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SANDY, Utah -- Its hardly a surprise that it takes sacrifices along the way to make it to the U.S. womens national team. It requires a willingness to follow a road wherever it leads, accepting that its end might not be your desired destination.So when she found herself eye-to-eye with a sheeps severed head, Casey Short could have been forgiven for thinking she might have missed a turn or two along the way. In Norway at that moment, she was literally and figuratively a long way from her desired destination.The sheeps head was dinner; the dish a longstanding part of Norwegian cuisine.I dont know that I miss it, but it was kind of a neat experience, Short said of that culinary adventure she had while playing professionally overseas. Surprisingly, I kind of liked it.If the current moment is about where the national team goes next, it also encompasses how those who hope to answer that question got here.For the past two weeks, the national team searched for the pieces to complement the familiar and help solve puzzles posed by the 2019 World Cup and 2020 Olympics. A left foot here, poise on the ball there. With 11 players who were either entirely new to the pool or back in the fold after the briefest of cameos, the experiment marked the first wholesale roster expansion since Jill Ellis took over as coach in 2014.Without the chess pieces, Ellis wont have the team she believes she needs.Without people willing to commit years to the chase, she wouldnt have the luxury of choices.I feel like you never really feel fully prepared when youre coming in here, said first-time call-up Arin Gilliland in Utah. You always feel like you need to do something better before you get called in. So I didnt expect it, but I wanted it to happen.Standing next to her teammate, both with the NWSLs Chicago Red Stars and the national team, as Short discussed eating sheeps head, Gilliland listened with mouth agape in mock revulsion. There was far more agreement when it came to stepping on the training field for the United States, with Short vigorously voicing her consent when Gilliland found an apt metaphor.Its so high-tempo, its like the NWSL on three Starbucks coffees, Gilliland explained. But its great. It makes you think faster; it completely changes your game. And its not something you can adjust to in just one camp.It is daunting. Just not nearly as daunting as life can be.Gillilands mother, Letita, was diagnosed with cancer while her daughter was still in high school. Arin enrolled at Kentucky a semester early, in part to ensure the same mom who had helped her get ready for Halloween trick-or-treating dressed as Mia Hamm, would see her play for the Wildcats.?Letita saw those spring scrimmages and, with the same resolve thats evident in the way Arin plays soccer, saw enough games beyond that spring to witness her daughter grow into one of the best players in college soccer. She also saw a once rebellious young girl grow into the woman who would be honored, after Letita passed away in 2012, with the Honda Inspiration Award, given each year to only one female athlete across all NCAA divisions and sports.For Short, the path to the national team included not only the Scandinavian sojourn but three knee surgeries before it. A regular in the U.S. youth national team system, Short enjoyed a standout college career at Florida State and was the fifth pick in the 2013 NWSL draft. But the injuries ensured she never played a game in the league until this year, so her first professional season was spent not in the NWSL but in Avaldsnes, Norway.The culture was incredible. That was probably the best part, Short said. Everyone was so nice there. And they love football. Its everywhere. You see kids playing everywhere. So I think I was able to find a new passion for the game there and learn from everybody there. I was playing with people from all over the world. It was where I was meant to be at that time.The menu offerings might have made for the occasional comic moment, but Norway wasnt a lark. The sun sets for only a few hours a night during the Avaldsnes summer, but the twilight of Shorts career was fast approaching if she couldnt catch a break. For years, there had always been the opportunity for another game and another season. Suddenly those things were no longer givens.Almost had to put myself back together, Short, 26, explained. It was such a long journey to get there. ... I just needed to find myself again and find my confidence and get my fitness back and all these other things.Unlike the college coach she was at UCLA, Ellis isnt trying to get to know recruits and convince them to choose her program. Here the players are trying to convince her they deserve to stay. Once that is done, there might be more room to get to know the people. For now, Short isnt the product of her story; she is a rare left-footed option to play on the left side. Gilliland is a technically raw but athletically gifted prospect at outside back.Some of the newcomers left little doubt they will be back, Short is among them after a pair of starts in defensive capacities. The same goes for goalkeeper Jane Campbell, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Lynn Williams. Abby Dahlkemper, Ashley Hatch and Kealia Ohai played too sparingly to offer hints as to their fortunes, Ohais record-quick debut goal after 48 seconds on the field notwithstanding. Still others -- Gilliand, Danielle Colaprico, Shea Groom, Merritt Mathias -- trained throughout but didnt dress for either game.The reality is that for most of the newcomers, a contract with the national team does not await. Not at this moment. Maybe not ever. But they made it this far. And with Allie Long just the most recent example, after the 29-year-old claimed an Olympic starting spot following years in purgatory, that can be enough to keep some traveling an uncertain road.Gillilands purple-streaked hair is, in her own words, a hot mess. Shortly before an NWSL semifinal, she broke her necklace chain while engaged in some aggressive brushing. The pendant that went tumbling is an impression of her mothers thumbprint. Desperate to fix the memento before the playoff game, she said she commandeered one of the teams vans and made an emergency run to the store. It was in those minutes that her phone rang with the news from U.S. Soccer that she would be joining them in Utah.People can call it a coincidence, Gilliland said. But I kind of thought that was a sign from her telling me she was listening and knew what was going on -- and that she was happy. I got really emotional and called my dad, and we had a breakdown in the car, but it was great.The past week offered a glimpse of where the national team goes from here.It was also a reminder that here isnt anything to take for granted.Fake China Shoes . He says so-called TRT is only one problem and he wants to go even further than the ban. "Its about time," St-Pierre told reporters at a promotional event in Montreal on Friday. "I think its a good thing. Yeezy From China . 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Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34.Midway through the second quarter of Sydneys clinical defeat of Geelong, cameras panned to the somewhat incredulous figure of Andre Agassi, sitting next to the AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan. Agassi took that very moment to let out a yawn, choosing his moment of weakness a bit like the Cats had done.On another level, though, Agassi could empathise with the hosts. There had been a day 17 years ago when he was on the end of a similar hiding on a day when he had been expected to be at his best. The 1999 Wimbledon final had been billed as a showdown between a resurgent Agassi and a supposedly fading Pete Sampras. What transpired was a Sampras masterclass, leaving Agassi feeling at times like one of the spectators.I maintained my focus and intensity but I just couldnt stop him, Agassi said after. You have to weather the storm against Pete because then he can be vulnerable. Even when I was two sets down I felt like I could come back but the storm never let up. He was taking chances out there, and people think hes walking on water until he starts missing a few of those. But he didnt. So he walked on water today.Swans, of course, dont need to walk on water. But like Agassi, the Cats needed some early good fortune if they were to weather the storm. An early assault from the Swans had been expected, given their aggressive start against Adelaide last week and also the fact Geelong had played only one match in three weeks due to the pre-finals bye.Yet knowledge of what may be coming does not necessarily equate to an ability to deal with it. If Geelong were to take their time warming into the game, they would need to hope that the Swans did not exactly nail their early lines. Equally, they had to hope the bounce of the ball would fall their way.Instead, the match started in the sort of fashion that suggested this was Sydneys night. The Swans had early momentum, sure, but it was exacerbated by Cats errors. Then when the margin had become substantial, luck weighed in on Sydneys side also.Never was this better exemplified than when Isaac Heeney hurried a kick forward from a pack late in the first term. The margin already stood at 31 points, and Jimmy Bartel was left to look helplessly over his head as an end-over-end mongrel punt cleared him and shot through for six points. Heeney is the sort of player the game tends to roll for, being strong bodied and smart, but this was indeed outrageous fortune.From there, the Swans precision was more than enough to keep a margin between the teams, even as Geelongs high work rate and industry was epitomised as ever by the Brownlow Medal favourite, Patrick Dangerfield. The exemplar for that precision was another fledgling Swan, this time Tom Papley. His set shots at goal were so sure that Papley could be seen reeling away in celebration before the ball had even got halfway there: three times this was a galling sight for the Cats.ddddddddddddThe obvious threat after the way they played last week was theyd be dominant early and they were clearly that, Cats coach Chris Scott said. So they jumped us and no matter what we tried early we couldnt stop that. Then they were extraordinarily efficient. Their work rate at the contest was great, we didnt play well, but they force us to play poorly around the contest. They were unbelievably clean around the ball, we werent.The first few minutes they had four shots really quickly. We did adjust, the plan we went in with was executed, but even that didnt work, so that put us right behind the eight ball. The last three quarters we dominated a lot of the numbers but unfortunately some for he numbers can tend to outweigh efficiency. Its one thing to go inside 50 a lot, but the looks they were getting [at goal] compared to us didnt augur well for the way the game was going to play out.For his part, John Longmire put his sides swiftness down to an ability to act on best intentions - easier said than done. theres nothing special to it, our blokes just get themselves into a good frame of mind before the game and are really confident in the sort of footy we know we need to play, he said. And we need to play it. Its one thing knowing, another going out and doing it. Our ability to execute over the last couple of weeks with that intensity, particularly early, has been a really high standard.Much as Agassi had tried to rally in the third set against Sampras, Geelong belatedly found some direction and pressure in the third term to bring the margin back to something like manageable dimensions. These sorts of scenarios invariably draw a baying crowd into the equation, and the loudest barracking of the night was certainly for the Cats to close the gap further. However the occasions when that takes effect are memorable for a reason: they are rare.More common is what transpired for both Geelong and Agassi. The Swans steadied, drawing on their greater proficiency over the course of the night, and ultimately carried home a margin comfortable enough to cruise through most of the final term with very little sting in the game. Well-credentialed as they are, Sydney still found exhilaration in the moment: they have regenerated significantly since their last premiership in 2012, even if their last Grand Final appearance was only two years ago.The one parallel amiss from Sampras/Swans and Agassi/Cats is the fact this was not the final, but something like a Wimbledon semi. Whether Agassi will be back next week to sit alongside McLachlan is open to question. Less doubt surrounds the return of the Swans to the MCG for the third time in five years. ' ' '