I think it was a 4-4-2. There were several times I was noticing how Parlow was playing well back in the midfield holding the passes (like Akers used to do). 77:00 Game up and down the field with bunches of long-balls from both teams. Its getting pretty physical too. Mia Hamm is going to have a few bruises tomorrow...
82:00 Mia Hamm really putting her stamp on the game. She is all over the field, tracking back on D and making plenty of runs down the wing.
What is Steen waiting for; why doesn't he put Riise in? She really must be messed up still, with the ACL to have not seen a minute of play here...
Man! You'd think for a QF match of this caliber (or, predicted caliber) there would be more than 25,00 in a stadium with a capaciy of 68,00!
Riise is in... She got a yellow about a minute after entering the pitch. I didn't think much of the call... 91:00 USA had been playing defense-and-counter, but now they have the Norwegians pinned on their side of the field...
93:00 Norway with a decent chance from a flick into the box, but the forwards unable to get to it... That might have been their best chance of the 2nd half. Full-Time USA on the Semi-Finals, 1-0 Really tough to pick a WOTM. I think the USA played well as a team. Each 5-minutes a different player stepped up... Heck, even Tiffany Millbrett looked pretty good on the counter-attack... My guess for WOTM: Cat Reddick
Stat of the tournament: 10 of the USA's 12 goals have come from set-pieces. My recollection is that most of these 10 were headers. Just goes to show how much the US dominates the aerial game. Certainly, neither the Russians nor the Germans are going to let us dominate the air...
Um, they're in Oakland tonight, not Fenway And I thought the crowd for Philly was sub-par. I hereby take that back... Paul
Congrats to the US team. A very deserved win. A physical match as expected. Disappointing coaching from our bench made the game more one-sided than it should.
I thought the US really dominated this match. Did Norway even have one good shot on goal? Reddick has really turned into a star for this team, she was great again tonight. Hamm was awesome(minus the PK), she was all over the place and just never stopped working. Abby was great too, I think those 3 get my co-WOTM award. Great win for the US. My only concern, they looked tired and with the lack of depth on the bench, this could be an issue in the next round, or the finals should they get there.
Re: Re: Today's Ref She really missed that studs up slide tackle into Mia's leg, and she allowed a lot of holding on our attacking players. I thought she was really weak at times. Fortunately, we gave as good as we got.
norway peeps, what took riise so long to get in the game? overall the u.s. played an okay game, they missed some really good chances. wambach once again showed why she is on this team. she is such a battler, and not just on the goal but on every set piece and durign the run of play. the only way to stop her is to hold the living hell on to her jersey, which by the way, norway did a fine job of without getting called...
My ratings for USWNT vs Norway Scurry: 7 Pearce: 6 Sobrero: 7 Fawcett: 6.5 Reddick: 7.5 Foudy: 7 Boxx: 6 Lilly: 6.5 Hamm: 5.5 Wamback: 7.5 (WOTM) Parlow: 6.5 Overall: 6.5 Subs: Milbertt: 5 Bivens: 6 April: 6.5 She has to stop playing Milbertt. MacMillian should have come in for Parlow. REF: 6 ( There was no P.K,and Parlow should have gottrn a yellow for that high kick ) This is the 3rd Bogus P.K given to the USWNT. Only true P.K was the second one against N.Korea. Attendance(25,103)/Field conditions: 6.5 I can't believe the length of the soccer field was at football season level for WWC game . (only 2.5 yards from both end zones were used) 105X75 yards is 5 yards shorter then the min required for International standards.
Well, despite Norway not playing their best, I wish to stand up for them in two aspects: 1) No way was that a pk. Great save by Nordby after that non-call and 2) how does someone kick someone in the face and not get a card. Intentional or not, that is a very dangerous play.
I agree with #1. Dangerous play isn't usually a card. What was that studs up slide into Hamm's leg? In slow motion it looked like a red card to me. Norway decided to play a physical game and got what they deserved. I have no sympathy for the result of their crude tactics. You reap what you sow.
Re: Re: Quarterfinal: USA v Norway [R] Depends on how reckless it is. Considering she had a handful of the defender's jersey and managed to kick her in the face, I certainly thought it warranted a card. Agreed on the penalty - shouldn't have been one.
I completely agree that Parlow deserved a card on the high kick. As for the PK, I think it was a borderline decision -- hardly the travesty it's being made out to be. Honestly, I thought it wasn't all that different from Scurry's foul on Ljungberg in the first match, minus the grossly dangerous play. Nordby didn't commit a cardable offense but I think Abby had a decent case for earning a foul.
Can someone explain why this loss means Norway won't be in the Olympics in 2004? The writeup from ESPN.com says Norway won't be there, that seems like a crappy deal to me. Any big tourney w/out them just won't be the same.
Re: Re: Today's Ref I thought that she was poor. Players should expect consistency throughout a match. The Swiss Miss allowed several attacks on players in the first half that were much worse than the events that drew cards in the second half. Cindy Parlow deserved at least one caution, if not two. While Nordby may have made contact with Wombat, it was not worthy of a PK. Maybe that's why Hamm's PK was so apologetically lame.
I'll take a stab: The WWC is the qualifying for the Olympics. The top 7 teams from the WWC, based on points go to the Olympics puls the host team. I have not had time to look at the points for all the teams but it could well be that Norway's goal difference is low enough to put them out of the running BUT I would think the last two quaters would need to be played before we could know for sure. That is unless all four tems in the other draw already have at least 7 points, and I am fairly sure Canada only has 6. In the last WWC Nigeria's 3 goal outburst in their quaterfinal loss to Brazil knocked Russia out of their chance to be in the Olympics. As far as the US's showing I thought they played quite well 10v11 for the last 20 minutes when the moving cone, Milbert, came into the game to take up space.
The WWC is acting as the qualifying tournament for Greece'04. The top two European teams from WWC'03 will go to Greece. Sweden is already in the semi-finals and they will be joined by Germany or Russia leaving Norway out in the cold. I agree, it is a shame that the defending champion does not get to have a say in the next champion. Then again, maybe they did have their say by rolling over for the USA. Seriously, only one shot on goal, two shots total!