Sol Opens Training Camp

Sol Coach Abner Rogers leads the first day of training campi-43fdf84f3b58680291a6aba2165092b6-TS03-LASol.5.blog.jpg

Photos by Brad Graverson

I began my day at the opening day of the L.A. Sol training camp at Home Depot Center, so it’s only fitting I end a busy day there, too, with this belated post.

I’ll have more on the Sol in Tuesday’s column (no, I’m not writing about freaking David Beckham again, although Scott Wolf will provide an update of his reported loan extension).

But here’s a few things that didn’t make it into the column.

The full Sol training camp roster is here.

Except – it’s inaccurate.

There are 24 players in camp chasing 22 roster spots, not 26. The missing: forward Jodie Taylor who is finishing up school at Oregon State and defender Lana Bowen who concluded she had a better chance of hooking on with a WPS team elsewhere, according to Sol management, so scratch them

Also missing: Torrance’s Shannon Boxx and defender Kendall Fletcher, who are with the U.S. Women’s National Team at the Algarve Cup in Portugal, and goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc, who’s with the Canadian Women’s National Team in Cyprus.

U.S. internationals Aly Wagner and Stephanie Cox were also no-shows at the Sol’s morning session due to “contractual technicalities”; they were scheduled to practice Tuesday at the latest (the Sol are doing two a day sessions for the first week and I didn’t have a chance to check back on the afternoon session Monday).

“We’re very very happy that all five internationals have made it for day one of camp,” said General Manager Charlie Naimo. “I think we may be the only team with that distinction right now, so were very, very fortunate especially having the first game March 29. … Except for Washington all the other teams get an extra week to prepare.

The five: Camille Abily (France), Han Duan (China), LeBlanc (Canada), Aya Miyama, (Japan) and Marta (Brazil) plus Johanna Frisk, (Sweden).

More players coming into camp are unlikely, Naimo said:

“We don’t have to go out and bring players in for looks. We have the right mix, right here.”

On signing Frisk:

“She’s an accomplished second back, won championships for years. Pia (Sundhage), our national team coach, had some really nice things to say about her so we were fortunate to be able to add her to our discovery list. She was a great fit and it worked out.”

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Frisk and Marta warm up Monday.

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