There's an interesting piece on the U-21 women at cybersoccernews. I suppose I hadn't really noticed before until I read it here, but there is a big gap in FIFA's women's international competitions, jumping from the U-19 cup to the Olympics/WWC level. That explains why all those 20 year olds are jumping straight into the full national team - they really don't get any serious international opposition except for the Nordic Cup. The thing that the coach says about Natasha Kai is very interesting: "She is an unbelievable athlete, one of the best that I have seen in our sport. She must be incredibly fast! Anyone seen her at all? Linda Wolves 2 Fulham 1
I have seen her. She comes from the rural north shore of Oahu. She is very fast; she was the top sprinter in Hawai`i in high school. She is also very quick. She has good soccer skills, but not on the level of the best players. She has good finishing skills, but often just dribbles past the keeper and shoots into an open net. She was the top scorer in the NCAA last season, with 29 goals, I think. Of course that's not against the sort of competition the top teams play, though we did play some NCAA tournament teams like SMU and BYU. I hope that helps.