In the third installment of her monthly column for Socceramerica.com, Philadelphia Charge and England striker Kelly Smith discusses playing for a WUSA all-star team in the Sunshine State. BY KELLY SMITH I’m really getting excited for the start of the WUSA season. In just about two weeks I’ll be heading to San Diego with the Philadelphia Charge for preseason training. We’re spending the whole month of March there — aside from training with the team, we’ll be playing exhibition games against some of the other WUSA teams as well as some of the younger United States national squads. This past month I’ve really been working on fitness and strength but I finally got to play in a full-sided match. I went to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to represent the Philadelphia Charge and the WUSA playing against the Women’s Elite 16 All-Star Team. That team consisted of some of the top college players who were drafted by the WUSA early on. My team was comprised of players such as Julie Foudy, Sara Whalen, Nikki Serlenga, Tracy Ducar, Tiffany Roberts and Homare Sawa of Japan. We watched the College All-Star Game, which I played in last year. These were the top seniors in the country, who were trying to impress WUSA coaches for one of the final drafts which was held the next day at the hotel where we were all staying. Thanks, Foudy. Our exhibition game followed that and for me, it was great to be back on the field again. The whole first half was really fast-paced. Both teams were playing hard and just going end to end. The Elite 16 scored very late in the second half and then I scored the tying goal just about a minute later, with six minutes left in the game. Julie Foudy had the ball on the right edge of the box and I made a run from the left side. She passed me the ball on the six-yard box on the right side. I felt the defender on my back, then made a clever turn to get rid of the defender and saw that the keeper was out of position. As I turned I put the ball into the lower right of the net. Then in the last six minutes of the match we were really trying to push for the win, but couldn’t score, so it ended in the 1-1 tie. Since the first half was so fast you could tell that people were starting to tire by the end of the match due to lack of match fitness. This was understandable since there are no real competitive games right now. It was an enjoyable game and gave me a great taste of what’s to come — the talent I’ll be playing against and with each week in the WUSA. It was of a very high standard. I can’t wait to begin. Apartment hunting. For now, I’m just finishing up my job as assistant coach at Seton Hall University before I leave for San Diego. It’s been a busy month trying to find a place to live near Philadelphia. My apartment search was successful and I’ll be moving into my new place at the end of February. I will barely have enough time to get settled because I will be off to sunny California for a month of hard training.