Quarterfinal: USA v Norway #1 and #2 meet in the second round. Somebody will be very unhappy after Wednesday.
Dagny, Marianne, & Bente If Norway plays the way they did against South Korea, they will be very difficult to defeat. Dagny Mellgren, the all-time leading scorer in WUSA history, and Marianne Pettersen, the leading scorer in Norway's domestic league the past two seasons, have developed some great chemistry playing together since Pettersen came out of retirement to play in this World Cup. Norway is the only country to have a winning record against the U.S. and the last seven times that the U.S. has played against Norway with Bente Nordby in goal along with Dagny and Marianne in the lineup the U.S. has had only two wins, four losses, and a draw. Bente Nordby is the only goalkeeper in women's soccer to have won an Olympic Gold Medal, a Women's World Cup, and a domestic league championship. The bigger the match, the better Bente seems to play so I expect Bente to come up with some huge saves while Dagny and Marianne will find the back of the net for Norway.
Good for the Norweigans....maybe they can think about all the medals they've won on the long flight home.
Norway - U.S. Rivalry I'm not sure exactly what a Norweigan is , but in any event, how does a comment like this contribute in any sort of a meaningful way to a discussion about tomorrow's match between the #1 and #2 teams in the world? The U.S. deserves their #1 ranking and is a clear favorite in tomorrow's match. You won't see me making any predictions that just because of Norway's past record against the U.S. that they are going to win tomorrow. However, an extremely poor performance by Norway against Brazil last week doesn't mean that the U.S. now has an easy path to the semis. Norway lost badly to the U.S. in the opening match of the 2000 Olympics and still came back and played their best match of the tournament to win the Gold Medal. Many of the same Norwegian players who played in that Gold Medal match three years ago will be playing tomorrow for Norway and know what it takes to beat the U.S. in a big match..
Often in quarterfinals players step up who had not been prominent in group play (see Ronaldinho, WC '02, Paolo Rossi, WC '82). For the USA, with one possible exception, I don't see that happening, because so many of the key players are already clicking on all cylinders. The USA's stars, Hamm and Lilly, are already playing awesomely well. I expect to see Boxx continue to play as well as she has played. On the other hand, some players shine in group play and don't take it to the next level in knockout play. We will all find out just how good Cat Reddick (and perhaps Kylie Bivens) are in the Norway game. I have complete confidence in Wambach. She continues to wow the world. Her skills and confidence keep coming forth. Indeed, she is the one player who may yet do something even more special in this Cup.
I'd like to see USA come out in a 4-3-3 like they did against Sweden. Everybody thinks Norway's weakness is their defense, so why not put them under a lot of pressure early?
if i'm not mistaken, Norwegians like to play US (due to their successes in the past) better than Sweden so their preliminary match against Brasil could've been a match fixing(tactical wise) in order to get 2nd position in the group.
Re: Norway - U.S. Rivalry despite a horrible defeat, Millie was shine in both matches (1st round and final), should April start Millie again this time around ?
Sage Age must do two things before the game begins. Have Lise Klaveness start and have Riise on the bench. It should be a good battle in the air though with the advantage to the US.
Re: Norway - U.S. Rivalry True, but the team is weaker on paper now. We had Gro Espeseth and Gøril Kringen in central defence back then. World class all the way. Especially the former. None of them are in the squad now. Kringen could have played this year too, but was cut from the team. Weird, because she has probably been the best defender in the domestic league this season. We also had Ragnhild Gulbrandsen as a big target player up front in Sydney. We don't have her now either due to injury. Hege Riise is only half fit and her creativity is sorely missed. Our options are certainly fewer. Our Olympic participation is also in the pot. Sweden plays before us so we will now what really is at stake before kick-off. Anyway it will be a big game.
Re: Re: Norway - U.S. Rivalry Bauser, I must confess that, until this post, I had never noticed that you were Norwegian. All of the references to "we" and "our" clued me in. That being said, is this the first time that the USA and Norway have played a major game with the USA being favored?
Re: Re: Re: Norway - U.S. Rivalry No, the US is pretty much favoured in every match and they were favourites before the Olympic final in Sydney too. I remember that first round match between the two that Norway lost 2-0, but should have lost at least 5-0. The framework behind our keeper was hit 3-4 times in addition to the goals. It started badly in the final also with an early goal against by Milbrett(?) and everyone thought it would be the same story with one-way traffic and 2,3,4-0, but our team rose to the occasion, turned the game and won. I'll hope for something similiar tomorrow.
I recall that you are right, by the final the USA was favored (based on the result of the earlier match).
Lise Klaveness The player who I think will really step up her game for Norway in the quarters is Lise Klaveness. She really impressed some on the USWNT staff with her play during the last Algarve Cup and I think she will come up big again against the U.S. tomorrow.
Klaveness & Tønnessen I agree with you that Coach Åge Steen needs to start Klaveness tomorrow. I was really surprised that Rønning started instead of Klaveness against Brazil and even though Trine is a good player I don't think she should be starting tomorrow. Instead I would rather see Anne Tønnessen starting with Stangeland in the center of the Norwegian defense and move Knudsen into more of a defensive midfield role. Tønnessen is another player who really impressed some of the USWNT staff and some of the Spirit players enough so that San Diego attempted to sign Tønnessen before the start of the 2002 season. Shocked
Tiffeny Milbrett I was wondering the same thing, but Millie hasn't been in very good form lately. Even though she scored all four goals against Norway during the 2000 Olympics, I still don't think Millie will start tomorrow.
SV: Norway - U.S. Rivalry I'm in complete agreement with you Bauser about Norway's defense being weaker at least on paper. The point I was attempting to make was that many of Norway's veteran players from the Sydney Olympic squad are at least still with the current squad and know what it takes to bounce back from a difficult loss in a tournament like the World Cup or Olympics.
Re: Dagny, Marianne, & Bente I couldn't agree more. If we play like South Korea, we're in trouble. That said, it's great to see Marianne Pettersen again. She was always such a smart player and fun to watch.
Re: Tiffeny Milbrett probably the WUSA thing has something to do w/ her performances lately, i know it won't effect to some players but, might does to some..
NORWEGIANS WOULD - U.S. meets the one team that knows it can win a showdown, by Mark Zeigler http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/uniontrib/wed/sports/news_1s1wwcup.html
NORWEGIANS WOULD Thanks for posting the link to this article Tsunami. Nice to finally get to read something this morning about today's match that is actually in English.
Norway's Lineup Still Not Announced Coach Åge Steen has decided not to reveal Norway's formation or their starting 11 until 30 minutes before the start of today's match. It is expected that most of the players who started against South Korea will also start against the U.S. One Norwegian reporter who attended Monday's practice commented that Anita Rapp was mainly playing with the first team and that Unni Lehn was playing more of a central midfield role with Trine Rønning and Lise Klaveness taking turns playing in the midfield as well.