KELLY SMITH WEEKLY COLUMN - 15th MAY

KELLY SMITH: Brazil star Fabiana's not the only one struggling with the language

By Kelly Smith

In her weekly column for Sportsmail Online, KELLY SMITH finds a little trouble with the language as she travels coast to coast with the Boston Breakers in America's Women's Professional Soccer championship...

In theory we speak the same language, but there are times in America when people don't have a clue what I'm talking about.

Maybe it's the accent - and some of the words are different - but people tell me I talk too quickly. I can stand and talk to someone and see them staring back with blank faces until I break it down slowly for them.

I'm not so different from Fabiana, the Brazilian who's just joined up with the Boston Breakers. Everyone's really excited about her arrival. We're not as cosmopolitan as some of the WPS teams.

Fabiana and Boston Breakers president and general manager Joe Cummings

American dream: Fabiana is welcomed by Boston Breakers president and general manager Joe Cummings

Everyone has five internationals, but until Fabiana arrived we only had me, my former Arsenal team-mate Alex Scott and the Canadians Christine Lathan and Candace Chapman. So, in theory at least, we all spoke the same language till Fabiana got here. She doesn't seem to know a word of English and has an interpreter.

It will be three or four weeks till she's ready to play full contact as she comes back from anterior cruciate ligament surgery. I've not seen her play before but she won a silver medal with Brazil at the Olympics and everyone is talking about how good she is: really quick and skillful, only just turned 20.

I think her role initially will be coming off the bench for 15-20 minutes, playing up front and trying to change the game with her pace.

Fabiana is not the only one a long way from home. After we play Washington on Sunday, it's back to England for a training camp with the national team and the timing couldn't be better. Next weekend, Boston have a bye week, so I get to stay an extra few days catching up with friends and family.

Hope and pray: England manager Powell will assess her players in training next week

I'm always having video chats with them using Skype on in the Internet, but the longer you're away, the more you miss home. I can't wait to catch up with my Nan. It's her 80th birthday in June, when I won't be able to come over, so we'll celebrate early.

And I'm desperate to walk my dog, Bailey. Where we live in Boston, by the Charles River, you see so many people running, roller-blading in the mornings and early evenings, and loads of people walking their dogs and playing frisbee with them. It makes me a bit jealous.

There are reminders everywhere. Two of our coaches from the FA are over here and I took a walk with them on Venice Beach when we were in LA last weekend. There were puppies for sale as you walk past, but that was not the most unusual thing.

It was a real eye-opener. It's a melting pot of different kinds of people, exercising, playing volleyball and basketball - and then there's the Muscle Beach gym where the huge guys seem more interested in their biceps and having their photos taken than actually working out. Further along there are tattoo and massage parlours; it's an interesting place to be.

Strike a pose: Body builders show of their figures at Muscle Beach

That was before our match against the Los Angeles Sol at the Home Depot Center. This is where David Beckham plays and the facilities are so impressive. As well as the Sol and the LA Galaxy, the U.S. national team use it and Mexico also play a few games here.

There are so many pitches, all well kept, and I've not seen anything like it before. Only in America do you get so much space and all dedicated to one sport.

We beat LA a week earlier in Boston, but we knew this was going to be a very different game. The heat was in the 80s and it was supposed to be overcast, which it was for the warm-up. But as soon as we came out of the dressing room for the game, the sky had cleared somehow and it was roasting.

But to draw 0-0 is a good result. We've done well the last couple of games so we want to keep that momentum going against Washington at home on Sunday. We've already beaten them away, but they've won and drawn with very late goals in their two games since, so that shows a strong mentality.

Then it's back home on Monday. England haven't got a match but the training camp is no picnic and gives Hope Powell, the manager, a chance to have a look at where all the players are at.

There are about 30 players fighting for about 20 places at the European Championship in August and everyone is being looked at, no matter how many caps you've got. It's a last-gasp chance for some of the players to show what they've got.

My old Arsenal team-mates will no doubt be bouncing. It was about six in the morning in LA when they were kicking off against Everton last Sunday in a match they had to win the retain the League title.

Gunning for glory: goalscorer Suzanne Grant (second right) leads the celebrations as Arsenal clinch the league title at Everton

I had to get up and leave my room-mate because I was a nervous wreck, getting text updates from a friend at the match. When the first goal went in I was just so thrilled and had to get on the internet to try to find out more. Waiting for that last update was bad, wondering whether they had held on or if Everton had scored.

Thankfully it was good news and I'm made up for Vic Akers, the manager. He deserves it more than anyone, now he's stepping aside, It's hard losing players like he did with me, Alex and Karen Carney in the winter and I saw he's come out and said it was his biggest achievement - alongside winning the UEFA Cup two years ago - to take the Treble this time along.

Everyone at the club has worked so hard and he's really gone out with a bang. Faye White, the captain, emailed me to say had celebrated like when we beat Umea in the UEFA Cup, because they weren't expected to do it.

Everyone was saying how Everton would win the League but they showed how strong their mentality is to come through adversity, really stick together and prove people wrong. That's the kind of language everyone understands.

KELLY'S EYE

This week I... saw Slumdog Millionaire. I tried to read The Secret, the book by Rhonda Byrne that I mentioned last week. But on the plane to LA I managed about one paragraph before sitting back and enjoying the films. It's the first time I've seen Slumdog and it was really good.

Check out the column at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1182830/KELLY-SMITH-Brazil-star-Fabianas-struggling-language.html