Based on my reading, U.S. Women’s ‘keeper Hope Solo’s post-game outburst draws only the rare condemnation and that’s mainly in the comments. It seems all right-thinking people understand that Solo got the shaft, that U.S. coach Greg Ryan is a second-order dolt (scroll down) and a first-order tool, and that a very petty cabal could very well exist within the U.S. team (do look at the post under the phrase “very petty cabal”; the image Who Ate All the Cupcakes chose to make the point is priceless). Talk of boycotting the team till Ryan is gone crops up here and there and, as a Portland, Oregon resident, I have an opportunity close at hand for expressing any outrage I feel in the form of an October 17 friendly between the U.S. and Mexico. Thoughts for a quick, punchy banner to display are welcome (though they’re also likely to go entirely unused).

I have to admit that, after listening to Solo’s comments, I didn’t expect things to get as ugly as they have; the words themselves seemed fair, if a little discourteous. But I’d go so far as calling myself appalled by what her teammates did in particular. Reading accounts that Solo was actually shunned by her teammates lops off at the knees any respect I had for several of these women (Kristine Lilly and Abby Wambach, if a couple lines of chatter can be believed). That cliques being formed and friends defended seems to have trumped a decent regard for objective reality dredges up all my ugly biases against all the narcs, toadies, and yes-persons that populate the planet and cheapen our collective lives. Let’s just say loyalty is a virtue qualified heavily by to whom or what one is loyal.

I fully expected the reaction from above, however, which starts with Ryan and works its way up to the pinnacle of company-person assholeism. This reaction follows the same logic Major League Soccer (MLS) applies when, say, coaches and players rip a referee for a call so bad it leaves the blind rolling in the aisles. Hell, the impulse behind all this shows up in everything from government to the biggest of Big Business: don’t bad-mouth the virtuous policies and pronouncements of The Company. The downside of pushing this line internally, and enforcing it on “the merry workers” by means of fines, doesn’t stop at simple cowardice; it amounts to taking a rasp to The Company’s credibility. Just ask the Bush administration about how doling out Happy Talk has helped them keep the confidence of the country.

As for the particulars of what Solo said, there’s just nothing there to fear but fear itself. As with MLS and the Fiesta del Dodgy Reffing, the working assumption seems to be that so long as Solo doesn’t point it out, no one will notice that Brianna Scurry is past it or that Ryan is a lousy coach. But we all saw it and a lot of people pointed it out well before Solo uttered a word: the cat is out of the bag and marking all over the rug.
In the end, I actually admire Solo for speaking up and speaking about reality. It Scurry’s feeling got hurt, that’s regrettable, but I don’t know how she talks about a hard reality without someone taking a hit. The upside to this entire episode comes with knowing that “all right-thinking” people know the score and that these are the people who buy tickets to Women’s National Team matches. The downside: I’m reading in a fair amount of the copy that Ryan might stick around for the Olympics, a sign that, if true, amounts to emperor acknowledging the fact he’s buck-naked. That’s their prerogative, I suppose, but if they think people want to watch them parade their portly asses around the town, I think they’re mistaken.

Germany’s Women’s National Football Team is one – if not THE best team in European football and now they’ve done it again. They won the final of the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China yesterday and now as I’m writing this the team gets a very warm reception at the Frankfurt City Hall in front of around 20.000 fans. The beat Brazil 2-0, a match that had been labelled as the clash between German precision against Brazilian finesse. It’s true, the Brazilian side had the better chances and they had way more than the German women. But in the end they women’s team did just the same thing the men’s team used to do over a long time: play solid, score goals and win tournaments. Gary Lineker once said that football is a game where 22 people play against each other and in the end the Germans always win. Germany scored 21 goals and conceded none. Goalkeeper Nadine Angerer didn’t have to fetch a baal out of the net for 540 minutes. By doing so she even beat the record set up by Italian Goalkeeper Walter Zenga at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. They outclassed South American champions Argentina 11-0 in their opener, they won against Japan, the lost their only points against England (0-0), they beat the mysterious team from North Korea (3-0), they won against Norway (3-0) and then in the final they won against what is considered to be the best team in the cup, Brazil.
I first saw a Women’s football match during the World Cup in the USA in 1999, when Germany played against the hosts in the quarterfinal. A thrilling 2-3 loss for Germany, but it had it all. Wonderful passing, beautiful goals, nice effort and really good play. It’s by far nicer to watch a women’s game than at some point the hacking and slashing in a men’s match.
Unfortunately the only coverage the women get is when they play their cup final in Germany before the men’s final. The highest division, the Bundesliga, isn’t televised. So it’s kind of hard to keep track on what’s happening there. What they need is a professional league to keep up the momentum. Maybe this will change if Germany is awarded to host the Women’s World Cup in 2011. If they get it I’m going to a match, I swear!

Who would have thought that I would be following any football game, let alone the Women’s World Cup? You have to understand that I didn’t even know there was a Women’s World Cup which dates back to 1991 where the USA scored a record 25 goals throughout the cup. Since then it has been played every four years.

Following the games this year, and listening to the commentators, the strong teams were Norway, the United States and Germany, all previous World Cup Champions. However, countries like China, Australia and Korea showed a lot of improvement and threatened to close the gaps beteen themselves and the stronger teams but could not quite make it. But I must say, they went down in style! The Koreans really took risks with their flying kicks (football terminology comes with time) and deft passing. It was a real shame to see them go but Germany was not handing over the cup for anybody.

Brazil was the favourite of the underdogs as countires like Ghana were beaten so badly. In one match they lost by 8 goals! I was astonished to discover that the finals is the farthest Brazil has ever gotten. This is interesting to me for a couple of reasons. I was under the impression that all Brazililans are born bouncing a football off any part of their bodies. Oh and they are born with expert knowledge of the rules of the game as well. Hey, there are worse stereotypes.

Another reason occured to me. Women’s football in Brazil had not attracted as much attention or following as in countries like the UK, Germany or Norway. This would then have meant that funding was hard to come by. However, watching the skill and flair that the team demonstrated in their 4-0 thrashing of the United States, one player who stood out the most was Marta. Her skills transcends sex and her legend will survive for centuries to come. At one point after scoring against the US, the male commentator cried out ‘the greatest!’ in an excited tone which echoed my sentiments. It was at this point that many, including the team I am sure, believed that they could secure their first ever victory in the World Cup.

Like I said before, Germany was not going to give it up without a fight. While I enjoyed the skill and fancy footwork of the Brazilians, their caressings of the ball looked a bit self absorbed in the face of the strength and up close and personal contact from the Germans. I became more and more frustrated as they failed to see that dribbling in the German zone meant that they gave the German defenders too much time to arrange themselves. This usually resulted in one Brazilian player surrounded by atleast three unrelenting Germans. The Germans did not miss any of the oppurtunities for shots (even though they only really had one) and in the end they emerged as the stronger team of the two scoring two goals.

Germany made history by becoming the first team in the Women’s Cup to retain their title. Their goalie, who won best keeper, also made history by not conceeding any goals through out the cup. Marta won the Golden ball (best player) and Golden Shoe with 7 goals in the cup. Although they lost, I think they opened up more avenues for women’s football not just in Brazil but everywhere else as they showed that women can play this sport with skill and flair.

Wowwwwww. I don’t even know where to start.

Hope Solo’s not happy, and she’s definitely not hiding it.

“It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that. Um… There’s no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves, and the fact of the matter is it’s not 2004 anymore. It’s not 2004. And it’s 2007 and I think you have to, you have to live in the present. And you can’t live by big names. You can’t live in the past. It doesn’t matter what somebody did in an Olympic gold medal game in the Olympics 3 years ago. Now is what matters, and that’s what I think.”

First of all the US still has one more game to play, the third place game on Sunday. So I’m pretty sure of the following:

- Hope Solo is not starting Sunday.

- The rest of the team will rally around Brianna Scurry and beat Norway.

- Despite the fact that she picked the wrong time and the wrong forum to say it, Hope Solo is mostly right.

Sure, there’s no way to guarantee that she makes the save on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th goals, but on everything else she’s right. But for the love of all things holy, Hope, you really went about it the wrong way.

If you’re watching this later on DVR, turn away now.

I actually don’t have as much to say about this match as I thought I would. The shocking 4-0 scoreline in favor of Brazil doesn’t tell the story on the surface. The match was fraught with questionable, and in some cases terrible decisions.

It began with coach Greg Ryan’s decision to start Brianna Scurry over Hope Solo, who hadn’t allowed a goal in over 300 minutes. Scurry began the match by coming for a cross and letting it go through her hands, and while Brazil did not capitalize, Scurry certainly looked rusty. Retrospectively speaking, it was an unnecessary change. Yes, Scurry was 12-0-0 against Brazil, but Solo had never played them. Is Scurry going to play every time the US goes against Brazil?

The next questionable (and terrible this time) decision was Leslie Osborne’s decision to head a corner kick out of play at knee height after it bounced short of the near post. I should say try to head it out of play, because she headed it into the goal for Brazil’s 1-0 lead. She’s got to clear that back where it came from with her feet. No questions asked. Not only did she stoop to head it, but she took her eyes off of it as well, looking down at the ground as she did it. I was always taught to follow the ball with my eyes when I headed it, and she broke that rule.

Perhaps the worst decision of the match came before the end of the first half when Swiss referee Nicole Petignant sent off Shannon Boxx with her second yellow card in stoppage time. The problem? Boxx was run over from behind by Brazil’s Christiane, who got her feet tangled with Boxx’s away from the ball causing them both to go down. There is no foul there. It is incidental contact. If it’s a foul on anyone, it’s on Christiane. No, Petignant sees both players go down, and puts every bad decision that I’ve ever seen by a referee in the background by sending off Boxx. Fifa.com even refuses to reference it, as if it never happened:

“…when a coming-together between Boxx and Cristiane resulted in a second yellow card for the combative USA midfielder.”

Coming-together? Call it what it is.

The next questionable decision(s) came in substitution. Midfielder Carli Lloyd rightfully came on for defender Stephanie Lopez at half. The next two subs were defenders – Tina Ellertson for forward Heather O’Reilly on 60′, and Marian Dalmy for Kate Markgraf on 74′. Sure, Ellertson is a better fit to match Brazil’s speedy attackers, but if that’s the basis for her introduction, why wasn’t she in there to begin with? And how is the US going to score goals when you take out a forward for a defender 15 minutes after seemingly making an attacking move with Lloyd at halftime? It makes no sense.

I’m not going to blame the referee for the US losing. After all, it was 2-0 when Boxx was sent off. The referee did, however, essentially kill off any US hopes of coming back with that boneheaded decision. I hope she says that she saw the two players on the ground and assumed a foul had occurred, and not that she saw it happen the whole way and still called the foul. Either way it’s a terrible call, but the former is only slightly more defensible.

Four years of hard work to get back to this point after being knocked out by Germany in 2003 is up in smoke after this loss. The blame is all on the US for this loss, and it starts with Greg Ryan, and ends with Greg Ryan. The question now… well, you probably know what it is.

As we all know by now, the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) crashed out of the 2007 Women’s World Cup in a manner reminiscent of a car packed with C-4 going into triple roll-over. I only know what the few reports I read told me, so I can’t analyze the game or speak to factors in the loss…beyond acknowledging that the 4-0 score-line suggests several factors as opposed to one.

But one of those factors will, no doubt, get plenty of attention in the wake of the loss: USWNT coach Greg Ryan.  The question already being batted around is whether Ryan should keep his job.  Clemente Lisi, writing on USSoccerplayers.com, serves up an emphatic no – for reasons that don’t begin and end with the Solo/Scurry controversy.

All the same, I do have an opinion on the loss: it’s a good thing.

As much as I like the U.S. winning, I like my sports competitive a little more. Parity among women’s national teams, something that seems to be growing at a happy pace, makes for a more interesting Women’s World Cup. I’d go so far as to say that I feel like I missed out. While there’s something to be said in favor of great teams – after all, this is Wigan beating Manchester United means something – the more fundamental truth is there’s not much point in watching a sports if you know what’s going to happen.

70 minutes in – Hope Solo not in net, Boxx ejected, no momentum, and Bri Scurry not the keeper Ryan expected when he chose her over Solo to man the nets against Brazil in the WWC Semifinal match-up. Hell of a way to go out and you got to almost jump on board and agree with the Brazilian coach Marcellus who said, “This is NOT a time to make a change” when asked about the Scurry for Solo switch.

One question:

WHY F*** WITH WHAT WORKS IN THE PRESENT? – not this 14-0 bullshit against Brazil in the past. Why put a cold goalkeeper in net…period? Somebody enlighten me – that decision coupled with Boxx’s bogus ejection. I don’t care how the USWNT players played it off, but that kind of personnel decision makes or breaks a squad. Please – goalkeepers, coaches, enlighten me…cause I have a hard time thinking that Ryan’s choice cost the USA the World Cup.

I caught the start of the 2nd half. It was 1-0 in favor of Canada, who needed to beat Australia in order to advance to the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup. Australia needed to at least draw in order to advance, and they’d fallen behind on the 2nd fastest goal in WWC history, a Melissa Tancredi strike after 31 seconds – incidentally just 1 second off the record. The exciting start was no match for the 2nd half action.

On 53 minutes, Australian midfielder Collette McCallum curled a left-footed free kick over the wall and into the back of the net past diving Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod to level the match and move Australia into position to advance. The Matildas did not stop there, continuing to attack through Lisa De Vanna and Sarah Walsh, looking for the goal that would give them the lead in the match and all but seal their progress into the next round. Instead, in the 85th minute, Christine Sinclair of Canada scored when a corner kick to the far post was headed back across the goal and she found herself unmarked to nod it home. Canada was back in front and back in position to advance. Back came Australia, throwing everything forward, and they were rewarded in the 2nd minute of stoppage when De Vanna beat two Canadian defenders inside the 18 and squared a pass to an unmarked Cheryl Salisbury who calmly side-footed the ball into the net past the scrambling Taryn Swiatek, who entered the game for an injured McLoed on 79 minutes.

The game ended 2-2, and Australia advanced. They’ve made history already, winning a World Cup match for the first time in Australian history when they beat Ghana 4-1 on September 12th. They’ve now advanced to the knockout stage for the first time with today’s result. What’s next?

photo credit: fifa.com

Okay so that live-blogging thing didn’t really work out.

In case you didn’t know, the US 1-0 victory over Nigeria combined with Sweden’s 2-1 victory over North Korea means that the US wins their group and advances to play England on Saturday (7:55am, ESPN2). Lori Chalupny did the business for the US, running onto an Abby Wambach header in the 18, chesting and then poking the ball into the net, but not before it went between the feet of a Nigerian defender, deflecting off of one past the keeper. It wasn’t pretty, but in the downpour of an approaching typhoon, it was entirely functional.

Thanks to the typhoon, todays Group C matches have been pushed back to tomorrow. The group phase will now complete entirely tomorrow, with eight teams in action – Groups C and D in their entirety.

Anyone who let their DVR do the watching for this morning’s 5am kickoff of the USA v. Sweden Women’s World Cup match will want to turn away right about… now.

On the strength of two Abby Wambach goals, one from the penalty spot in the first half, and one on a gorgeous chest/half volley combination, the US Women defeated Sweden to take (at least temporary) control of their group by way of a 2-0 victory in strangely sunny Chengdu.

In the 34th minute US center back Kate Markgraf sent a high ball into the box. As midfielder Lori Chalupny tracked it, it bounced in front of and then over Sweden goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl who leapt to grab it but was unable to get even a finger on it. Chalupny ran around the airborne keeper and attempted to play the ball into the goal before she was taken down by trailing Sweden defender Stina Segerstrom. Segerstrom was cautioned and the penalty was awarded. Wambach’s strike was not clean but skipped into the left side of the goal as Lindahl dove to Wambach’s right.

The 1-0 lead belied the fact that the US did not open the match well. The first 20 or so minutes were controlled by the Swedes, who earned 5 corner kicks in the opening 10 minutes of the match. They did not truly test goalkeeper Hope Solo, but it was obvious that something needed to change in order for the US to control the match. Chalupny’s hustle play, not giving up on a ball that most goalkeepers will collect, gave the opportunity for the US to grab hold of the match, and Wambach did what she had to. From that point on, the US controlled the match for the most part, though they disturbingly seemed to be intent upon playing the long ball over the top, often times giving it away uselessly, when their best spells of possession were when they strung short passes together in the midfield and then probed forward from there.

Halftime brought about the first of two US substitutions, with holding midfielder Shannon Boxx entering the match for the offensive-minded Carli Lloyd. Boxx dropped in behind Chalupny and alongside Leslie Osborne, who saw no action in the first match against North Korea. The defensive shift enabled the US to further control Sweden forwards Hanna Ljungberg and Victoria Svensson, who were both mostly ineffective. Left back Stephanie Lopez did cause some moments of trepidation with her inability to match some of the Swedish midfielders for pace, and her propensity to grab to slow players down. It did not come back to bite the US though, as most of the crosses that came from the wing were either wayward or simply non-threatening.

The second US goal came on 58 minutes, when Abby Wambach, behind two defenders, controlled a diagonal ball with her chest at the edge of the 18, and struck a half volley 12 yards from goal for which Lindahl could only muster a lunge. Puzzlingly, the Swedes waited until 10 minutes from time to make an offensive sub, bringing on forward Therese Lundin for the aforementioned Segerstrom. In those final 10 minutes of regulation, and few minutes of stoppage, Sweden threw everything into the attack with little result, and the US earned all three points.

Sweden, favored to advance out of the group, find themselves in a difficult spot, on one point from two group matches, with a match against upstart North Korea looming. The US now sits atop the group on 4 points, and they will be joined in first by either North Korea or Nigeria should either side be victorious in their match, which is taking place as I write this paragraph. The ideal scenario for the US would be another draw, as it would all but assure the US advancing regardless of what they do in their final match (presuming they do not get the woodshed job from Nigeria). Of course the US would prefer to win the group, since they would then avoid a possible clash with Germany in the quarterfinals, which is what would happen if the US are 2nd in their group.

I’m off to matchtrack the Nigeria/North Korea match. Updates as the scoreline changes.

UPDATE: North Korea defeated Nigeria 2-0, knotting things up at the top of the group. The US now needs just a point to advance to the 2nd round, or a win over Nigeria that betters any result by North Korea against Sweden to take first in the group. Germany and England drew 0-0, in the surprise result of the tournament.

On Monday, I just realised that the Women’s World Cup is currently being played in China.

I am really rooting for the German teams ranging from the men’s to the ladies’. I do not know why.

Which is your favourite nation to win the Women’s World Cup?

You US Soccer fans that did not get up at 4:55am EST to watch the US Women’s National Team play North Korea in the Women’s World Cup and let your DVR do the watching will want to stop reading now. Spoiler below.

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The US was lucky to walk away with a point from their opening group match against North Korea. There. I said it. In an entertaining, end-to-end match in Chengdu, China that ended 2-2, the North Koreans were every bit as good as their #5 FIFA ranking would imply, if not better. They won the possession battle, forced 8 saves out of US goalkeeper Hope Solo on 18 shots and held a 2-1 lead for 7 minutes in the 2nd half. Just minutes into the match, when North Korea found the first chance, a low blast that flew just wide of the post and sent Solo into a dive onto the rain-soaked pitch just to be sure, I had a feeling they were going to be much better than the side that lost to the US 3-0 in the 2003 World Cup. In the steady downpour, they always seemed dangerous, but neither team was able to find the back of the net in the first 45 minutes. At halftime, the US had to know that they were certainly in for a fight, but I’m not sure they knew how much of a fight it would be.

The steady downpour lasted all match, and five minutes into the second half it may have played a part in Abby Wambach’s strike to give the US a 1-0 lead. Kristine Lilly slid Wambach a nearly-square ball through the defense at the top of the 18 that Wambach drove toward the far post. The shot hit North Korean goalkeeper J. Myong Hui in both hands as she lunged to the side, but it seemed the combination of the power of the shot and the slick conditions guided the ball between her hands and into the net. The goal seemed to settle the US side, and they looked a lot like taking a 2-0 lead. Not long after that the match would be turned on its head.

Abby Wambach, in her own 18 defending a set piece, went up for a ball and caught a North Korean forehead in the back of her head, sending her to the ground. Moments later blood could be seen running down her face, and she eventually made her way off the pitch to be treated. On 58 minutes the conditions leveled the match. Kil Son Hui sent a seemingly harmless drive in towards Solo at her near post. She extended her hands to grab it, got both on it, but it squirted up and behind her, into the back of the net (DC United fans, it looked exactly like Troy Perkins at Guadalajara). Solo displayed her frustration before the ball was even across the line, and the pro-North Korean crowd exploded. A mere four minutes later, with Wambach still off the pitch and the US playing with 10, it was 2-1 North Korea when a shot that appeared to be going wide was deflected by US midfielder Shannon Boxx in an attempted clearance that ended up at the feet of Kim Yong Ae about 12 yards from goal at Solo’s far post. Solo scrambled across the goal to get in position but Ae shot back against Solo’s movement and she was unable to stop the ball from going in. The North Koreans piled up inside the American 18 in celebration, and commentators JP Dellacamera and Julie Foudy wondered what was taking Abby Wambach so long to get back onto the field.

The US found their way back on 69 minutes, now back at full strength, when Heather O’Reilly, off of a North Korean deflection, blasted a rising ball inside the far post into the upper right 90 past the diving goalkeeper to level the contest. With the match seemingly headed for a draw, neither side made non-injury substitutions (North Korea subbed in the first half but it was for injury) until the very waning moments of the match, including the lone US sub (Natasha Kai for O’Reilly) in the early moments of the four minutes of stoppage time. North Korea nearly stole the points when they stretched Hope Solo who made an outstanding diving stop to her right to push the shot wide and behind in the third minute of stoppage.

A lot of mystery surrounded North Korea ahead of the World Cup. They had just one open training session since arriving in China, and routinely keep things quiet and secretive within their camp. Some wondered whether they were for real, or just puffed up by the media, but they proved themselves in this match. Now we know that the road to the 2nd round may be more difficult than we thought. After all, we’re in the Group of Death. With the other two Group B teams, Nigeria and Sweden, kicking off at 8am, the US must be pulling for a draw between those two sides to put things back where they started with everyone level on points. That said, Sweden is likely to win that match. Updates as they come.

UPDATE:

Since my “internet provider” doesn’t have ESPN360, I am following the Sweden/Nigeria match via fifa.com’s matchtracker. You see, there is live streaming video available on fifa.com in the following countries:

Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine.

Notably absent, the USA. Whatever. Go here and click on the green circle with the score in it next to the match you want to follow.

Sweden 1 – 1 Nigeria – FINAL

The US gets the draw that I think they would have wanted. Everyone is on 1 point.

Photo credits:
Photo 1 - fifa.com
Photo 2 - ussoccer.com

I cannot adequately review the DC United/New England Revolution match yesterday because I didn’t see a moment of it live. I can say, however, that a 4-2 result is more than I predicted we would see, and is huge both in terms of the Supporters’ Shield and the Eastern Conference. Chivas, the 2nd hottest team in the league, destroyed Bunch of Bull 3-0 last night, and now sit 6 points back of United for the Shield with 2 games in hand. Meanwhile, United have a 4 point lead on Revs for the #1 seed in the East.

And really, how hot is Luciano Emilio right now? 18 goals in 23 matches, and, I believe, 16 in his last 15. That right there is the stuff of MVPs and Golden Boots. There are 6 matches to play in the league, all against the bottom 4 teams in the Eastern Conference, and 4 of those 6 are at home. Final stretch analysis is coming, but in the meantime…

The Women’s World Cup kicked off this morning, and Germany has run out to an 8-0 lead over Argentina after 60 minutes. The US kicks off at 5am EST tomorrow against North Korea. ESPN2.

In case you didn’t already know, the US Women’s National Team is in China preparing for the World Cup. The tournament is scheduled to kick off on Monday September 10, though strangely host country China is not participating until the third day of matches. The US kicks off in Chengdu on Tuesday the 11th at 5am EST on ESPN2. The full US group schedule is as follows (all times Eastern):

9/11 – 5:00am – North Korea – ESPN2
9/14 – 5:00am – Sweden – ESPN
9/18 – 8:00am – Nigeria – ESPN

Four years ago, the US was placed in the exact same group, playing Sweden first in Washington, DC, Nigeria second in Philadelphia, and North Korea third in Columbus (incidentally, Columbus is where I had my first [and hopefully last] encounter with FIFA officials who took issue with our giant alliterative “Wagner’s War Wagon” banner in support of Aly Wagner. Evidently the word “War” was the focus of their displeasure – considering that the North Koreans were the opponent – so they made us cover it with masking tape… in the exact outline of the word… which meant that it was still clearly visible from across the stadium, even though we told them that they had no problems with it in Washington or Philadelphia. Yes, we were there too.)

This time around the group may be the same, but the face of this team is significantly different. It has gotten much younger (Carli Lloyd, Heather O’Reilly, Stephanie Lopez, Lindsay Tarpley, to name a few), and it’s coached by Greg Ryan. It was disappointing to see the team lose in the semifinals four years ago, and this time they’re focused on returning to their perch atop the women’s soccer world, as apparent by their gold jerseys.

For my money, with Sweden hobbled by injuries, North Korea not having presented too many problems in the past, and Nigeria repeatedly overrated, the US will win their group and thus advance to the quarterfinals. By that time we’ll know whether Norway is just a kjell of their old selves, whether Brazil has what it takes to seriously challenge, whether China can be boosted by their home crowd, and whether Germany can repeat as champions.

When the 2002 World Cup was in Korea and Japan, for the middle matches I would go to sleep a few hours earlier, wake up just before the match started, and go to work not long after it ended (I had a long commute at the time and an early start time). I plan to do the same for the 5am matches, though the 8am match will have to be viewed either on DVR or via any streaming video I can find online. In the meantime, the WNT Blog is a fun easy read.

It’s less than a week until the 2007 Women’s World Cup kicks off. You may not be paying attention, but you should be.

It’s absurdly early to start thinking about the potential roster for a tournament that begins in September, but since when has that stopped me from doing anything?

ussoccer.com announced on Monday the field of 24 players from which the World Cup roster of 21 will (likely) be selected. The group of 24 will be in residency from today through June 23 and consists of the following:

Goalkeepers: Nicole Barnhart, Briana Scurry, Hope Solo

Defenders: Marian Dalmy, Tina Ellertson, Stephanie Lopez, Kate Markgraf, Christie Rampone, India Trotter, Cat Whitehill

Midfielders: Shannon Boxx, Lori Chalupny, Angela Hucles, Marci Jobson, Carli Lloyd, Joanna Lohman, Leslie Osborne, Aly Wagner

Forwards: Natasha Kai, Kristine Lilly, Heather O’Reilly, Lindsay Tarpley, Abby Wambach, Christie Welsh

That’s 3 keepers, 7 defenders, 8 midfielders, and 6 forwards. We all know that this group can change due to injuries (see: Mitts, Heather) and such, but those things not withstanding, this is what Coach Greg Ryan will be looking at to make up his 21 player World Cup Roster.

The US took 20 players to the Algarve Cup, and 2 of those were goalkeepers. Keeping in mind the fact that most teams take 3 goalkeepers to the World Cup, you figure that the positional composition of the roster wouldn’t change much (if at all). For the Algarve, Ryan took 7 defenders, 6 midfielders, and 5 forwards in addition to the 2 keepers. This is not entirely surprising since the team primarily employs the 4-3-3 formation and it’s necessary then to take more fullbacks than any other position. The breakdown:

Biggest Beneficiary: Stephanie Lopez
When Heather Mitts tore her ACL, my initial thought was that Ryan was going to move Lori Chalupny, on the field at the time as one of three midfielders, back to Mitts’ position at right back and bring Aly Wagner off the bench. Instead he inserted Stephanie Lopez which to me indicated that she was next in line for the position and would hold it down for the immediate future. With Cat Whitehill, Kate Markgraf, and Christie Rampone firmly entrenched as the other starters on the backline, Lopez probably has the inside track to play right back, with Marian Dalmy and India Trotter nipping at her heels.

Crowded Midfield
With 8 midfielders competing for 3 starting spots and probably 3 more roster spots, the competition among the midfielders will probably be the most fierce. There are 4 holding midfielders (Boxx, Jobson, Lohman, Osborne) in the pool at this moment, and I can’t imagine Ryan taking more than 2 over to China, which means that it’s probably Boxx and Osborne going, unless…

Versatility
Remember how Eddie Lewis went to Germany and spent time both on the outside of the midfield and at outside back? His versatility was useful and, in my estimation, a big reason for his inclusion on the US MNT’s World Cup roster. With that in mind, here’s Lori Chalupny. When I first saw her with the WNT it was at outside back and these days she’s spending most of her time in the midfield. Her ability to play fullback if necessary might be enough to allow Greg Ryan to leave home a fullback and take another midfielder (such as Quarter Volley Favorite Joanna Lohman).

Forward Thinking
It’s interesting to see Christie Welsh included in the pool after Lauren Cheney had been getting some time as a front runner (before getting left off), and Welsh hadn’t been seen in a WNT uniform in quite a while. I’m not sure Welsh can crack the World Cup roster, with virtually every other forward on the list a lock to go to China.

If Ryan goes with the same players-per-position format for his World Cup roster, 2 midfielders and a forward are going to be left behind when the team heads to China. I fear in that instance that Lohman will be one of those, along with Jobson and Welsh. But if Ryan drops a fullback for an extra midfielder, then I’m going with Trotter, Jobson, and Welsh being left off.

A lot can change between now and then with friendlies coming in quick succession. Hopefully who stays and goes is decided on the field and not in the training room.