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UCLA Newsroom
Jillian Ellis
Jillian Ellis, head coach of UCLA women’s soccer team, is an assistant coach for the
Secure shopping!
August 01, 2008
Yesterday was a day off and it rained most of the day. Instead of going to see the eastern most point of the Great Wall we took a shopping excursion in the afternoon into downtown Qinhuangdao. Not everyone went which was probably a good ...
Ni Hao!
August 01, 2008
After six months of training and traveling the world we landed in Beijing last Thursday and got our first taste of Olympic fever in the capital. There were Olympic banners, media, volunteers, folks from the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) a...
The life of Skype!
August 01, 2008
We had a great training session this evening. The players are finding their legs after the jet lag and really looked sharp at practice.
The other teams in our bracket (New Zealand, Japan, & Norway) have started arriving in Qinhuangda...
Dragons in China
August 01, 2008
Today we had a closed door match against the Chinese Women’s National Team. Closed door typically means the match is off limits to anyone outside of the immediate team personnel, however, the 100 or so field staff, security workers, and event pers...
Dragon's Head and stadium in Qinhuangdao
August 04, 2008
The weather has turned and we’ve had beautiful sunny days. Almost every member of our group has commented on seeing the blue sky – so maybe the emergency pollution measures are having an effect!
Yesterday we went to the Drag...
Game Day
August 06, 2008
We spent all day at the hotel waiting for our evening match. For the players, the day is about relaxing and mentally preparing for the game. In between meals some of the players got to meet up with their friends and family who had just arrived in ...
Watching opening ceremony on TV
August 08, 2008
We trained this afternoon in preparation for our match against Japan tomorrow. We went out for about an hour and went through a technical warm-up and a walk-thru to familiarize ourselves with Japan’s style and system of play. The team is upbeat an...
Three points and meeting Ronaldhino
August 10, 2008
We defeated Japan 1-0 to earn valuable points in our group. Norway leads the group with six and they are through to the next round. We will play New Zealand in our next game and need to win or tie to advance.
It was an emotional win but m...
Off to Shanghai
August 13, 2008
Last night was a great emotional boost! We beat New Zealand 4-0 and with Japan crushing Norway 5-1, we advanced in first place from our group.
The game started in dramatic style as Heather O'Reilly scored with a 30yd blast in the first mi...
Back to Beijing
August 17, 2008
Last night we prevailed over Canada 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals. It was a battle, and both teams slugged it out through 120 minutes. I was so proud of the two Bruins on the pitch - Kara Lang has been a standout for her team in this tourname...
Olympic village
August 18, 2008
The village is impressive! The beautiful landscaping and design is the perfect backdrop to the array of people walking around in all their colorful warm-ups. So many nationalities, languages, and sports are represented in the village. Ha...
On to the final!
August 20, 2008
We beat Japan last night in the semi-final 4-2 to advance to the gold medal game. It was an electric atmosphere in Beijing’s Workers’ Stadium with almost 50,000 fans on hand. After rallying from a goal down the crowd got behind us, and chants of “...
Heading home!
August 22, 2008
An unbelievable final capped an unbelievable Olympics! We beat Brazil last night in overtime to win the gold in front of 55,000 at Beijing Workers' Stadium. It was an amazing game and had two heavy weights slugging it out through 120mins of soccer...