Blogging with Bishop and Berzins

AMES, Iowa ? Former Iowa State soccer players Jordan Bishop and Elisa Berzins have continued their careers, playing professionally in the WPS and in Iceland, respectively. Both Bishop and Berzins will be providing updates about their experiences playing at the next level all summer on cyclones.com. This is the first installment from the duo.

Jordan Bishop:

Sunday was the first time I've seen a professional women's soccer game. We watched the Boston Breakers take on the Philadelphia Independence. At halftime they introduced Kristine Lilly and gave her the final farewell that she most definitely deserves. It was exciting to see these women up close and watch them perform at the intensity and level I've grown up watching. My team, the Breaker Reserve Team called the Aztecs, practiced under the Breaker coaching staff and was thrown into the mix with the individuals who played less than 70 minutes in Sunday's game. Although a little intimidating, this has been a dream of mine since I was a tot. And don't you worry, I was wearing Cyclone gear the whole time! The practice was a good showing for me, and I am excited to keep working with the professionals to get my name to the top of the list.

Since then, we've been practicing hard, having two-a-days during the week the last couple of weeks to get in top shape for our next game on June 1. The girls are great and we have had some great memories already out here in the great city of Boston. Only two weeks and one game in, but the future is looking bright! The only thing that I may not be ecstatic about are our uniforms. Not the most attractive. I'm definitely missing the great Nike gear from Iowa State. Other than that, life on the East Coast is giving me a great opportunity that I hope to further my career and make my alma mater proud.

Until next time!
J

“The vision of a champion is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion , when nobody else is looking.” ~Mia Hamm

Elisa Berzins:

I am playing for a team called Knattspyrnuf?lag Reykjav?kur, but everyone calls it KR. It is the oldest and most hated club here in Iceland. It's like the Manchester United of the United Kingdom: the one with the most history, some of the best players over the years, etc. However, KR has lost most of its players to better paying teams over in mainland Europe, especially to Swedish teams. Just to give you a picture, five of the starters on the Icelandic National team used to play for KR and now play on the mainland. They left here in the last two years. So to make up for it, they have been trying to get American players on their teams.

I am currently one of two Americans on the team. It's really nice having a fellow American here to explore the city/country and get through the language barriers together. The coaches often forget to explain drills in practice in English and we have to laugh it off and ask everyone what we are supposed to be doing. Most of the time we are pretty close to getting it right except when we have certain restrictions like use your right foot only, one touch, etc. We usually miss out on those!

We have had our first two games of the season, and we are 1-0-1. The first game was against a team called Afturelding, and we should have come out with a big win. However, we hit the post three times and missed two 1v1's with the keeper. Coach was obviously pretty upset, as well as the team as a whole with being unable to come up with three points at the beginning of the season. I played center back in that game because our usual starting center back was suspended from a red card received in a tourney game. I have been playing and starting as a defensive mid in a 4-5-1. Loving the position! We played our second game last night and won 2-1 against Bredablik. It was a great win, considering that they finished third in the league last year, right ahead of us.

Players Mentioned

Jordan Bishop

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