Sorry to ask what I am sure everyone here knows, but I have missed soccer news for the last two months - can someone answer why we have to play a European team if we qualified in our regional group? thanks.
We came in 3rd in CONCACAF. Concacaf only has 2.5 spots. So, we had to have a play-off with Europe's last qualifier for the last WC spot.
YAHOO! GO USA I believe it may be time to replace Boxx. If she can fight for that spot and keep it, but the replacement player needs to begin now. Interesting Lilly didn't play in the play-off. When will Heath be back?
Just got back from the game. Nice win, they did what they had to do. Not too impressed against an impotent italian team. Defense let Italy's forwards get behind them despite having the lead. Abbey, I know gets fouled a lot but she falls down just about every time she gets the ball.We will have to play much better to beat Germany in the WC. They opened the west side and had a nice crowd of 9500 for such a cold day.
wow 9500!? That is a very nice crowd for this team and my hats off to those who went and sat in the freezing cold cheering their team on. I wish I could have been there but I'm stuck at the pacific ocean for now.
Sitting behind our goal in the first half my heart stopped a couple of times. Italy could have finished a couple of easy ones and made the game really interesting. It was great to see our girls attack the tiny Itialian keeper in the second half. I can't believe she's even in there. Abby flattened her once, and later she came up holding her shoulder which seemed serious for a minute. The cold wasn't too bad, we were actually over dressed. Lots of work to do before we face the world, but I hope they tighten up and bring home some wins.
Lots of work to do! Keep singing to the players PIA..But its so cute seeing you sing and play your guitar. Start coaching and working the players. You had two games against a crap team and you got the same result. Is this our level of play now? Is this what we accept? Its so cute! Wow how we sell out our players because they are women. Trust me those players are not happy. Maybe on the outside but on the inside they want to play at the level to beat a Italy 3-0 and a Mexico 4-0! Mexico had over 8,000 fans at the game vs the US in Mexico. 9500 is a good crowd now? Pleas BS fans take it east on this lil girls.
If the game had been scheduled months in advance on a reasonable date, it would be lousy attendance. Given that it was on Thanksgiving Saturday with only a couple weeks' notice, I think it's pretty impressive.
I got very little sleep last night, but this being one of the very few meaningful WNT games we get to see live in the US, I wasn't going to miss going to it. I expected a much smaller crowd due to the cold -- remember that the US men played a WC qualifier at Toyota Park on a cold September night in '08 and only drew 11k. The US defensive line made so many bad mistakes in the first 20 minutes that they were incredibly lucky not to go down by a goal or two. Communication problems, bad passes, and just plain bad defense (Heather Mitts especially I think on this last one) all over the place. They kept trying to pass their way out of danger, which usually resulted in loss of possession. Italy seemed to be playing a really high-pressure, high-tempo game out of the gate, which probably explains why they seemed to tire a half hour into the game. They dropped off somewhat at that point, and the US finally got their attack going and got their goal. The 2nd half was more what I was expecting from the beginning based on last week's game. Lots of good chances for the US, very few for Italy. The US was unlucky not to score another few goals, but their attack just wasn't quite clicking (much like we've been seeing lately). They built some really nice attacking sequences, but the final pass or cross was never quite right.
Italy isn't bad they are better than six of the team in the WWC so USWNT current level should be enough to take them to the final 8 (unless they are unlucky in the draw) but to reach semi or more they need to improve.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5cpZtPoFok&feature=channel"]YouTube - Nov. 27, 2010: WNT 1, ITL 0 Highlights[/ame]
A couple of observations (after the 4.5 hour drive home): O'Reilly was, IMNSHO, the best player for the US on the day. When she got the ball at her feet everybody in the place leans forward to see what she's going to do. I'd like to see her play centrally and get more opportunities to face up with the ball at her feet, even with less space. Wambach was also effective and creative when she wasn't getting hacked or trying to draw a foul. We gave the ball away playing from the back to the midfield A LOT. We were a little fortunate not to get punished, but of course, the US missed more sitters than the Italians over the 90 minutes. While the US IS playing with more rhythm in possession, the final pass is pretty non-existent. The best cross of the day actually game from Rampone when she made an overlapping run down the right side and got almost to the endline (A-Rod put the resulting shot over the bar from 4 yds out). That's a heck of a run for a center back . . . and she made it several times. Cheney looked great for 10 minutes, then was less effective. Wambach (and Cheney) were being VERY cynically defended. Not surprisingly, the (North?) Korean official wasn't going to call any of it, but I'm always surprised at the pounding Wambach takes with almost no protection from the officials. Late in the match the Italian centerback used both hands to pull her back by the arm on a well weighted ball played in behind their backline, I can't imagine that being a no call at any other level of the game. There was also a DeJongian looking tackle that cleared a ball in behind for a goal kick late on as well - Abbey tried to explain that traditionally when the defense clears over their own endline, yadda yadda, but got nowhere. Nice to see almost 10k for the match, especially with almost ZERO promotion. But: 1. It's ridiculous that US Soccer and SUM can't get their act together to get this game on TV, really a new low for a group that hasn't done anything for women's soccer EVER (unless you count cashing checks when they couldn't be avoided) - so we're basically talking about snake's a$$ in a wagon rut low here. 2. It was sad to see the US celebrating WC QUALIFICATION as the last team to qualify, really. 3. It's sad to be happy about under 10k attendance when this team was playing in front of 30-40k in exhibition matches a decade ago. Way to go SocFed, you've pushed the women back in the closet. Thanks so little. 4. Great to see Mitts back from injury. Now let her focus on her WPS career.
About the crowd - on espn3 the chanting was very well heard - solid and impressive. Thanks to AO and other supporter groups!
Espn3 sux. I cannot believe that the USSF cannot figure out a way to make this game avalilable on TV. Delay til today,run it tape delay go with another network if ESPN is unwilling
The USSF doesn't decide where the game is broadcasted. If it is not going to make money for a network they don't want it. but anyway bust your soccer bubble. This game was only scheduled a few weeks a go!! The programing was already in place. Just to clue you in- it was Thanksgiving weekend which mean college football and basketball! Those games pay the bills! As it was ESPN 3 bumped some games to make it available. you should thank them not bash them.
Personally, I thought the ESPN3 coverage was spectacular, for a webcast game with streaming video. I plugged my MacBook into the HDTV, and the audio into the stereo, and the game was great to watch. After watching the WPS games, some NCAA D1 games, and the Concacaf series on the web this way, it was the best I've seen, IMHO really great coverage. Foudy's voice was another story.
Personally, I think ESPN3 should be rebranded for what it is: ESPNNumber2. It's not TV. For God's sake we can BitTorrent Porn, have PPV boxing, but we can't find a solution that differs from ESPN3? Low definition TV is the bare minimum for a live game like this. I'll try ESPN3 again one more time, but this experience was extremely frustrating that it had all of the smoothness of the E-Trade baby. I also had several disconnects which only compounded a bad situation. Oh about USSF not dictating where games are broadcast, yes, they do have some say. USSF should be dictating if you want USMNT qualifiers and friendlies then you will need to carry the USWNT. After all almost every league that your kid plays in filters money to USSF in some form or fashion. It may be only a nickel a kid, the there are a lot of kids. USSF needs to invest more in the gender that has actually won world cups and Olympic golds. After all, the USWNT's success inspire a lot of those to nickel to into the USSF coffers--female soccer participation rates may be higher than male. Considering that, it's not too much to ask.
I was at the game yesterday along with my friends rockagirl13, CVille KC from St. Louis, Starcityfan from DC, ceezmad and others. Also, a shout goes out to SnakeEyes, you brought it and the guys and gals in front of me with no shirts on in the supporters section. I actually had midfield seats but decided to stay in the north end zone. I was pleasantly surprised at the attendance. There were almost 10,000 fans on a cold day in Chicago. I knew that midwestern fans were dying to get out of the house on a long Thanksgiving weekend, particularly sunny day. We're used to the cold. Just put on an extra thermal and your out to the game. And we were loud. What did Philadelphia get? 2500? In Atlanta? 4500? In 75 degree weather. Give me a break. Those of you who were whining about having the game in Chicago, you have your answer. I'm almost willing to bet that there still would have been more fans in Chicago then let's say Southern California where the permanent vacationers live. Do you think there would have been more at WakeMed in NC? Especially if it's 31 degrees. I don't think so. Chicago rocks!
true. but investing in women's soccer is a crap shoot and is usually a losing proposition. it's not winning a world cup 10 years ago that brings the money in to keep the game afloat. what is needed is enough fans willing to go to pro games, and enough fans willing to look at women's soccer on tv. women's soccer has rabid fans. but they are a miniscule number.
I thought the referee (Cha Sung Mi, or Sung Mi Cha?, from South Korea by the way) was in over her head. I thought the US got away with some clumsy challenges early in the game, maybe even something that deserved a yellow card. As the game went on, Italy, as you say, started defending very cynically out of desperation. I think the referee was lucky that these women have high standards and policed themselves in terms of not letting things get way out of hand. Of course Abby deserved yellow for the shove late in the game but I could hardly blame her for sending her own message. By then Italy deserved to be called for a lot more fouls especially in the 2nd half.