France for the game versus France, and then went to Portugal for the Algarve Cup. I was with the team officially beginning in the middle of March for the New Zealand game. That game was in St. Louis, so I was with them for that event, and I was with the team for the rest of the journey.

They were talented, driven women who had a goal in mind and weren't going to let anything sway them away from that goal.

In the lead-up to the World Cup, travel was nice because we played in San Jose. We were there for two weeks for training camp, facing Ireland in San Jose and Mexico and (former Sooner) Renae Cueller in Los Angeles. We actually came home for a week, and then from there we ended up going out to New Jersey to play against the Korea Republic. From there we went out to Winnipeg to start the actual World Cup journey.

I think from start to end, I had about 44 consecutive days of actual work. That spanned from when we were in Jersey until the World Cup final. It was tough to be away from family and friends, but it was an opportunity for the biggest honor of my professional career. To be able to work that much and put my resources into pure soccer was fantastic.

It was amazing to see in person how much support this team has behind them, even outside the United States. People are prepared to travel into other countries to watch these players. It was an amazing feeling.

Our travel schedule was crazy. We went from Winnepeg to Vancouver and from Vancouver to Edmonton and then to Ottawa and Montreal and then back to Vancouver. We went through multiple time zones. The performance piece and the physical preparedness piece was huge with the players. They had to do quite a bit to prepare themselves recovery-wise. It was a long journey.

You naturally get nervous as a competitor in general. Before the World Cup final, however, you're not as nervous when you know that you're coaching one of the biggest teams in the world.

I don't think I've coached in a game before where we took a lead as quickly as we did against Japan. With any team, it's hard to prepare when you take a lead that quickly. That team had extremely dedicated and extremely driven women. They were talented, driven women who had a goal in mind and weren't going to let anything sway them away from that goal.

It's hard to describe my emotions when we won. It's almost surreal. It definitely didn't sink in right away because you're on the field and everything is going on. It was pretty cool to watch those players walking away and running around the field with the flag. It was a really neat feeling.

My wife, Katie, and my little boy traveled up for the final with my mother-in-law from Seattle. They were up there for the game and we all celebrated at a team function afterward.

My life changed a great deal when I moved to the United States at age 18. The United States has given a lot to me in terms of my career and life, so it was nice because it was kind of my way of giving back. It felt great to help a country that has been so good to me, helping that country win something that means so much to so many people.

At OU, I've got a group of goalkeepers who have been working with me for a long time. Kaitlyn (Fahrner) is going into her second season but has been here for three and a half years with her redshirt year. Kassidie (Stade) will be a fourth year, so I have a sophomore and a junior in terms of Kassidie and Kaitlyn, yet they're as experienced as any goalkeeping group in our conference. Kali (Newman)'s now been working with me for four years as well. We'll be competitive with them and they'll challenge one another.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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