Christina DiMartino is a former soccer player with the Massapequa Soccer Club & Massapequa HS. She played her college soccer at UCLA and is currently a member of the US National Team and the Philadelphia Independence of Women’s Professional Soccer.

Over the coming months, Christina will be reporting in to LIJSoccer.com as she goes through her WPS season and looks ahead to the 2011 Women’s World Cup this summer. Be sure to check back regularly for updates.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all enjoying your soccer season. Our team has been playing well and we’re happy with the way things have gone so far. We have a 2-1-1 record and we’ve only played one home game. In our league you get three points for a win and one point for a tie. The goal is to win at home (which we did on Mother’s Day) and try to get as many points as we can on the road, be it a win or a tie. We have a 1-1-1 record away from home this year, including a come from behind win in Georgia earlier this week, so that’s not bad.

For me personally, it’s been a good start. I’m not usually a goal scorer, but I scored twice in the first two games! It was really just by chance. I had some opportunities in front of the goal and I was able to finish. I was in the right place at the right time.

I play midfield and we play a diamond in the middle of the field. The nice thing about that formation is we have a lot of free range, which allows us to follow the play of the game. The four of us in the middle can rotate anywhere inside that diamond. Depending on what’s happening in the game, I could be the forward point of the diamond, I can be back on defense, or I can be out on the right side or the left. It just depends what’s going on at the time.

Our team’s normal alignment is a 4-4-2, which means we play with four defenders, four midfielders, and two forwards. Playing that diamond lets us move around, like I said, but it also makes it easier for us to adjust to the style of our opponent if we have to. An example is when we played Boston on Mother’s Day. They play very defensively, with only one forward. We felt like we had to put pressure on their back line, so I actually played forward in the second half of that game in a 4-3-3 alignment We’ve been playing this system since last year, so we are comfortable in it.

Today we are playing in Boston, and it’s a trip I’ve really been looking forward to. First, it’s nice to be playing games on a regular basis now. Early in the season, we had a game cancelled due to weather, then we had a bye, and it was tough to get in a flow. But now coming off a couple wins in a row, I think we feel pretty good about how we’re playing.

I’m also going to stay in Boston after the game. My sister goes to BC, so I’m going to spend some time with her, and a teammate of mine from UCLA is also up there. It’s hard to make time to see people during the season, so it’s nice when it works out like this. It should be a fun couple days.

TINE’S TALES
I know a lot of you guys are playing State Cup and Long Island Cup games now. I remember our biggest State Cup rival was East Islip. It was always a really competitive game, and even the parents would be really into it. We had some real back and forth battles. We’d always have pizza afterwards, and I think we pretty much had some kind of celebration no matter what the outcome. I wasn’t always part of tht though. I was the emotional kid. I got really high and really low, depending on how the game went. I was always the one crying when we lost. I HATE losing! :) I never did anything after a loss.

We won the State Cup with my Massapequa Spirit team and with my Albertson team. That was exciting. I remember there were no tears after those games!

DREAM BIG!

Christina

Other Entries by Christina:

The Season Looms

DiMartino Days