Boston Breakers’ LeBlanc: ‘You’re not only doing it for yourself’

INTERVIEW BY SCOTT FRENCH Canadian goalkeeper and former University of Nebraska standout Karina LeBlanc made her WUSA debut in the Boston Breakers’ 4-2 victory Wednesday night over the Bay Area CyberRays. She made four big stops — two of them from point-blank range — before a calf injury forced her departure in the 75th minute. SOCCER AMERICA: Not a bad first game. KARINA LEBLANC I was excited. I must say, I wasn’t too nervous — it was an opportunity I was waiting for. We have two great keepers at Boston, so it’s great competition to practice with Tracy [Ducar], because she brings out the best in my game. SA: It’s not like you were standing around doing nothing, either. KL: I expected that. A lot of people were like, “Were you nervous? It’s your first game.” I’ve played a lot of big games with Canada, so this is another great game to give me experience, help me become the keeper I want to become. SA: The CyberRays outshot you guys, 26-10. KL: Really? Oh, wow. SA: Not all of them were on target, but they challenged you the whole way. KL: There was a lot of pressure on our side, but there also was a lot of pressure on their side. We did a great job of finishing; I think that was key for us, to get two goals up, two quick goals [by Sherice Bartling in the eighth minute and Angela Hucles in the ninth minute]. We were able to control through balls they like to do with Sissi to [Tisha] Venturini and Brandi [Chastain] to Sissi. I think that was key for us in the first half. SA: Are you pleased with how the Boston defense has been playing? KL: Yeah. We need to polish up — as a team we need to — but I also think as a team we’re doing well. We’re progressing like we want to progress. You don’t want to be at the top of your game at the beginning of the season and at the bottom at the end of the season. I think [Breakers coach Jay Hoffman] has done a real good job making us progress as a team. We’re coming along nicely. SA: You were up, 4-0, by the 57th minute after Kristine Lilly and Dagny Mellgren scored a minute apart — not bad while missing your two Germans, Maren Meinert and Bettina Wiegmann. KL: That was great. … The two Germans definitely bring a big boost to our team, but tonight I think we showed what a great team we are. We have some stars, but we’re also a great team. SA: Are there any minuses to being on the same team with Tracy Ducar? You’re both good enough to start in this league, but instead you must share time. KL: I don’t think there are any minuses. We’re both practicing hard and bringing out the best in each other, and I think that’s what’s key right now. It just makes it competitive and brings out the best in both of us. SA: You had to leave in the 75th minute. What’s the injury? KL: I hurt my calf on one of the saves [in an earlier game]. I pushed off, and I felt a little pull in both, and they started to tighten up, and as the game went on, the more kicks I took, the tighter they got. And they got to the point where there was, I think, a corner, and I went to jump, and my leg just stayed. SA: It was the corner where the shot came at your crossbar. You played the sequence out, and next thing you know, you’re on the ground. KL: I tried to jump, and my legs were like, “No, no, no, you’re not doing anything.” Definitely sucks, but … SA: How would you assess the WUSA? KL: It’s a great league. It’s a dream come true. The facilities are wonderful, the support is amazing. You have people loving you, like little kids saying, “I love you, I want a hug,” and that makes you feel good because you’re not only out there doing it for yourself. Little kids want to be like you — that was me, like, five years ago. I have nothing but positive feelings on the league so far. HURRICANE BABY SA: You were born in Atlanta? KL: Yes. SA: How did you end up in British Columbia? KL: It’s a long story. I was a hurricane baby. I was supposed to be born in the Caribbean, on the island of Dominica, and there was a hurricane — Hurricane David — in 1980. My mom says she was sitting around the table, and the roof went flying. You get all these hurricane warnings, and it was a really bad hurricane, so my parents went to Atlanta, I was born there, and then we went back to the Caribbean. I lived there eight years, then we moved up to Canada. I’ve been there since. SA: So the plus side of the hurricane is you got American citizenship. KL: Yes, that was definitely a bonus. It definitely helped me on draft day. It’s a great thing to have dual citizenship. America is a great country, there’s so much opportunity in this country, and to have that and Canadian citizenship is beautiful. SA: Quite a few Canadian national team players — men and women — have Caribbean roots. What’s the connection? KL: In the Caribbean, once you finish high school — they call it grade school — you go to college in the States. I think my parents wanted to give us opportunities earlier in life. I think a lot of Caribbean people do that — they have a lot of family up in Canada. SA: Did you have family in B.C.? KL: Family, yeah. More in Toronto. My mom’s Jamaican. There’s a lot of Jamaicans up there. SA: You don’t have a Caribbean accent. KL: I used to. My parents — everyone was like, “Tell your parents to slow down when they’re talking.” My parents have accents, but I don’t. It’s gone. I used to get teased about that, they’d say, “What’re you saying?” When we first moved out there, it was summertime, maybe 70 degrees, 80 degrees, and I was freezing. I had a parka on … and my strong accent, and people were, “You’re just foreign, man.” Now it’s like, “Hey, speak with your accent. It’s cool” SA: Can you slip into the accent if you try? KL: Uh … they say when I talk to my mom, my accent comes out. GO BIG RED! SA: Tell me about your time at Nebraska. There’s certainly a Canadian pipeline to Nebraska’s women’s soccer team. KL: Nebraska was the best decision I think I’ve ever made. I followed a lot of Canadians there with [former Canadian national team assistant coach] John Walker — he was a great coach — and I think that’s where I’ve grown most as a keeper. I had great goalkeeping coaching [from Marty Everding], and that stemmed from having a coach who understood you leaving a lot for the national team and releasing me for that. He understood the experience I was getting with the national team would only make me a better player at the college level. I left a lot, but I think that made me the player I am today and will help me become the player I want to be. It helped me take my game to another level, and I still want to get to that next level. Nebraska was a stepping stone. SA: That had to have been an interesting transition culturally. KL: Yeah … and it was definitely colder than Vancouver. But when you have great teammates, you don’t notice the big change. Our team hung out together, went through all the rough times together — good times and bad times. SA: I take it you became a huge Big Red football fan. KL: My boyfriend plays on the football team, so I had to be serious about Nebraska football. Actually, now I’m a total college football fan. I learned the game, because up in Canada, football is not that big. I’m a die-hard football fan. SA: Nebraska’s not a bad place to become a big fan. They might have the best fans in the nation. KL: I’ll tell you, you experience a Nebraska football game, you’ll never experience anything like it. I went to all the home games we could make last year [that didn’t conflict with the women’s soccer schedule], and every game, I got goose bumps. It was a moving experience. because people live and die Nebraska football. There’s a 7 o’clock game at night, and there’d be traffic at 6:30 in the morning. You’ll see New York [license] plates — what are you doing here? I’m not that [rabid]. CANADA’S EMERGENCE SA: The Canadian national team has been an emerging power since the ’99 Women’s World Cup. Why? KL: Our coaching. Our coaching is definitely the biggest change. Really positive, a different style, and we’re playing to our strengths now and getting really comfortable with each other. I think Even [Pellerud, who guided Norway to the 1995 WWC title] has done a great job with the program. No knock on the old coaches — I wasn’t around long enough to really see them — but I can definitely see a positive influence from Even. He’d dedicated to the team, does the necessary steps. And we’ve got a good goalkeeper coach — Jerry Knutsson. He was Bente Nordby’s 1-on-1 coach for six years, so you know he’s a good coach. SA: Seems there’s also a lot of good young talent coming through. KL: That’s another key thing. Even’s focusing on the big CONCACAF and Olympic [events] down the road. He’s brought in younger player to get them experience, help them develop. That’s key. It’s helped me out. He saw I was young, and he gave me a chance. SA: Since you have American citizenship, you were eligible to play for the U.S. team. Were you ever torn between playing for the U.S. or Canada? KL: When I was younger, I want to play on your national team. But the moment I stepped on the field for Canada, heard the anthem and had the uniform on, there was no going back. SA: What’s your situation with the national team. In the nets it’s you and — KL: Nicci Wright. SA: And you’re sharing time. KL: Um, yeah … SA: And you, of course, would like to be No. 1. KL: I’ve had talks with Even. They’ve been positive. SA: What do you foresee for the Canadian team? KL: If we continue doing as well as we have, we have a good chance of competing. We have to continue improving, though. We can’t say, “OK, we beat the U.S.” That’s the great thing about our team: We don’t do that. We’re willing to put in the hard work, and that’s very important. SA: Would you like to see more Canadians in the WUSA? KL: Yeah, that would help our team. The international players we have here are the top international players from around the world. If the Canadian team continues to do as well as it has been doing, we’ll see a few more Canadians.