| USA places 3rd in United World Games WFHS Graduate Kaitlin Foran plays on squad June 26, 2010 By R Kelly Foran Coyotesoccer.com Klagenfurt, Austria - Kaitlin Foran recently recently returned from Europe after participating in the 2010 United World Games played in Klagenfurt, Austria. In it's sixth year, the tournament brings together many junior national teams and top club and select teams from around the world to an Olympic styled competition featuring soccer, hand ball, volleyball, and basketball. Foran competed on a team sponsored through USA Athletes International. They placed 3rd in the women's U17 bracket. The team of 12 had players from Texas, Tennessee, and Kansas. Foran's journey to Europe began in December, 2008 when her on-field performance was noticed by the USAAI coach while playing in the Orange Classic Tournament at Miami, FL. She was guest playing with Odyssey 92, a rival team of her own Genesis WF 92 who compete against one another in the prestigious Lake Highlands Girls Classic League. Odyssey ended up winning the tournament with Foran scoring the winning goal in the waning minutes of the championship game. A call from USAAI came six months later with an invitation to play in the June 17-20 tournament in the picturesque Alpine city of Klagenfurt. "No one was home when we received the call and they left a message on the answering machine. When I first heard the message I couldn't believe it. Everyone got excited and my sister quickly volunteered to act as a chaperone," Foran recalled of the call. "I had to raise $4000 to pay for the trip. I wrote letters to everyone I thought could help, family and friends alike. We also did some fund raisers. I ended up raising about $6000 and used the extra to pay for my sister, Heather to accompany me." 
Foran
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The trip included a chance to see Milan and Venice, Italy as well as Munich, Germany. "We played a friendly game against a club team in Milan (Atletico Milano) and followed it up with a meal on the pitch provided by the Milan team. The game was fun (we won 5-0) and I scored a couple, but the meal was awkward. We had some cold veal cutlets. I had never had anything like that before, but I finished mine off. We were warned that it was an offense to not finish your meal there. The Milan team were cool. They wanted to swap jerseys, but we still needed them for all the upcoming matches." From Milan it was on to Venice where we got to see the sights and ride a gondola. Unfortunately, it rained most of the time we were there. I would love to go back and visit the city for a couple more days." On day three we headed to Austria. We arrived, checked into the hotel and were going to practice, until the rain started again. We ended up starting the tournament early the next morning with only one practice and one scrimmage under our belt, but we came through in the first game. We played a German team and tied 0-0. We had a short break and played are second game against Austria. We did much better in that match, taking a 7-0 victory. The next day we wrapped up pool play by defeating another German team 2-0. This made us the winners of our bracket and we took on the second place finishers of the other bracket, another Austrian team. We ran into a lot of difficulty with this game. We ended up losing 0-1. We had two goals that were disallowed, plus I was called for a foul in the box. I was on a breakaway, a girl behind me had hold of my arm and was pulling me back. I was trying to shake her off as I charged toward the goal with the ball. Some how that was a foul against me. The next day we played the Italian team in what was definitely our toughest match. We were scoreless at the end of play and went to a shootout, where we won." Following the Italy game I had the chance to swap Jersey's. I gave up my white Jersey and a pair of short in return for a yellow and a blue jersey from Tavagnacco of Italy." We didn't have much time to spend in Munich. I would like to go back there as well." Foran now takes a break prior to her college carrier kicking off at the University of Central Oklahoma. Wichitans will get a chance to see Foran play when UCO visits MSU on October 17th at 6pm.
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