Kelly Smith returns with her first column of the New Year. The England and Philadelphia forward discusses rankings and playing on artificial turf at Villanova University, the home of the Charge. BY KELLY SMITH I’ve spent the past months working out on my own to get ready for the beginning of preseason training which starts the first of March. I’m really excited about playing in Philadelphia and I think we’ve got a great group of young players. I’ve had conversations with head coach Mark Krikorian on the phone and both of us are looking forward to having a successful working relationship. Even though I haven’t met him yet, I’ve heard a lot of good things about him and know that he did a great job at the University of Hartford. Better than eighth. I’ve been browsing through some soccer Web sites and have noticed that people are not giving us (Philadelphia) any credit, with one poll picking us to finish eighth in the league (when there are only eight teams!). In my mind, that’s not a fair rating because we have a lot of talent. Once the season gets underway, I think people will see our potential. It only matters where you finish at the end of the year after all. In Philadelphia, we’ll be the only team in the league playing on Astroturf. Obviously it’s a much faster and different game, if you don’t already know. You have to think and react much quicker that you would do on grass. It’s more of a thinking game on turf — the ball’s going to zip up, so you have to worry about controlling the ball first. Then you’ve got to think to yourself, I’ve got to hit this pass softer and with more accuracy so it doesn’t skid past my teammate. Tremendous ball control is a necessity when dribbling and running at players — which I love to do — because the ball tends to run away from you. Normally you wouldn’t think about this stuff on grass because that’s natural and where you learn the game. The skills that you use on turf don’t change from the game on grass much. I feel ball control is a strength of mine so I will have that to my advantage. Also I trained a lot on turf in the winters growing up — because the fields were always boggy due to heavy rain — so I feel comfortable with it. Advantage, Charge. We’ll definitely have the home field advantage though since we’ll be playing on turf day in and day out. From what I’ve heard, we’re going to have a grass field to train on as well, so we won’t be at a total disadvantage on the road. There is also talk that the Charge will only be playing on the turf for a year. No matter what the situation is, we’re going to be playing the most games on turf and will have a definite advantage over our opponents, who will be more unfamiliar with it. The biggest challenge for us will be to adjust our game to grass when we’re on the other teams’ fields. When we make those adjustments successfully we will have the edge and I believe we will have a very good season.