The hotel restaurant is otherwise deserted on a winter afternoon. A long training camp for the U.S. women's national team is coming to a close. The start of the World Cup in France is still more than a year away. And Jill Ellis is downright giddy. It often happens when she talks soccer.
She moves packets of sugar around the table in front of her like a street hustler working a game of three-card monte. Only she isn't trying to deceive. She wants you to understand. She wants you to see what she sees, what each packet -- representing a U.