"Ahh." I say then fall back onto the familiar grass. "It's good to be home."

"DOG PILE." Kelley yells then I see her run towards me.

"You sure it's a good idea to Dog Pile your head coach?" Mal questions causing Kelley to stop.

"Never mind." Kelley says then she lays down next to me and wraps her arms around me. "Love me."

"You're a dork." I say.

Kelley and I lay on the grass for another minute then we stand up and head over to where the team is just starting their stretches.

"Is this where you played Astrid?" Mal questions

"Yep." I say. "We kicked so much ass here."

Ahead of the Germany game we are training at the AOK-Stadion in Wolfsburg.

"Did you like the Royals or Wolfsburg better?" Emily asks.

"Wolfsburg." I instantly say. "I enjoyed playing here so much more."

"Why?" My twin questions.

"After the world cup I just didn't enjoy playing or training as much as I did when I was here." I say. "But we can talk more about that later. Finish your warm up then we'll start."

Dawn leads the girls in their warm ups while the coaching staff and I set up for the training session.

"Alright." I say as the girls huddle around me after they've finished their warm ups. "We're gonna start off with some 1v1's so I need the attackers on my left and the defenders on the right and put on the green penny's...Midfielders stay where you are."

The defender's and attackers move to where I ask them to then I look over the Defenders.

"Alright Moe, Rose, and Lindsey join the attackers and Andi, Jules, and Sam join the defenders."

The midfielders move to where I tell them to then I roll a ball to Ashley.

"So both groups are gonna start on the right side of your mini goal and when I blow the whistle well you know what to do...everyone understand?" I say and everyone nods. "Good. On the whistle."

I blow my whistle then Ashley and Alana Cook battle for a while until Ashley eventually pokes the ball into the net. A couple other girls go and everything goes swimmingly until Mal comes up.

"STOP." I shout after Mal tries to dribble around Julie for the umpteenth time. "Reset."

Mal and Julie then move back to their positions.

"Alright Mal I need you to do something for me." I say as I stand next to the forward.

"Okay?" Mal says so I point at Julie.

"Attack her. Go at her. Make the defender either make a mistake or foul you. Okay?"

Mal nods.

"And when she gives you that opening...punish her."

Mal nods so I step back to my position with the coach's then I blow the whistle. Mal runs directly at Julie and they battle for a while then Mal randomly pokes the ball into the net.

"Better." I say. "Keep working on that Mal Pal."

Mal nods and gets back in line so we continue on with our practice.

Two hours later practice is over so the girls do their cool downs while I sit with them after I've cleaned up practice.

"Astrid has the weight room here always been like that?" Dawn asks and points to the old weight room.

"Up until we won the first Champions league it was. Wolfsburg then started allowing the women in the male first team weight room."

"So did you work out outside of here?"

"Not really why?"

"You were always one of the fittest players on the team and I have no clue how with that lack of equipment." Dawn says.

"All I did outside of training was run with a weight vest."

"Where would you run?" Mal asks.

"Around town."

"I bet I can run longer than you can." Kelley says.

"I can run with a weight vest on longer than you can without a weight vest."

"I don't believe you." Kelley says.

"Wanna bet?" I ask.

"What are your terms?"

"Whoever runs longer wins."

"And if I win?" My twin questions.

"The whole team gets two days off." I say.

"And if you win?"

"You owe me 150 push ups...deal?"

"Kelley." My wife says. "I wouldn't if I was you."

"Why not?" Kelley asks.

"Astrid and I ran together during the offseason and I've seen Astrid running with a weight vest...you'll lose...easily."

"Fine." Kelley mumbles as it starts to pour down rain. "RUN FOR IT."

- - - - -

"There's my favorite Keeper." An elderly woman says and hugs me.

"How ya doin Corina?" I question.

"Better now that you're here."

"Well I brought some workers so what needs to be done?"

Corina was my neighbor for the first five years I lived in Wolfsburg then I moved houses once I got some money. Corina's house was messed up in a recent storm then a few days later an exposed wire caused the house to catch fire a bit, but luckily the fire department put it out quickly so no significant structural damage was caused.

Today, in lieu of training, we are helping her clean up the house.

"Well the roofers finished the roof yesterday so it's just the inside that needs cleaning." Corina says then she leads everyone into her house.

Corina shows us around and tells us what needs to be done then we all have a group huddle while Corina uses the restroom.

"Alright so first of all thank you for humoring me on this." I say and everyone nods. "How about we split up into groups then each group tackle a room."

Everyone nods so we split up into groups then I delegate rooms.

My group is Mal, Kelley, Christen, Alex, Tobin, and Lindsey and we are taking the living room.

Once everyone has a room we split up and get to work.

"So what do we do first?" Kelley asks.

"Scrub the walls and get the fire marks off them, put a fresh coat of paint on, then go from there?" Alex suggests.

Everyone nods so we get to work scrubbing the walls and once they're done we start painting the walls.

"Fuck." I hear Mal mumble.

"What's wrong?" I question.

"I can't reach the top." Mal says and points to the top of the high ass walls.

I nod then squat down next to the forward.

"Hop on." I say and pat my shoulder.

"Really?" Mal questions and I nod.

Mal shrugs then she sits on my shoulders and lets her legs dangle in front of me.

"Hold on Mal." I say then Mal holds onto my head. "1...2...3"

I slowly stand up then I hold onto Mal's legs.

"Better?" I question.

"Mhmm." Mal says and starts paining the top of the walls as Lindsey hands me the paint bucket .

This house may have the tallest walls I've ever seen.

Mal paints the top of the walls while I hold her legs and the paint bucket.

"Well that's gonna make a cute picture." Lana, one of the media ladies, says as she stands in the doorway in front of Mal and I with a camera.

"Alright I finished Astrid." Mal says.

"Lana can you take this?" I ask causing the media woman to put her camera down.

"Yeah." She says and takes the paint bucket.

"Alright Mal." I say and grab the youngsters hips. "Hold on to my wrists."

Mal does as I say then I lift her over my head then I set her gently down on the ground.

"Thanks Astrid." Mal says and hugs me.

"No problem."

"While the paint dry's you guys come take a break." Corina says and motions everyone outside.

All of us follow the elderly German woman outside then we sit around the back yard while drinking lemonade and eating sandwiches.

"Hi Boo Bear." I say when my wife sits in my lap.

"Hi." Tobin says then she pecks my lips. "You know its really kind of you to do this for her."

"It's the least I could do." I admit. "She and another lady helped me heal into the person you fell in love with."

"Well then I guess I need to thank her."

"Your welcome." Corina says as she passes by.

"I swear that woman has the ears of a bat." I say.

"HEARD THAT."

"Told you." I say causing Tobin to chuckle.

"So." Tobin says and looks at me. "You ready to coach against your old teammates?"