Kara Lang

Kara Lang
Kara Lang in September 2005
Personnel
Surname	Kara Elise Lang
birthday	October 22, 1986
place of birth	Calgary ,  Canada
size	172 cm
position	variable
Juniors
Years	station
2001-2003	Oakville Angels
Women
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2003-2006	Vancouver Whitecaps Women	28 (12)
2005-2009	UCLA Bruins	74 (32)
2009	Pali blues	3 0(1)
2010	Vancouver Whitecaps Women	8 0(2)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
	Canada U-20	33 (12)
2002-2010	Canada	92 (35)
1 Only league games are given.

Kara Elise Lang (born October 22, 1986 in Calgary ) is a former Canadian soccer player and journalist . She received a lot of media attention at the beginning of her sports career because she made her debut in the national team at the age of 15 . After declaring her athletic career to be over in early 2011, she attempted a comeback at the end of 2013, but this failed due to the third cruciate ligament rupture of her career in February 2014.

Origin and life

She is the daughter of Brian and Moya Lang, has a brother with Pierce, and was raised in Oakville , Ontario . There she attended the Roman Catholic High School St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary. 2005 enrolled them at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and studied as major subjects history and art history , but also turned Communication Studies at. She graduated in April 2010.

In 2011, Lang was hired as an expert by the Canadian television broadcaster Sportsnet on the occasion of the women's soccer World Cup in Germany . After the disappointment for the Canadian team competition, she continued her journalistic activities in the transmitter and reported as a sideline reporter , for example, Big 10 - basketball games . She also writes articles for the Sportsnet homepage and has a regular column in the daily newspaper The Province . Lang lives vegan , is - like her father - a certified yoga teacher and is involved as technical director and trainer in the social project Street Soccer Canada. Previously, she also worked as a fitness consultant at UCLA's John Wooden Recreation Center (university sports center) and as a designer at the small Vancouver- based sportswear manufacturer Capleoa Athletic.

Athletic career

societies

Lang began playing soccer at the age of five, but initially played in the non-competitive houseleague system. She later opted for a more serious pursuit of sport and joined the competitive or rep youth teams (by representative ) of the Oakville Soccer Club, the Oakville Angels. There she played her first game in April 2001.

In 2003 she moved to the Vancouver Whitecaps Women and played with them for four years in the W-League , the top division in US and Canadian women's football at the time. If you had to admit defeat to the Seattle Sounders Women in the final of the Western Conference in 2003 , the team won the championship in 2004 with a 4-2 win on penalties against the New Jersey Wildcats . The team from Mercer County , New Jersey , however, returned the favor in the following year 2005, when it defeated Lang's team in the semifinals and a little later became champions. In these three seasons, the Whitecaps had always completed the regular evaluation of the Western Conference as a superior leading team.

After graduating from high school, she was scouted number 1 by UCLA and joined the Bruins there when she began studying in the summer of 2005 . In her very first season there, in which she played 24 of 26 matches, she developed into an important leading player under head coach Jillian Ellis , setting two new UCLA freshman records in terms of the number of goals and assists and 2nd semesters), scored a hat trick in their second game and three decisive goals, scored at least two goals in five games and was able to celebrate the Pacific 12 Conference Championship with the team after 22 wins and only two draws and two defeats . In addition, she led the Bruins into the final of the NCAA Championships , which they lost 4-0 to the Portland Pilots with Lang's countrywoman and national team colleague Christine Sinclair - during the tournament, Lang scored eight times in six games, all with the exception of the final. Due to the special design of the W-League as an “open league”, Lang was able to continue to work for the Whitecaps parallel to his studies and during the breaks in the game and helped them to another championship title in 2006. In the process, however, she sustained a cruciate ligament injury and took a medical redshirt , which enabled her to extend her college sports time by three years. It wasn't until September 28, 2007 that she played her next game for the Bruins in a 2-1 win over the Portland Pilots and contributed both goals. In total, she scored seven goals in the 2007 season, and she won with the team again - her second title, as she paused in the equally successful 2006 season as mentioned - the Pacific-12 Conference Championship and reached the semifinals in the NCAA Championships. In 2008 Kara Lang was able to find her way back to her old strength without injury. She played 24 games, scored five goals, prepared nine more directly and helped the Bruins to an undefeated season with 18 wins and two draws and the fourth Conference title in a row. The team then fought its way into the semifinals again in the NCAA Championships with ten goals from Lang, among other things, making it at least fourth place six times in a row since 2003.

On March 25, 2009, the Pali Blues from Pacific Palisades , a borough of Los Angeles , announced the signing of Lang. In parallel to her studies, she returned to the W-League division . In the meantime, however, this had been downgraded to the second level in the course of the establishment of Women's Professional Soccer . The California team was able to win the title, but Lang only had two appearances. In the summer of the same year, she played the first nine games of the new Pacific-12 Conference season for the Bruins, before she sustained another serious knee injury in a game against the Cal State Northridge Matadors on September 25 and then ended her college sports career . After Lang's recovery, she signed a one-year contract with her former club, the Vancouver Whitecaps, in March 2010. With these she reached the final for the W-League title again, but there Western New York Flash won 3-1.

On January 5th, 2011, Kara Lang announced at the Oakville Soccer Club in front of representatives of the press, coaches, club employees and young fans at the age of only 24 that she was retiring from active sport - the reasons she gave was continuous cruciate ligament and knee injuries.

National team

After numerous appearances in the Canadian U-20 national team, Lang made her debut on March 1, 2002 during the Algarve Cup in the senior squad , holding the record as the youngest Canadian to play in an A international . Two days later, on March 3, at the age of 15 years and 132 days, she scored her first goal against the Welsh national team , making her the youngest player in the world to date to score an officially recognized goal in a women's senior international.

A little later she was appointed to the squad of the first U-19 Women's World Cup in 2002 , which was held in her home country . During the tournament, she scored three goals in six games and also scored on penalties against Brazil in the semifinals . The Canadian team only lost to the United States in the final . At the age of 16, she was in the squad for the 2003 World Cup , played there for all six games in Canada and scored two goals. First, she met in the group stage against Japan and finally converted a free kick in the semifinals, worth seeing, directly to the 1-0 lead against Sweden . The Northern Europeans turned the game around and won 2-1. Ultimately, Canada finished the tournament in fourth place after the subsequent 3-1 loss to the United States in the game for third place. After her first two years, Lang was the national player with the most minutes played during this period, and in 2003 she even set two new records with 21 games and 1,740 minutes.

Group photo after the award ceremony at the 2007 Pan American Games. (Lang in the back row, standing, sixth from the right)

At the request of coach Ian Bridge , Kara Lang played for the first time as a central defender in the CONCACAF qualification for the U-19 World Cup in 2004 and became the team’s leading player alongside Emily Zurrer . In the end, the qualifying tournament could be won, but despite high expectations, they were eliminated 3-1 against China in the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Thailand . In 2005, Lang became the youngest player in the world to exceed 50 international matches. A year later Canada failed at the U-20 World Cup 2006 in Russia already in the group stage; In the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the competition, Lang scored the fastest goal of all time in women's football against Mexico just four seconds after kick-off. After Lang had missed the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup 2006 and the local defeat of her team because of a cruciate ligament injury , she secured the bronze medal with the Canadian team in July 2007 at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro . She contributed to this success with five goals in six games. Almost two months later, she experienced her second senior women’s World Cup in China , in which Canada, however, did not survive the group stage again. Lang was used in all three games from the start.

A career highlight - if not in a sporting sense - was the nomination for the squad for and subsequent participation in the 2008 Summer Olympics in China. In the group game against Argentina on August 6th at the Tianjin Olympic Center Stadium , Lang contributed a goal to the 2-1 victory of the Canadians, who, however, had to admit defeat to the opponents and later Olympic champions from the USA 2-1 after extra time in the quarter-finals . At the end of her career, Lang won the 2010 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup with the team . In the final, hosts Mexico were defeated 1-0. Of the five games, Lang only played two: In the group game against Guyana , she was in the starting line-up and scored in the 8-0 win, and in the semifinals against Costa Rica on November 5, she was substituted on by coach Carolina Morace . This was her last professional football game at first.

After Lang's resignation, her former national teammates Diana Matheson , Robyn Gayle , Carmelina Moscato and Melanie Booth said that she was one of the most enthusiastic, exuberant, courteous and spontaneous people (orig .: "one of the most enthusiastic, hilarious, courteous and spontaneous people") that they would know and that they were proud to be able to call Lang not only a teammate, but also one of the best and lifelong friends. With her 34 international goals she is still (as of June 2019) in fourth place on the all-time top scorer list of the Canadian national teams.

In November 2013, Lang took part in a training camp for the Canadian national team for the first time after her resignation, but initially turned down an offer from national coach John Herdman to gain a foothold in professional club football again as part of the NWSL player allocation 2014 .

successes

Club level

• W League championship title: 2004, 2006
• W League title: 2009
• Pacific-12 Conference Champion: 2005, 2007, 2008
• Induction into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame : 2015

National team level

• CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup : 2010
• Cyprus Cup : 2008

Personal awards

• Canadian Player Awards - Canadian U-20 Players of the Year: 2005
• Soccer America's Preseason All-America Team: 2005
• Soccer Buzz Freshman All-America Team: 2005
• All-Pac-10 Freshman Team: 2005

Continuing

annotation

1. ↑ In US college sports, a season usually lasts from mid-August to early December at the latest. - The NCAA Women's Soccer Championship usually lasts about three weeks and takes place in November / December. - The W-League seasons, including the playoffs, mostly last from May to August.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Pali Blues - 2009 Statistics ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , uslsoccer.com (English). Retrieved January 23, 2014 
2. ↑ cbc.ca: Kara Lang's soccer comeback derailed by 3rd knee injury (Feb. 13, 2014)
3. ↑ Profile of Kara Lang ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at uclabruins.com ( UCLA Bruins ). Retrieved March 7, 2012 
4. ↑ "Back in the Limelight" (PDF; 7.1 MB). Interview with Kara Lang in FreeKick , a supplement to The Province , October 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2012
5. ↑ "Pali adds Cheney, Lang and Mora" ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on wleague.uslsoccer.com on March 25, 2009. Retrieved April 7, 2012 
6. ↑ Bruce Constantineau: "Team Canada striker Kara Lang re-joins Vancouver Whitecaps" on whitecapsfc.com ( Vancouver Whitecaps Women ) of 16 March 2010, published in The Vancouver Sun . Retrieved April 7, 2012
7. ↑ YouTube video of Kara Lang's declaration of resignation from January 5, 2011. Accessed April 7, 2012
8. ↑ "Kara Lang - Forced to Retire" on mrsport.ro from January 22, 2011. Retrieved on April 7, 2012
9. ↑ [2013-11 Women's camp in Vancouver], canadasoccer.com (English). Retrieved January 23, 2014.
10. ↑ Daniel Squizzato: Canada names 16 allocated players for 2014 NWSL season ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , canadiansoccernews.com (English). Retrieved January 23, 2014. 

Web links

Commons : Kara Lang  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Kara Lang in the Canadian Soccer Association database
• Kara Lang in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Kara Lang's private blog
• Kara Lang's private Twitter account