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 sixth installment of blogs for the summer.

Jordan Bishop:

Hey there Cyclones,

I have continued practices this week for both the Aztecs and the Breakers. Since our next game is not until July 6 for the Aztecs, we are taking a short break which started Thursday morning and ends Tuesday, July 5. We will then be resuming practices. I, however, have been continuing practices with the Breakers which has also continued to be a great experience. We ran a fitness test on Wednesday with the Breakers before training which I had expected to be really hard, especially while sustaining the Achilles injury. The test is called a yo-yo, similar to the beep test, the test that we do as Cyclones. I did better than I expected, but when healthier I will run again because I know I can do better.

I finished the week practicing with the Breakers, playing various games on the same team. In our teams, we also did skills tests while the small-sided game was going on. For example, a favorite to us Cyclone players and coaches, the cross-bar game. Each team would line balls up about 25 yards away from the goal, seeing how many times you could hit the crossbar in the air in the allotted time. This will be an ongoing competition between the designated teams for the next few training sessions. I did witness some trading happening today, as if it were a legitimate league. My team, the White Ts, picked up Leslie Osbourne because she's been out this week. I was told by an unidentified source that she was shooting a photo shoot for Puma...no big deal.

This weekend, a few teammates and myself are looking forward to the time off to experience the luxuries and sites of Boston and its surroundings. We are going to venture to Nantucket, a small island known for its beauty, which we'll reach with a two-hour ferry ride. For the 4^th, we are going into Boston where we'll experience the nationally known firework display that downtown presents. We are trying to go to the Boston Red Sox game that day as well but still unsure on whether that is going to happen or not. I am going to be like my awesome mom and have my camera ready, so I'll try to put pictures up next week of the holiday's festivities!

I hope you all are keeping up with the Women's World Cup!! A little fun fact: Both women's U.S. players that scored against North Korea play for the WPS Boston Breakers (Cheney and Buehler)!!

Until next time... GOOOO USA!

Elisa Berzins:

Things could have gone a bit better this week. We are still having troubles finishing and unfortunately lost our most recent game to a team that was very beatable. Conditions were wretched, but we shouldn't be using wind and cold as an excuse. The midfield was a bit unconnected, and we really couldn't seem to get a good flow going for a solid 90 minutes. There were spurts of good soccer, but we couldn't pull it together for a win.

On a more positive note, I'm writing you all from the Keflavik airport, waiting to fly out to Germany. I will be the Germany/Nigeria game (Thursday) evening for the Women's World Cup. Although the USA game has been sold out for months, my fellow American and I are going to see if there are any possibilities to get a few tickets. I can't wait to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity. This will be my second Women's World Cup experience, the 1999 games being my first! After being in Frankfurt for a bit, I'm going to be heading to the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam and possibly meet with a few coaches out there. It's all about networking and who you know here in Europe! We will see what comes of it!

Although I have been loving my experience in Iceland, I'm missing the "bright lights and bigger cities". This will be a nice vacation.

Can't wait to talk to you all soon!

Elisa