Posts tagged WomensWorldCup at FanHouse

Lost in all the drama surrounding Hope Solo's benching and outburst is this simple fact -- Brazilian soccer star Marta has some pretty slick skills. The above video shows the footwork she used to freeze several American defenders in their tracks, leading to her second goal of the match.

Seriously, does anyone think Hope Solo could have saved that? Petr Cech might have saved that. Skills like those are the reason Marta was named 2006 FIFA Women's World Player of the Year.

I'd say something about how she's better than just about any USL striker I've ever seen, but the USL is a men's league, and really, the defenders in that league would probably rough her up pretty badly.

While most the post-mortem of the USA's horrific 4-0 loss to Brazil has centered around benched goalkeeper Hope Solo throwing coach Greg Ryan under the bus, Jeff Klein of the New York Times soccer blog Goal is writing that Solo's postgame comments aren't the real story. The real story is Greg Ryan's pregame comments about Brazil's style of play -- comments that became bulletin board material for Marta and Co.

"They'd made comments and wanted to bring people down," the superstar Marta said right after the match. "We heard many comments that tried to belittle us. The United States have a very strong team and tried to impose things in their own favor, but they wound up unhappy."

So what did Ryan say that wound up the Brazilians so much? According to Klein, during a press conference on Monday, Ryan basically called the Brazil side a bunch of thugs.

"Brazil's primary tactic was fouling us to break our rhythm," (Ryan said about) the U.S.-Brazil friendly match played at Giants Stadium in June. "We had more of the ball, and their response to that was just to foul. Brazil has tried to break our rhythm by chopping our players down. The last time we played Brazil, they didn't even try to play football - they just kicked us from behind."

The Brazilian press republished those comments and reported that Brazil head coach Jorge Barcellos called Ryan out for his "provocations," giving his women all the motivation they needed to open a can of whoop-ass on the Americans.

Of course, Ryan's provocations were completely ignored by the American press, which chose to focus on Ryan's reaction to Solo's indictment of him. Don't blame Solo for talking too much, though. At the end of the day, she's really just following her coach's example.

Team USA goalkeeper Hope Solo was benched before today's 4-0 loss to Brazil, and she isn't going to hold back on either her coach, Greg Ryan, or the more experienced goalie she was benched for, Briana Scurry.

"It was the wrong decision, and I think anybody that knows anything about the game knows that," she said. "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 2007, and I think 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 three years ago. Now is what matters, and that's what I think."

Obviously, we'll never know if that's true or not, and even if she would have made those saves, Team USA might have lost anyway. But Ryan's job is to get his team ready to play, and his team wasn't ready to play today. Solo had tears in her eyes as she was speaking and might regret her emotional comments tomorrow. But that doesn't make them wrong.

Now the question: Who starts for Team USA in the third place game?

(UPDATED) The debacle is over, and the score is 4-0 Brazil. Brazil trounced the United States today in the Women's World Cup semifinal. An own goal from Leslie Osborne got things started in the 20th minute, then Marta scored in the 27th, Christiane scored in the 56th and Marta scored again in the 79th.

This is the 23rd time Brazil and the U.S. have played in women's soccer and only the second victory for the Brazilians. Is it just a matter of time before Brazil becomes the superpower in women's soccer that it is in men's soccer? Marta's presence makes that seem quite likely: She's the best player in the world by a large margin.

The Americans will complain about the refs, especially how Shannon Boxx was sent off after getting a second yellow card on what one of the TV announcers called "The worst call we've ever seen in our lives," and I agree that it was a bad call. But it gets a little tiresome that Team USA can never lose a soccer game -- men's or women's -- without the American media complaining about the refs.

The big story will be whether coach Greg Ryan made the right choice by benching goalkeeper Hope Solo in favor of Briana Scurry. I think it was the wrong decision, but I don't think it's the reason for this result. Brazil is just the better team.

Do I actually know who's a better goalkeeper, Briana Scurry or Hope Solo? No.

Do I have an opinion about the news that Scurry will replace Solo as the U.S. goalkeeper against Brazil in the women's World Cup semifinal? Yes. I think it stinks.

U.S. coach Greg Ryan caught everyone by surprise when he made the change, which was apparently motivated by the superior big-game experience of the 36-year-old Scurry. Former American team captain and current ESPN analyst Julie Foudy -- who unlike me actually does have an informed opinion on such matters -- doesn't like the decision.

"I think Bri will be fine, and the move will be fine," Foudy said. "But I just think it becomes a distraction when you're too focused on that rather than the game. To me it's a sign of worrying too much about the opponent. I think you just play. You know they're good. You know their strengths and weaknesses but you don't have to make such a drastic change."

If the Americans beat Brazil and go on to win the World Cup Final on Sunday, Ryan will be a genius. If not he'll be an idiot. I'm betting on the latter.

For one half, England was executing their strategy well against the USA -- control possession, make the Americans chase the ball and wear them down for the second half. After a scoreless first half, it looked like England's strategy might work.

One corner kick put lie to that in a hurry. Abby Wambach scored on a header in the 48th minute -- yet another trademark set-piece goal for the USA -- to open the scoring.

Then the floodgates opened. Shannon Boxx stole the ball away from Jill Scott 30 yards from goal and put a world-class strike in the back of the net to give the USA a 2-0 lead in the 57th minute.

Just three minutes later, England goalkeeper Rachel Brown misjudged the bounce on a long kick and let it fly over her head -- hey, Watford fans, remember when Ben Watson did that against Tottenham last season and gave Paul Robinson a goal? -- and Kristine Lilly snuck in, took the ball away and walked it in to make it 3-0. By that point, England looked defeated, and anyone talking about women's football in England this weekend will be talking about dodgy goalkeeping.

There was nothing dodgy about USA goalkeeper Hope Solo, though. She extended her scoreless streak to 300 minutes, and coach Greg Ryan will be hoping for Hope to keep that up Thursday against what will likely be a Brazil side that has outscored opponents 10-0 so far. Brazil faces Australia tomorrow and is expected to advance.

Y'know, I was really starting to like Goal, the New York Times' soccer blog, just for the fact that they let Jozy Altidore blog. Then they exposed me to this:


If you thought we were condescending toward women watching football in America, feast your eyes on comedienne Clare Challoner's attempt to promote women and football in England. Apparently, this is what passes for support of England's women's team, which faces the USA in the FIFA Women's World Cup on Saturday. And if Goal made me suffer this, you must suffer, too.

Maybe I just have a different view of this sort of thing, being from a country where Mia Hamm's Q score is still much higher than Clint Dempsey's. On the other hand, England's reaction to women in football may still be slightly more enlightened than what you might get in, say, Saudi Arabia or Egypt.

The U.S. women's national team have advanced to the quarterfinals of the FIFA Women's World Cup after a 1-0 win over Nigeria in the pouring rain, in which Lori Chalupny scored a goal in 55 seconds -- second-fastest in Women's World Cup history -- and then most of the men watching the game spent the next 89 minutes staring hopelessly at Abby Wambach's soaking wet uniform.

Rain has dogged the U.S. women throughout this competition so far. They managed a 2-2 draw against North Korea, who also advanced the quarterfinals out of Group B, on a soggy pitch. To their credit, though, this team is making no excuses for the weather, focusing instead on their lackluster play and their sudden inability to score off set pieces -- something this team excelled at in previous matches.

Still, the U.S. won Group B, and perhaps because of the weather in China, we really haven't seen the real U.S. women's team yet. We'll find out for sure when they take on England on Saturday at 8:00 A.M. eastern time. Six of England's starting eleven are members of the Arsenal L.F.C. side that won the quadruple last season, so that could prove a stern challenge. The forecast calls for clear skies all weekend, though. That should give Wambach & Co. some relief. It will also leave the male audience somewhat disappointed and hoping for a Brandi Chastain moment -- just like Kevin Garnett and his boys.

Video highlights of USA-Nigeria are after the jump. It'll make you want to sing that song by the Dramatics.

In case you missed it, Awful Announcing caught ESPN reminding people that cheerleaders may be great eye candy, but the girls who play soccer are the really freaky ones -- which, of course, is exactly the message you want to send when promoting the FIFA Women's World Cup. Sex sells, people, and so does a good viral video, which this was destined to be from the start. Rob Stone's pimp hand could never be that strong.

Heather Mitts is playing her role a little too well here, actually. I would need a shower if not for Chris Spielman's line about Stone's wife being "ready to drop twins any day now." That's just classic.

Remember those missiles that the Chinese were going to use to control the weather during the Olympics? Apparently, they've decided not to test them out during the FIFA Women's World Cup, letting the USA and North Korea play to a 2-2 draw in the rain.

This game may have shown the rest of the field just how important Abby Wambach is to the U.S. side. She opened scoring with a goal in the 50th minute and was on her way to a second when he banged heads with a teammate, opening a cut that left her face bloody. She had to leave the game for ten minutes to get bandaged up, and North Korea promptly took advantage of her absence, scoring two goals in four minutes.

Once Wambach returned to the pitch, though, the U.S. side returned to form, and Heather O'Reilly scored an equalizer in the 69th minute, giving both sides a point. This could be considered something of an upset. North Korea sent a message today that they are not to be taken lightly.

The good folks at Times soccer blog Goal liveblogged this game, so you can check out their commentary here, as well as their take on Germany's 11-0 trashing of Argentina. Additional commentary is available from new women's soccer blog Kickster.