{"id":324875,"date":"2020-06-16T06:06:40","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T20:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=324875"},"modified":"2020-06-16T06:06:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T20:06:40","slug":"last-dance-for-3-nmi-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/last-dance-for-3-nmi-players\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Last Dance\u2019 for 3 NMI players"},"content":{"rendered":"
In this file 2014 file photo, CNMI\u2019s Carrie Schuler, right, dribbles against a Macau defender during their game in the Preliminary Round 1 of the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup at the Guam Training Centre in Harmon. (Guam Football Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coming back to play for the CNMI Women\u2019s National Team for the last time is way up there in Carrie Schuler, Megan Silberberger, and Emily Maxberry\u2019s collection of great soccer memories.<\/p>\n

The date was July 24, 2014 in a game versus Macau in the Preliminary Round 1 of the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup at the Guam Football Association Training Centre in Harmon. All three scored in the CNMI\u2019s 7-0 trashing of Macau for the women\u2019s crew\u2019s first international win.<\/p>\n

The CNMI\u2019s Emily Maxberry, right, fights for possession against a Guam player. (Guam Football Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was kind of a special ending for my career with the NMI Women\u2019s National Team,\u201d said Schuler, who joined her former teammates on the winning squad in Episode 5 of Footcast with Norman to discuss their experiences in the competition, which host Norman Del Rosario considered as the three players\u2019 \u201cLast Dance\u201d with the national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing back to play for the team at my age (late 20s) and facing new players and new coaches is such a different experience. However, there\u2019s one thing that remains constant\u2014the love for the sport. Every player on the team has so much heart for the game, so being asked to come back and having the opportunity to work with the new faces, getting more offensive type of play, and winning our first international match were so amazing,\u201d said Schuler.<\/p>\n

The CNMI\u2019s Megan Silberberger, right, gets away from her Macau defender. (Guam Football Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The former national team player, who now lives in Iowa with her two kids and husband Kirk, had an earlier record for the CNMI before the historic win over Macau. Schuler scored the women\u2019s team\u2019s first international goal in 2009 during the CNMI Women\u2019s National Football Team\u2019s in the EAFF Women\u2019s Football Championship 2010 Semifinals Competition in Taiwan, incidentally, against Macau. When they faced Macau anew, Carrie put the cherry on top of their lopsided win after lighting up the board in the four-minute stoppage time.<\/p>\n

Maxberry, on the other hand, had a pair of goals in the victory, scoring her first in the 28th minute after muffing several attempts and getting her second in the 65th, making the dominant win also a pitting ending for her.<\/p>\n

Carrie Schuler, right, lifts Alexa Vergara after the latter scored the CNMI\u2019s first goal, while Marielle Gariguez moves in to join the celebration during their game against Macau in the Preliminary Round 1 of the 2015 EAFF East Asian Cup at the Guam Training Centre in Harmon. (Guam Football Association)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI felt like I came in full circle. We started the national team (2007) to try to encourage more women to play. The players I played with were the ones that Patty (Coleman) and I saw playing as young kids,\u201d said the Texas-based Maxberry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe I was ask to come back, work out, and play with a lot of young kids. I also can\u2019t believe we won and saw the benefits of the program that we helped start,\u201d the mother of three added.<\/p>\n

Members of the CNMI Women\u2019s National Team get high-fives from their male counterparts after beating Macau, 7-0. (Guam Football Association(<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, Silberberger, one of the attackers on the team, was just thankful for the opportunity to play for the national team for the last time before moving and starting her family life. She now lives in Washington State with her two children and husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter playing for so long, sometimes you feel like the game is wearing you down. But in that tournament, I remember how it\u2019s so much fun to play and share the field with everyone on the team. I treasured every minute I was able to play,\u201d said Silberberger, who still could not get herself away from soccer, as she now coaches the junior varsity team in her school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coming back to play for the CNMI Women\u2019s National Team for the last time is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":324887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[257],"class_list":["post-324875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-nmi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}