“We’re pumped. Bring it on. We’ve played Brazil before and we know they’re a pretty awesome team with a lot of great personalities. But this team player for player is unified and strong, and we’re together. We’re looking forward to [playing Brazil].”
— U.S. midfielder Heather O’Reilly on the USA’s gold medal game on Thursday against Brazil, which eliminated the Americans from the 2007 Women’s World Cup with a 4-0 semifinal win.
[USA-JAPAN REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players’ performances in their 4-2 win over Japan on Tuesday.
Americans to meet Brazil again for gold medal
The injury loss of Abby Wambach and a terrible start against Norway notwithstanding, anything less than a berth in the gold-medal match would have been a disappointment for the U.S. women. By beating Japan, 4-2, in its semifinal Monday the Americans have attained those expectations and set up a showdown with Brazil, which also came back after conceding the first goal to thrash Germany by nearly the same scoreline, 4-1. Brazil and the U.S. will play in the final, a rematch of the 2004 gold-medal match won by the Americans, on Thursday (USA Network, 9 a.m. ET).
A verbal fight has broken out between the men and the women in Canadian soccer, writes Gareth Wheeler. When TV color commentator Jason de Vos questioned the kick and rush tactics of women's team coach Even Pellerud in the Olympic quarterfinal loss to the U.S. last week, Canadian women's team captain Christine Sinclair responded by […]
The Columbus Crew entered "unfamiliar territory" after weekend play and its home win over FC Dallas, writes Shawn Mitchell, topping both the eastern and the overall rankings. But Coach Sigi Schmid is not thinking about titles yet, he just wants to make the playoffs. "I'm not all that focused on first, second or third," Schmid […]
Injury has dogged the career of U.S. national team defender Cory Gibbs, 28, but at the weekend he finally made his comeback to competitive soccer by making his debut for the Colorado Rapids in a 2-1 win over the Kansas City Wizards. He told Greg Lalas that all he wants to do now is “simply […]
Jonah Freedman spotted the New England Revolution’s Khano Smith throwing a bottle of Gatorade at two San Jose fans after Saturday’s 4-0 defeat.
Former teammate Xavi says that Ronaldinho’s partying lifestyle cost him his place at Barcelona.
Neven Subotic (Dortmund), Matt Taylor (Koblenz) and Grover Gibson (Ahlen) all scored in German first and second division action at the weekend.
Looking at the best performances of the English Premier League’s opening day, Paul Doyle pinpoints Hull City’s Brazilian striker Geovanni, who scored in the newly promoted team’s 2-1 victory over Fulham. Spurned by Manchester City, where he was rarely used by previous manager Sven Goran Eriksson, Geovanni could turn out to be “the bargain of […]
Many folks are a bit puzzled as to why U.S. coach Bob Bradley didn’t pick FC Dallas forward Kenny Cooper for the qualifier in Guatemala City on Wednesday.
[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] Goalkeeper Brad Friedel celebrated a 4-2 win with his new club, Aston Villa, over Manchester City in which Gabriel Agbonlahor hit a hat trick. Keeper Tim Howard fell with Everton. Fulham lost, 2-1, to EPL newcomer Hull as Clint Dempsey played the final nine minutes while Eddie Johnson was left out of the squad on the first weekend of the 2008-09 season.
[AMERICANS IN GERMANY] Neven Subotic, a former U.S. U-17 national team player, scored the winning goal in his debut for German First Division club Borussia Dortmund in its 3-2 win over Bayer Leverkusen on the opening day of the 2008-09 Bundesliga season. Subotic, 19, joined Dortmund in the offseason from Second Division Mainz 05.
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Toronto FC’s 22-year-old midfielder Maurice Edu, a Southern California product who played in the central defense for the USA at this summer’s Olympic Games, is reportedly headed to Scottish club Glasgow Rangers on a $5 million transfer.
[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] The league’s worst team on points upset MLS’s top club when previously goal-shy San Jose exploded for four against New England. New York’s resurgence looks real. A fourth player hit the century mark in MLS goals. Defending champ Houston fired on all cylinders to take first place in the West. For the weekend’s MLS highlights. …
[AMERICANS ABROAD] DaMarcus Beasley, who missed most of the preseason with a hamstring injury, was a 62nd minute sub in Glasgow Rangers 2-0 win over Hearts and has been added to the USA’s roster for Wednesday’s World Cup qualifying game at Guatemala.
[OLYMPICS] Americans fans disappointed by the exit of their men’s team can take some solace in the quarterfinal accomplishments of Nigeria and the Netherlands, which finished ahead of the U.S. in Group B. Nigeria set up a semifinal meeting with Belgium by beating Ivory Coast, 2-0, and the Dutch stubbornly took Argentina into overtime before losing, 2-1.
A weekend simply stuffed full of TV soccer, impossible to watch it all, both because of overlaps and because soccer-fatigue sets in sooner or later. Of the 16 games available over two days, the pick of the bunch, no doubt about that, was the first one, early on Saturday: the Olympic semifinal between Brazil and Cameroon. And, wouldn’t you know, this plum, this sure-fire barn-burner, turned out to be the worst game I saw.
“Well, we’re not at a stage anymore where there are moral victories in tournaments like this. We’re well past that. And so I think what’s really frustrating when I look at it is we didn’t lose to superior teams necessarily.”
— U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati on the U.S. men’s Olympic team’s first-round exit, after which Coach Peter Nowak said, “For me, they won a gold medal in this game [2-1 loss to Nigeria].” (SI.com)
The San Jose Earthquakes, averaging less than a goal per game, exploded with a 4-0 win over New England, which entered the game as the league leader in points but gave up first place in the East with the loss, combined with Columbus’s win over Dallas. For MLS game summaries, scoring leaders and this week’s TV schedule. …
This week, 2008 Olympic soccer concludes with men’s and women’s semifinals, third-place matches and finals. The U.S. men’s national team continues its march toward World Cup 2010 with a qualifier in Guatemala. In the MLS Thursday night game, Los Angeles hosts Chicago.
The Germans, like the Americans in their 2-1 win over Canada, needed overtime to subdue Sweden, 2-0 in their quarterfinal. Brazil knocked off Norway, 2-1, to set up the rematch between the teams that met in last year’s Women’s World Cup final, which Germany won, 2-0. Japan advanced to a semifinal clash with the USA with a 2-0 win over host China. For all the results and goalscorers …
[REACTION] Coach Pia Sundhage and the U.S. players reflect on a very long day in China that ended well for the Americans. …
“I had a plan, but I changed my mind because the players handled it very well. There was music in the locker room and happy smiles. They were ready to go. This team coached themselves in the locker room when it was raining outside. I am very proud of that.”
— U.S. women’s head coach Pia Sundhage on how her players handled a 99-minute rain delay during their 2-1 quarterfinal win over Canada.
[USA-CANADA REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players’ performance in their 2-1 quarterfinal win over Canada on Friday …
