Aug. 23, 2001

Day 9 (Aug. 23): Maryland falls to FCR Duisburg, 3-2

AACHEN, Germany -

Thursday morning August 23 greeted us, once again, with a light training session. Following that, we boarded our (what some consider our 3rd hotel) bus and road to Aachen, Germany.

Aachen was built in the 9th century. Upon our arrival, we met our guide who took us on a walking tour of the city. She shared several tales of the city with us. We learned that Aachen has natural springs rich in sulfur content. The large amount of sulfur may have smelt bad, but the town's people swear by its natural ability to heal the sick and speed up the healing process. A few of us tried the water. My personal opinion, it tasted like it smelt, like rotten eggs - yuck!

As a whole, I believe that the team found this city much more souvenir friendly than Maasticht. In particular, there was a department store with a sporting goods department. It was there that most of us bought our authentic Adidas/Fila gear and other German paraphernalia.

For dinner, we ate in Aachen at an Italian restaurant.

One thin I notice: Europeans, at least the ones that we encountered, do not drink as much water as Americans. After downing our first glass of water, we ate our meals thirstily waiting for the waitress to refill our glasses. It never happened luckily, however, Gus bought a large gallon sized bottle of water at the market in Aachen. It's immense size gave it character, so we had to name it: Roxanne was it's brand, Roxanne is what we called it thanks to good ol' Roxy and her owner Gus, we cleaned our pallets and ate our meals with full glasses of water.

Game #4 was against FC Duisburg, a contending team for the Dundesliga Damen Championship. This team was probably our toughest opponent. They had six national team players and a well-organized squad.

We fought hard and well. This was a good preparation game for tour ACC opponents. We wound up on bottom this time. 3-2, but a great game overall.

We stopped for pizza on our way home.

Game Report

Playing against FCR Duisburg, proved to be the Terps' most challenging game of the European tour to date according to head coach Shannon Higgins-Cirovski. Featuring a number of German national team members, FCR Duisburg recorded the 3-2 win over Maryland.

FCR Duisburg took a 2-0 lead on goals by Melanie Hoffmann (14 minutes into the match) and Jeannette Götte. Maryland than struck as Audra Poulin (Silver Spring, Md.) brought the Terps to within, 2-1. But Hoffmann scored again to make it 3-1. Maryland's Sara Gustafson tallied a late goal to make it 3-2.