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A.C. Milan

Um we just tied the best team in the world did you hear? Alexandre Pato whom I love since Milan signed him at age 17 scored the fastest champion league goal (24 seconds) in grand style. The touch, the control, the pass, and finish were all pure class. Pato could have not made a more brilliant run. I look forward to watching him this season in Calcio and Champions League and I hope he stays injury free this season.  Getting back to the game, after we were down 2-1 against BARCELONA, (the CHAMPIONS of Europe) Thiago Silva arguable the best young center defender in the world scored a flying header in the dying minuets of the game to salvage a tie for us. Now I was at soccer practice and I didn’t get to watch the game but when I heard about the results and saw the highlights I was going mental. MILAN FOR LIFE!!!    



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Chelsea

Unlike my Milan boys my Chelsea boys scored two brilliant goals to top their group. I didn’t see the match but my boy Torres apparently played very well not quite like he used to at Liverpool, but enough to assist both goals. Way to go el Nino! Torres who was set up Ashley Cole assisted Luiz’s brilliant goal whom made an amazing 50 yard run to score the goal. Torres then made a brilliant run himself and selflessly squared up the 2nd goal for Mata whom I’m starting to like because he’s scoring and playing brilliantly. I hope Torres finds his form this season and Mata keeps up his brilliant performances because Chelsea is going to need them to compete for a Champions league title and for Premiership supremacy.

Madrid

Tisk, tisk, tisk! I’m very disappointed that Real did not crush Dinamo Zagreb today. I was in Spanish class learning how to speak Spanish while the Spanish giants were putting on an unimpressive win today. I watched the highlights and Real played well, but not good enough if they want to be the Champions of Europe.  Now they did get the win so I won’t be too harsh on them because they didn’t disappoint me like my Milan team who got a draw. Anyway, the goal they scored all I have to say is WOW; Angel Di Maria game-winning goal in the 2nd half was classy. The intricate passing between Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, and Marcelo to set up Di Maria was great and I don’t expect anything less from them.



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Quinnipiac

Now as much as I love A.C. Milan, Chelsea, and Real Madrid, QUWS is the team that I love the most. I love my teammates and this is the first year that I can say that our whole team gets along and we have an amazing bond on and off the field. Everyone from the freshmen to the seniors are just clicking.  Our team is full of characters from Sergio Ramos aka Tori to Barbie to Grumpy to our internationals from Ireland, Australia, and Jamaica, and it seems that this year we are more diverse in personality than ever before and I love it. Every day I look forward to playing and hanging out with my teammates and seeing them around the Q campus.

Now our team has a great bond, but for some reason that bond has not translated on the field. We have played four away games on the road and come home with a 0-3-1 record. We suffered two tough one nil losses verses Siena and Hartford and to top it all off we lost to our intellectual rivals Yale 2-nil last night. As a team we are still trying find a way to sync our solid defenders with our midfield and forwards up top. We seem to be struggling as a team not in terms of possession but more in getting players into the 18 and finishing our chances. When we played Hartford we controlled the tempo and had good possession, but we could not seem to get in behind their defense and get crosses and shots in, which ended up hurting us. Hartford got a lucky break when one of their players followed in a free kick that zipped off the cross bar and into her path for the game winning goal. Our team fell asleep and failed to react to the deflection off the crossbar and ended up being punished. Against Siena we lost by a goal that was caused by a little miscommunication between our goalkeeper and defender. However, we had many offensive chances that we failed to put away as well. In last night’s game against Yale, we hustled but it wasn’t our best performance. We took more chances going forward then we did against Hartford, but it wasn’t good enough to win the game.



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Things do seem down at the Q right now, but from every loss we have learned something new and we are working on improving from our previous performance to get ready for the NEC games. Now because we are not a Big East School or ACC team our out of conference games do not matter as much as the NEC’s and playoffs. At the Q we use our out of conference games to challenge ourselves against teams that we think we can compete against and who have a history of going to the NCAA’s because that is our goal at the end of the day (11-11-11).  On a positive note we have two home games coming up against Lehigh and Holy Cross and our program is looking to turn the season around by getting two wins before our first NEC match.  I’m really looking forward to playing our first home match to get some home support and loving from our fans. As a team we really need it right now after being away from home the last couple of weeks

Now I don’t know if any of my readers have read or heard, but I was featured on an ESPN article that picked me as one of the top offensive players in the country. Though the article came out in Augsut, I only recently found out about it and I am very honored to be on that list. This means a lot to me especially since I want to play professional in the WPS after I graduate. So far I feel like I have not lived up to the expectations of this recognition with my performance as I only have 2 goals in 4 games, but I hope that all my hard work and performances in the next 14 game keeps me on that list and helps me make it to the next level. 


 
 
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Hi! My name is Furtuna Velaj and I’m a senior at Quinnipiac University. I play forward, wing and sometimes right back. I’m originally from a small country, Kosovo, (hence my funny sounding name) which is located in the Balkans. However, I grew up living  in the USA. I’m a Political Science major with a minor in Journalism. I’ve agreed to write a bi-weekly blog about the QU women’s soccer team and about my beloved A.C. Milan, Chelsea, and Real Madrid. Not only that, I will occasionally write about other football news that’s going on around the world.

Unlike the many big schools we had a very short preseason of two weeks to prepare ourselves for our regular season. We got off to a quick start with the beep test then proceeded on with a scrimmage with UMASS a couple of days later. Right away I could tell that we have a very good squad that is strong enough to challenge for a NEC title. The freshman and the new transfer gracefully meshed with the squad. In our first match with UMASS we tried to build on where we left last fall by playing simple, free flowing, attacking football and defending compactly.  UMASS came out flying at us with pace and high pressure in the first 15 minutes which we were expecting since they were in preseason two weeks ahead of us. We weathered the storm, but also scored before and took the lead. A quick combination on the left hand side of the field between myself and our new transfer Crystal Burns resulted in a beautiful finish by her.  The team played great in the first half, we were patient, we played the ball on the ground and when we went forward we played with pace and creativity. However, right before halftime the “Minuetwomen” drew the game from an amazing 25 yard free kick. Their center-back who scored should be very proud because it was upper 90, there was no spin on the ball, and it was a bullet.  Second half we tried to break UMASS down some more and vice versa but at the end of the day the game ended in a draw. We were very proud of our performance because it was only our fourth day in preseason and we did well. Once we got back to QU we jumped right back into two a days. Everything went well in the first week of preseason, the team was bonding, we were meshing better on the field, and everyone was happy to be back at our beautiful campus. 



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In our second week of preseason, that’s when all of the high intensity workouts, fatigue and the heat started to catch up to us. More and more players were getting ice baths and getting stretched out. As we were preparing for our first home match against Army we had our first serious injury in an inter squad practice. One of our junior defenders tore her ACL on our practice field. In a normal 50/50 tackle with another player her leg gave out and she just started screaming hysterically. Right away we knew it was not good, her scream and pain sent chills down my body and everyone’s faces went dead. The whole team was in shock and our coach could tell as he told us to switch to the game field. Our whole team was in shock as the intensity of the practice dropped and everyone started pulling out of tackles. A couple of days later another one of our teammates tore her ACL in a scrimmage against University of Bridgeport.  Now, two ACL tears in one week that’s a lot to take in. Having been recently injured myself and not playing for a couple of months I know the emotions that my fellow teammates are going through. I wish them the best of luck and I hope to be there for them throughout the year.

Our match against Army got cancelled due to Hurricane Irene which hit us last weekend. Our whole team was really bummed as we were looking forward to finally playing a real match and avenging our loss to them last year. (Score line did not reflect the way we played, but they did a great job and deserved the win) So instead of playing Army we got in an early morning scrimmage against the University of Bridgeport, which we won 3-1. I was very happy about the result in this game because 1) we beat my older sisters Linda’s team, 2) we lost to them 2-0 when I was injured and studying abroad in London, and lastly 3) my younger sister Aulona is now on the team. Not only that, but I scored and had two assist which made me happy.

This week we are off to upstate New York to play Canisius and Siena so I will be hoping to create some havoc against those teams and hopefully scoring some goals and coming home with two W’s. Also, shout out to my fellow bloggers Kelly D’Weezy and Matt Danaher—Good luck in your seasons!



 

    Furtuna Velaj

    Velaj enters her senior year at Quinnipiac University as one of the most creative forwards in the country.  She has been selected All-NEC and NSCAA All-Region in each of her first three seasons in Hamden.  She played club soccer for Connecticut Football Club.  




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